 |
Philadelphia Fire 47-35 (4-4)  |
El Paso Scorpions 54-28 (4-4)  |
| Score (click for boxscore) | Game MVP | Hi Points | Hi Rebounds | Hi Assists |
| 1. Scorpions 113, Fire 95 | Michael Jordan | 29 Reggie Williams | 15 Derrick Coleman | 13 Tim Hardaway |
| 2. Fire 130, Scorpions 124 (OT) | Tim Hardaway | 34 Tim Hardaway | 18 Mark West | 12 Michael Jordan |
| 3. Fire 120, Scorpions 108 | Dominique Wilkins | 34 Dominique Wilkins | 15 Derrick Coleman | 10 Joe Dumars |
| 4. Scorpions 141, Fire 99 | Michael Jordan | 46 Michael Jordan | 10 Dominique Wilkins | 13 Joe Dumars |
| 5. Scorpions 99, Fire 97 | Derrick Coleman | 24 Dominique Wilkins | 9 T.Hardaway/R.Williams | 8 Tom Garrick |
| 6. Fire 151, Scorpions 146 | Larry Nance | 38 Dominique Wilkins | 18 Larry Nance | 16 Tim Hardaway |
| 7. at El Paso |
Game 1 – The Scorpions stung the Fire early, leading from early in the 1st Quarter. As the game progressed the only question was…… would El Paso win by 20 or 30? A 4th Quarter surge by Philly defied earlier predictions and allowed the Fire to close it to an 18-point deficit. El Paso wins 113-95. The home team outshot the guests .506 to .436. The Scorpions had 51 rebounds to PHF’s 37. EPS was 19-21 at the line, Philly 8-12. Michael Jordan was named Game MVP with 24 points, 9 assists, 5 steals and 4 rebounds.
Game 2 – The Fire, determined not be paralyzed early by the Scorpion’s sting, opened the game with a more aggressive style of basketball. At the end of the 1st period, the Fire were leading by 5. The sting did come, however, this time in the 2nd frame. El Paso outscored Philly 37-17. At halftime, El Paso was up 66-51. The 3rd quarter was a back and forth battle with each team scoring 35. The score at the end of three was 101-86. In the 4th, the Fire, with their backs to the wall, went crazy and outscored the Scorpions 25-10 to force OT. With 2:08 left in OT, Philly took the lead 121-120. Seven Philly FTs in the last 55 seconds iced the game for the Fire 130-124. In the 4th, Philly held El Paso to a .238 FG%. The visitors had a 55-39 rebound advantage for the game. Dominique Wilkins only played 10 minutes in the 1st half due to foul trouble. Tim Hardaway had 34 pts, 7 asts and 5 steals to earn Game MVP. ‘Nique added 30. EPS was led by Derrick Coleman (25 pts), Joe Dumars (23 pts, 9 asts) and Michael Jordan (22 pts, 12 dimes).
Game 3 – With the series tied at 1, we head to Philadelphia. EL Paso brings up 2 defensive players to help limit the Philly offense: Vrankovic (a 9 at C and PF) and Askins (a 6 inside and outside at SG/SF/PF and a 10 TO). El Paso started the game with a defensive rated lineup of PG -10, SG – 10, SF-8, PF-9, and C-9. It seemed to work as El Paso took a 25-22 lead after one quarter. One troubling aspect was that Jordan, who hasn’t played well in over a month, had only 2 points in the first quarter. At halftime, the score was tied at 51. Jordan had 8 points at the half on 4-10 shooting. Jordan, an 85% free throw shooter, was 0-4 from the free throw line at the half. El Paso’s offense continued to struggle and its defense collapsed in the second half as Philly scored 69 points and cruised to a 120-108 victory. Philly was led by Wilkins (34 pts) and Hardaway (28 points). Jordan finished with 26 for El Paso. Philly had 34 fast break points to 8 for El Paso. El Paso had 13 more free throw attempts than their opponents but only scored 3 extra points as they shot 68% from the line compared to 89% for Philly.
Game 4 – Game 4 took place in Philadelphia with El Paso trailing the series 2-1. El Paso started out strong at both ends of the court and took a 33-22 lead after one quarter. Jordan may have heard the criticism of his play lately and responded with a monster quarter, scoring 16. The rest of the Scorpions were on fire as well as they took a commanding 79-47 lead at the half. Jordan led all scorers with 25 at the half and El Paso shot 65% from the field to 32% for Philly. The third quarter was pretty even as the Scorpions led 104-75. El Paso finished strong and emerged with a 141-99 victory. Every break went El Paso’s way this game. Jordan scored 46 and Wilkins scored 25 for Philly. El Paso shot 61% from the field and 95% from the free throw line. Philly ended up shooting 37% for the game. On to Game 5.
Game 5 – This was a close game from the opening tip off. There were 16 lead changes and 11 ties. The largest Philly lead was 8. The largest El Paso lead was 6. Jordan, in early foul trouble, only had 2 points in the first half and only finished with 13 points. At 1:55 to go in the game, Dominique’s monster dunk put the Fire up 97-91. That was Philly’s last bucket. With 29 seconds to go, R.Williams hit a 3 to tie the game at 97. The Fire failed to score on their next possession. Gadget Jones hit the game winner with 4.5 seconds left. Scorpions win 99-97 and go up 3 games to 2 and back to El Paso for game 6. Dumars had 22pts to lead El Paso, D.Coleman tallied 20 pts off the bench to earn Game MVP and R.Williams finished with 16 pts & 9 rebs. Dominique Wilkins led all scorers with 24 pts (only 6-20 from floor) to go with 7 assts and 5 rebs. Hardaway/Campbell shot a combined 7 for 22 from the floor.
Game 6 – EL Paso travels to Philadelphia with a chance to close out the series. The game starts out with both offenses on fire. After 3 minutes, PHI leads 15-13. ELP is 6-7 with a free throw and PHI is 7-8 with a free throw. Things slow down a little but the 1st Quarter ends with PHI holding a 37-34 lead. Offenses continue to dominate the 2nd Quarter and ELP goes into the half leading 78-70. Coleman leads ELP with 15 and Nance leads PHI with 18. The refs take over the game in the 3rd Quarter. Jordan is called for two fouls in the first 1:10 and has 5 fouls with 10:50 left in the 3rd. ELP is called for 5 fouls in the 1st four minutes of the period putting PHI in the bonus. PHI was not called for any fouls in that time span. For the quarter, ELP is called for 11 fouls and a technical compared to just 2 for PHI. The result? PHI takes a 109-108 lead after three quarters. Jordan fouls out with 7:45 left in the game and ELP trailing 123-120. PHI builds a big lead but ELP goes on a run to bring themselves within 3. Wilkins crushes ELP’s comeback bid with a 3 and PHI holds on to win 151-146. Jordan led ELP with 30 points, 12 reb, and 8 asst. Wilkins had 38 points and 10 reb for PHI. The big difference was PHI going 36-40 (90%) from the free throw line compared to ELP’s 20-26. PHI also was 5-8 (63%) from 3-point range. An unusual series as ELP’s normally stout defense has been horribly inconsistent. ELP held PHI to under 100 points in 3 games and won all three. In ELP’s 3 losses, the defense gave up 130, 121, and 151. We will see which defense shows up for Game 7.
Game 7 –
