This is the NBA elite, playing for the title, so everybody knows the Sonics are going to make a desperate second-half run.

Shawn Kemp and the others are no quitters. They did win sixty-four games in 1995-96. And they are already down 2-0 in a seven-game series. Three games to none would be almost the same as a forfeit. No NBA Finals team has come back from that.

As the Bulls ready for what would be Jordan’s fourth ring, the rest of the league watches and wonders what might have been. Inside Sports magazine talked to rivals as the regular season ended, trying to get a bead on the Jordannaires.

(It’s already strange to remember that, not so long ago, it took weeks to read sports magazine stories, and now we read these stories moments after they’re written.)

“I think we can get past them,” Penny Hardaway [of the Orlando Magic] says. “We have a lot of confidence against the Bulls.”

“I think they’re beatable,” [George] Karl says, “because what you’re talking about is, the Bulls have taken a playoff mentality into the regular season… Timing is important.”

“They can’t play any better than what they’ve played,” [Phoenix Suns coach Cotton] Fitzsimmons insists. “No matter what they tell you… Now that could be good enough to win. I don’t know.”

Chicago hit five three-pointers in the first; Seattle missed every one of their attempts.The home team shot 43 percent. The Bulls hit 52 percent. Luc Longley quietly put in ten points to help the cause.

But as expected, Seattle comes out of the locker room with a ferocious defensive spirit. “Where was this physical response from Seattle early in the series?” said Walton. It’s partly the Sonics’ fire, and partly the Bulls’ coasting. Hard to keep focus when you sit on a big lead.

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Out of halftime, Longley hits a quick turnaround. Not long after that, there is a play that stands out to the 2013 observer.

With the shot clock running down, Pippen loses his balance near the baseline, and flings the basketball at the rim. Rodman uses a volleyball-style fingertip push to put the ball into the hoop as the clock expires.

At first the ball is awarded to the Sonics: shot clock violation. Then the referees huddle up to discuss.

“So tough, because they have to visualize the replay in their mind,” says Albert. “Of course, [they’re] not allowed to use television replay…”

The Bulls got the ball back because it was determined that Pippen’s shot grazed the rim. With 1996 tech, the play is inconclusive from home. Seventeen years later, the home viewer is able to see the follicles on a basketball in hi-def.

Refs using cameras in the NBA didn’t happen until 2002, with expanded use beginning in the 2010-2011 season.

This play and the following sequence, with referees talking to each other about what they remember seeing, seems antiquated today.

Related: 1996 Bulls v. 2016 Warriors

After Longley’s shot, the Bulls don’t score again until Steve Kerr’s beautiful baseball outlet pass that ends in a field goal, courtesy of Jordan. Almost seven minutes of third quarter go by between those baskets.

The Bulls are tentative and/or casual. Rodman grabs an offensive rebound, then bounces the ball off Jordan’s shoulder when MJ’s head is turned. Scottie Pippen gets blocked by Brickowski off a jump ball.

Jordan tosses it over Longley’s head, then Longley does the same to Kerr. Toni Kukoc got hit on the arm taking a shot, and as Seattle runs upcourt with the ball, Kukoc spins around to complain to a referee.

“I always love it, Marv,” says Walton, “when these great players like Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bird, Charles Barkley–they’re so involved in every play, and finally, midway through the second half, they’re whistled for the first foul.”

With every pass, screen and cut, the Bulls are giving the crowd reason to revive. And the visiting team is starting to look tight and forced.

Hershey Hawkins, formerly of Bradley University where he scored a lot of points, always looks injured. Emotionally injured.

It’s funny to see a pro ball player look indignant that he got hacked. By the time you get to the pros, you have nearly been beaten to death in aggregate, on basketball courts all over the world. Maybe Hawkins has a Memento-type memory when he’s on the court.

“The sum of those small, equal parts makes a greater grouping,” Jackson told Inside Sports. “This group has a good time together… not grinding each other or chewing each other up for minutes or notoriety or whatever.”

But as the dark eyes and graying beard suggest, this kind of spiritual jihad can exact a heavy toll… After being the biggest show in every town for six months, to what extent has the emotional reserve, even for a veteran team such as Chicago, been tapped?

What about the cumulative physical effect of playing at such a high pitch for so long? At what point do the tendons become a little tighter, the muscles a little less productive?

Rodman must be bored, although Seattle is making a comeback. With the score 64-45, he gives Brickowski an earful after the Sonic big man fouls Jordan by bear-hugging him. Brick manages to restrain himself.

Kemp is next, as Rodman does his “tree bending in the wind” manuever while in the post. From a glance it appears that the Worm’s opponent is abusing him, but it’s a well-worn tactic. The contact and the “abuse” are initiated by him.

It’s not that he’s completely acting–it’s that he puts himself in a position to get forearms to his throat. Rodman ties himself to the railroad tracks.

Phil Jackson removes him from the game to let things cool down.

People throughout the league and fans everywhere complain about Rodman’s antics, but there’s no rule against being a drama queen. Sports are head games and he has written a new chapter: It’s Chess, It Ain’t Checkers!

After all of the squandering of a huge lead, the Bulls snap out of it. Kerr and Pippen quiet Key

Arena slightly with back-to-back baskets.

Then, with the Bulls’ lead down to 12 (71-59 @2:14 in the 3rd), Pippen and Kerr double Gary Payton, forcing a turn and an easy dunk for Kukoc.

“Seattle’s right back in this game,” says Walton. But a few moments later, Bill Wennington pops a baseline jumper. The Bulls big men, unsung and so valuable. The score is 75-61 as the third quarter ends…