MJ leads Chicago with 35 points and 9 assists to sneak the win against PortlandChicago -- The Bulls usually beat the Blazers. The Blazers often blow big leads. So there was little reason for Chicago to panic when trailing by eleven points in the second and third quarter.
Michael Jordan scored 35 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds, Steve Kerr surprised everyone with his aggressive offensive minded added 16 and Chicago rallied past Portland 110-103 on Saturday.
"If there is one thing we're going to do it's to stay positive with each other. We stuck with it. We stayed together. There's going to be more games like this. It's a long year." Jordan said
"At the start of three quarters we didn't come out with the stuff," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. "But it's good that we can turn it to that level, and we had a couple of great ball pressure plays there at in the last 6 minutes of second and third quarter that helped us cut their lead. But I don't think we can keep going into games and giving up 100 plus points expect to be successful."
Cliff Robinson led the Blazers with 40 points. Rookie Gary Trent scored 18 with perfect 8 out of 8 FGA, then grabbed game high 18 boards for Portland, which blew a 11-point lead to the Pistons on Wednesday.
Scottie Pippen was struggling with his shooting, 1 of 8 from arc and 7 of 19 overall but made with four blocks and 2 steals during the decisive stretch, 3 of those blocks are on Cliff's 3-point attempt.
"Tonight it was about defense. Scottie sparked them," Blazers coach PJ Carlesimo said. "Bulls had three or four straight good defense and they capitalized on every one of them. When you have a lead, you gotta get shots on goal."
The score was close 82-79 going to the fourth after a back-and-forth first three quarters.
"There's four quarters to a game," Cliff said. "We didn't play as well as we wanted in the second half of three quarters. We lost that energy in the early part of fourth, not especially in the fourth quarter."
Harvey Grant is still on injured list due to sore foot while Sabonis sprained his ankle during practice.
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