Ben Gordon has a predatory quality–it’s in both his appearance and his style of play. His chiseled features–high cheekbones and hooded eyebrows–give him the coolly dispassionate aspect of a bird of prey: keen, compact, and intent. On the court with the Bulls, he has a deadeye shooting touch when he gets hot, which is most often when a game is on the line. At those moments he rifles his shots with a distinctive heavy backspin, and each is what a golfer calls “center cut”–right in the middle of the hole, or in Gordon’s case the basket. When the game is over and he’s brought back another kill, he doesn’t glory in it; it’s as if he’d simply complied with his nature.
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The Bulls returned to the NBA playoffs Sunday for the first time since the Michael Jordan era. They’d undergone a metamorphosis during the season, losing their first nine games before emerging as a talented and suddenly mature basketball team. Not only did they make the playoffs, they claimed home court advantage in the first round by rising to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47-35. It was an amazing turnaround. Yet everyone–not least coach Scott Skiles–was curious about how this young group would respond to the added pressure and intensity of the playoffs. Gordon had supplied fourth-quarter heroics throughout the season: pressure was his element.
The Bulls’ final home game of the regular season was the season in miniature. They took the floor against the New York Knicks with a chance to clinch the home court advantage against Washington if they won and Washington lost–and the Wizards were already down 22 in New Jersey. But it was one of those nights when the ball just wouldn’t drop. Tyson Chandler, Andres Nocioni, and even Hinrich all missed point-blank shots as the Knicks opened a 43-36 lead at halftime. In the second half, however, Skiles inserted a scrappy three-guard lineup, with Hinrich, Gordon, and Chris Duhon joined by Chandler, Antonio Davis, and then the even scrappier Nocioni for Davis. That group trimmed the New York lead and pulled ahead going into the final quarter.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jesse Garrabrant–NBAE–Getty Images.
