The Commercial Value of the Basketball Feast, Taken to the Extreme!

Two days later, the NBA ushered in another round of games.

At Chicago's United Center, the Chicago Bulls hosted the Miami Heat.

The game was even more one-sided than Game 1 between the Knicks and Pacers.

After acquiring "The Mailman" Karl Malone, the Bulls' interior offense had undergone a qualitative leap. Malone and Michael Jordan's pick-and-roll had become an unsolvable problem for virtually every team in the league.

The Heat's iron-blooded defense was useless against them. Alonzo Mourning, that tough-guy center, was run ragged by the alternating assaults of Malone and Ewing, worn down beyond recognition at both ends of the floor.

In the end, the score was set at 105:82. The Bulls won by a massive 23-point margin to take another game, leading the series 2:0.

Michael Jordan played only three quarters and casually put up 31 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Karl Malone efficiently contributed a double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds.

For the Heat, both Tim Hardaway and Mourning were off their game, neither scoring more than 20 points.

Chicago fans had already begun chanting, "We want New York!" from the sidelines, as though their Eastern Conference Finals opponent had already been decided.

Countless fans watching in front of their televisions were somewhat surprised.

They had expected the Bulls to defeat the Heat, of course, but no one had imagined that Pat Riley's iron-blooded unit, renowned for its toughness and resilience, would prove so utterly vulnerable before the Bulls, falling into a 2:0 hole right out of the gate in what was nearly a rout.

Meanwhile, far away in the Western Conference, another marquee matchup took on an entirely different character.

At Houston's Compaq Center, Game 2 of the Houston Rockets-Lakers series once again took the word "brutal" to the extreme.

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