NBA PLAYOFFS : Chicago Hits a Bull’s-Eye in Detroit : Bulls Waste 24-Point Lead but Steal Game 1, 94-88

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. —  Well, well, well. Detroit can be had after all. At home, even. The team that thinks of itself as the Lakers of Tomorrow still has a ways to go.

The Chicago Bulls, overachievers who refuse to concede that they are in over their heads, got the Pistons down by 24 points in Game 1 of the National Basketball Assn.’s Eastern Conference finals, squandered the whole 24, then hung tough for a 94-88 upset victory Sunday at the Palace of Auburn Hills, where Detroit had won 25 games in a row.

This was the Pistons’ first loss of the playoffs, leaving the Lakers the postseason’s only unbeaten team.

Michael Jordan and his backup group, the Jordanaires, startled Detroit and a Palace crowd of 21,454 with a 19-2 run in the first period. One minute it was 4-0, Detroit, then zap, it became 19-6, Chicago. Midway through the second quarter, the Bulls found themselves up by a comfy 46-22, creaming an opponent that had beaten them nine consecutive times over the last two seasons.

“We caught them back on their heels,” said Jordan, who, despite shooting poorly, still easily led all scorers with 32 points.

The Bulls were operating on pure adrenaline, having just wrapped up an exhausting series against the New York Knicks about 38 hours before Sunday’s tipoff. The Pistons were rusty, having been idle since sweeping the Milwaukee Bucks out of the playoffs last Monday.

Even so, Detroit showed what it was made of, storming back to catch and pass Chicago with 8 1/2 minutes remaining in the game, 74-73. It was one of those wild comebacks the Superteams have been specializing in this playoff season, as with the Lakers’ 29-point turnaround at Seattle, or the Pistons’ 21-point swing at Milwaukee.

Yet, that one-point lead was the only one Detroit got, except back when the score was 4-0. The Bulls let them have this edge for all of 21 seconds, until Scottie Pippen’s drive made it 75-74. Never again did the Pistons catch up.

Oh, they tried.

Over the last 10 minutes they were never down by more than six points. Jordan tried and failed to put the Pistons away, committing turnovers and fouls and missing shot after shot--he was 10 of 29--but Detroit could not take advantage of it, particularly in the game’s final minute.

With 56 seconds to play, Jordan was guilty of his fifth foul, and Rick Mahorn could have made two free throws to put the Pistons within a point. Instead, he missed them both, and the score remained 91-88.

The Bulls knocked 24 seconds off the clock, not getting off a shot. There still was plenty of time for the Pistons, but, with a half minute remaining, an offensive foul on Mahorn was called by official Tommy Nunez, and that was the back-breaker. Detroit was forced to foul, Jordan sank three of four free throws, and that was that.

Goat’s horns didn’t exactly fit Mahorn, who actually played one of his best games. Even though he worked only 26 minutes, Mahorn led the Pistons with 17 points--the first time he has been their top scorer all season.

Asked if he saw the foul call the same way Nunez did, Mahorn said: “This is basketball. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t.”

There was not much he could do about it, regardless.

“I can go home and beat my dog,” Mahorn said, managing a smile. “Nah, not really. I don’t have a dog.”

He was about all the Pistons had during much of the first half. Nobody else on the ballclub scored a point in the game’s first six minutes. And when Rick Mahorn is dominating your offense, your offense is in trouble.

At a juncture in the second quarter when Chicago was kicking tail, 39-17, the rest of Detroit’s starting lineup, not counting Mahorn, had scored exactly four points. The starting guards, Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, were at that moment 0 for 11 from the floor.

Thomas and Dumars ended up missing 26 of the 34 shots they took in the game. And Vinnie Johnson, who usually comes to their rescue, was no better. Including him, the Detroit guards were a gruesome 11 for 45.

“You can’t put it all on the guards,” said Detroit forward John Salley, who was 0 for 4. “I didn’t hit anything, either. Nobody did. We were all pretty bad.”

Also, by some chance, could it be that Chicago is pretty good?

Conquerors of Cleveland and New York, the Bulls just don’t seem to accept the fact that, Jordan aside, they do not belong on the same floor with these playoff teams. At some point this team has to be taken seriously, although Detroit did drop a home-court playoff game to these guys last season before beating them twice at Chicago.

Jordan, for one, believes in the Bulls. The first game of the series, he figured in advance, was the one his club had a chance to “steal,” using his word. Jordan went so far as to venture that if Chicago did take Game 1, it would win this series.

A Lakers-Bulls final?

Come on, now.

“Hey, I’m real surprised, and you are, too,” Chicago Coach Doug Collins replied when a reporter asked him if he was surprised. “Everybody’s surprised. We’re all surprised together. Let’s all have a big surprise party together.

“We knew we were 0-6 against the Pistons this season. We knew that they were something like 70-19 this season, going into this game. We knew what we were up against.

“We also know that the Pistons are the best road team in basketball. So, did this game give us some sort of advantage in the series? No, it didn’t. Did it give us life? Yes, it did!”

Collins was grateful for small favors, and for one large one, Dave Corzine. Almost forgotten with Bill Cartwright having assumed the center’s role with the Bulls, Corzine came off the bench Sunday to score six big baskets, all of them in the first half.

Including Cartwright, Chicago got 22 points and nine rebounds out of its center position, not a bad day’s work.

That was particularly urgent on a day when Jordan, during one stretch, missed 11 of 12 shots.

“We’re not going to go into a shell when Michael’s not shooting well,” Corzine said. “We’ve got to have people step up. You can’t let anybody intimidate you, which is what Detroit likes to do.”

Repeatedly during the first half, Chicago’s undermanned front line hit the offensive boards, getting 17 points on second shots. That infuriated both Laimbeer, who personally yanked down 15 rebounds in the game, and Coach Chuck Daly, who screamed at the team at halftime to wake up.

The Pistons did, dominating the Bulls on the boards in the second half, 34-16. Too little, though, and too late.

“We gave up 28 points today on second shots, and that’s a disaster, even for a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) club,” Daly said, blaming himself for not preparing the team better during the long layoff.

Added Laimbeer: “I don’t think we played very smart. We gave up way too many second shots in that first half. You can’t do that if you expect to win any championships. You can live with missed shots, because you can overcome that with good defense. But you can’t live with dumb plays, and today we played dumb.”

Playoff Notes

Scottie Pippen, ejected Friday night after a fight with New York’s Kenny Walker, was not suspended by the league, prompting a sarcastic comment Sunday by Piston owner Bill Davidson. Remembering that NBA director of operations Rod Thorn enforced an immediate two-game suspension on Isiah Thomas after a fight earlier this season, Davidson said: “Rod Thorn set a standard with Isiah Thomas which he obviously never intended to keep.”

Game 2 will be played here Tuesday night. . . . The Bulls are commuting. They flew home to Chicago after the game. . . . The defeat ended Detroit’s 12-game win streak, including seven playoff games. . . . Chicago made a defensive switch from previous games against Detroit, putting Michael Jordan on Thomas, whose shooting has suffered since fracturing a bone in his left hand. With Jordan guarding him, Thomas was three of 18.