Pittsburgh Pisces 59-29 (1-7)

Minnesota Muskies 63-19 (7-1)

Score (click for boxscore)	Game MVP	Hi Points	Hi Rebounds	Hi Assists
1. Muskies 115, Pisces 112	Larry Bird	29 Larry Bird	12 Charles Barkley	6 C.Barkley/A.Robertson
2. Muskies 127, Pisces 114	Charles Barkley	31 Charles Barkley	11 D.Robinson/R.Parish	8 Larry Bird
3. Muskies 125, Pisces 116	Charles Barkley	55 Charles Barkley	16 Charles Barkley	8 Alvin Robertson
4. Muskies 125, Pisces 117	Charles Barkley	31 Charles Barkley	11 C.Barkley/D.Robinson	7 D.Ainge/A.Robertson

Game 1 – A hard fought game played at THE BARN… Quarter 1 – Minnesota jumps out to a 13 point advantage and ends the quarter with a 36-30 lead, led by Tarpley’s 12 points in the period. Quarter 2 – Minnesota increases their lead at one point to 16 points, led by Barkley with 9 points and closes out the period ahead 65-51. The Muskies began to dominate the boards with an 18-8 advantage in the period and 29 -20 overall. Quarter 3 – Pisces begin a comeback by outscoring Minnesota 32-27 for the period and are led by Oakley and Robertson who each scored six points. Bird is all over the court and began to show his dominance by adding seven to his total of 21. Quarter 4 – Pisces are in full press mode and cause 5 turnovers along with two steals to come storming back. Pippen is a monster with 13 points in the period and with 1:31 left in the game, Robinson ties it up at 110 each. However, it is Larry Legend who says he will not be defeated by the team that traded him earlier in the season and scores 8 points in the final frame to lead Minnesota to a 115-112 victory. Key Players: MNM-MVP Larry Bird – 29 pts, 10 reb; Barkley – 16 pts, 12 reb, 6 ast; and Pressley – 12 pts, 9 ast. PIT-Robinson – 26 pts, 9 reb, 4 bk; Robertson – 20 pts, 6 ast, 3 st; and Pippen – 21 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 4 st, 3 bk.

Game 2 – The Pittsburgh Pisces traveled to the Barn to face the Minnesota Muskies in a game 2 match-up. Brent Musburger, the ever present bookie has Minnesota as a 7-point favorite. 1st Period – The Muskies jump out to an early lead and don’t slow down as they look like a gang running through a mall stealing IPhones from an Apple store, creating six turnovers, five fast break points along with 4 steals for a 34-26 Minnesota lead. 2nd Period – The Pisces come back outscoring Minnesota 34-29 in the period. Of the 29 points the Muskies scored, 17 were by Sir Charles who kept them in the lead going into the half 63-60. 3rd Period – Pittsburgh came out of the locker room and put the pressure on Minnesota, creating 10 turnovers and 8 steals while holding them to a mere 15 points in the quarter. The Pisces held their first lead of this series, 85-78. 4th Period – The Pisces must have used all of their energy in the 3rd quarter as nothing seemed to work in the 4th period. Minnesota shot 27 free throws and the bench contributed 25 points. Pittsburgh felt like they had a chance when Tarpley fouled out with 4:31 remaining, however Robert Parish was a machine at the free throw line down the stretch making one after another. Parish and Ainge each scored 11 points in the final frame as Minnesota outscored Pittsburgh 49 – 29 to win the game 127-114. The series now will move to Pittsburgh as they are down 2 – 0 in the series and must come up with a better plan to stop the inside/outside onslaught by Minnesota. BTW – Musburger covered the spread.

Game 3 – Pittsburgh came out hot making their first 12 shots from the field.  The only thing keeping Minnesota in the game was Charles Barkley, who scored 19 first quarter points. Pittsburg led 37-30 after 1Q.  Pittsburgh increased the lead to 10 at the half, 72-62. Barkley had 32 by the break to avoid the game getting away from the Muskies. After the half, Minnesota tightened up the defense and managed to outscore Pitt by 14 points in the 3rd quarter taking a 4-point lead into the final frame. Minnesota kept the lead for the remainder of the game by shooting 69% in the 4th led by defensive specialist Micheal Cooper turning in a surprising 12-point quarter. Muskies win 125-116. Barkley scores 55 points. David Robinson finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

Game 4 – Pittsburgh started out much like the previous game with the Pisces dominating action early, building a 10-point 1Q lead, 35-25. The Muskies started out slow with only Charles Barkley managing to keep the game close with his 14 first quarter points. The Pisces continued their hot play building a 15-point lead with 6 minutes to play in the half. However, the Muskies closed the half strong on a 13-2 run cutting the lead at halftime to 3 points, 60-57. As with Game 3, the Muskies dominated the 3Q outscoring the Pisces 32-22 and building a 7-point lead heading into the final frame. Pittsburgh kept the game within 5 points most of the 4th quarter and cut the lead to 2-points with 3:04 to play. The Pisces went to an aggressive full court trap and foul strategy. The Muskies simply were lights out from the charity stripe in the last 4 mi nutes with Cooper, Hodges and Bird draining their free throws. For the second straight game, Michael Cooper was a star in the final period scoring all 12 of his points, Including 10-10 from the line. In a very contested series, Minnesota held on the beat the Pisces 125-117 to advance to the Western Conference finals. Barkley finished with 31 and Robert Parish chipped in 22 for MNM. David Robinson scored 28, rebounded 11 and blocked 6 shots for PIT. Mike Gminski tallied 21. Charles Barkley was the series MVP averaging 33.3 PTS 12 RBS 4 AST 1.8 BLK and 2 STL.