When Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen or any of the other Chicago Bulls soar toward the basket in the NBA Finals, the Portland Trail Blazers will be waiting, Buck Williams says.
And the greeting will be a rough one, Williams promises, unlike the way the Cleveland Cavaliers treated the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals."Cleveland did not play them physically," Williams said. "You have to play this team very physically. You cannot concede any layups to this basketball team."
That means a lot of contact, the Blazers' chief defender said. "You have to make sure that you bump them."
The Eastern Conference is known for its rough play, but the Blazers know how to play that way, too, he said, as evidenced by their rugged Western Conference final series against Utah.
"We're going to come out and play hard for 48 minutes, and when the smoke clears, I just hope we're the ones that are still standing," Williams said.
He says remarks made by Chicago coach Phil Jackson and Jordan a few months ago will help the Trail Blazers.
"They were sort of derogatory," he said. "But we have to focus in on what's important now. Right now, winning the championship is more important than what was said. Right now is our chance to go out and prove Chicago wrong.
On national television just before the Bulls blew out the Blazers 111-91 on March 1, Jackson said Portland has a tendency to self-destruct down the stretch.
After the game, Jordan said the Bulls like to get the Blazers into a halfcourt game where they have to use their minds. The implication was that Portland isn't a very smart team.
Those are familiar criticisms to Portland coach Rick Adelman, who said he's sure the Bulls have a high opinion of the Blazers now.
"I think they understand we have a pretty good team and they're going to have to play well to beat us," he said.
Danny Ainge says his team shouldn't need any extra motivation when the NBA Finals begin Wednesday night in Chicago.
"We certainly don't need Phil Jackson's or Michael Jordan's remarks to get us motivated to win a world championship," Ainge said. "I think it might have motivated us the following week after those comments, and maybe they were a blessing for us."
He said the criticism helped the Blazers work harder on their weaknesses.
"Although I don't believe the comments that were said," Ainge said, "there was a little bit of truth in what they were saying.
"It might have helped us focus on what we were doing, because in the game we played at Chicago, I think everyone would admit that we were a dumb team. But for 68 or 69 games this year, we've been a pretty smart team, so I love this team and our chances."
Ainge knows the Bulls are the team expected to win.
"They have the homecourt advantage. They're the defending champions. They have the best record," he said. "They're the favorites in this thing."
The Blazers took Friday and Saturday off before going through a one-hour, 40-minute workout Sunday following an hour-long team meeting.