Same Player, Same Place, Same Result: Bulls Win : NBA playoffs: Chicago eliminates the Cavaliers on Michael Jordan’s game-winning shot at the buzzer (again).

RICHFIELD, Ohio —  In a building where his heroics have become routine, Michael Jordan did it again Monday night.

He made a fall-away jump shot from the right side of the foul line at the buzzer, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-101, and sending the Chicago Bulls to the Eastern Conference finals for the fifth successive time.

“Just being able to be there when the team needs you, to come though, means a lot to me,” Jordan said. “It was a fadeaway, and I hadn’t hit a fadeaway all night.”

The victory was the Bulls’ ninth consecutive in the playoffs, dating to last year’s NBA finals. They have swept Atlanta three in a row and Cleveland in four so far this season.

Jordan, still bothered by the sprained right wrist sustained last Thursday, scored 31 points on 11-for-24 shooting and had nine rebounds.

With the score tied, 101-101, the Bulls rebounded Craig Ehlo’s missed shot and called time out with 18 seconds to play. They got the ball to Jordan, guarded closely by Gerald Wilkins. As the final seconds ticked, Jordan--his back to Wilkins--wheeled and faded, letting go of a shot that settled into the net as the buzzer sounded.

“I knew I had three seconds to get off the shot,” Jordan said. “They gave me room to work and by the time they sent somebody over to help it was too late.”

Said Cavalier Coach Lenny Wilkens: “Give Michael his due. He made a tough shot. That’s what great players do.”

The shot was only a few feet away from the spot where he made a 16-footer over Ehlo to beat Cleveland at the buzzer in a deciding first-round game in 1989. It also came on the same floor where Jordan scored a career-high 69 points in 1990.

“I’ve been very lucky here for some reason,” Jordan said. “The other shot (in 1989) was tougher because if I had missed the shot, we lose. This one, we would have gone to overtime. So the pressure wasn’t the same, but the result was the same.”

Said Wilkins: “He just knew it was going in, and he had ended our season. He ruled.”

Brad Daugherty led the Cavaliers with 25 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out with 1:16 to play. Wilkins scored 22.

Jordan, who scored 24 points in the second half, was backed by Scottie Pippen with 17 points and Horace Grant with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Cavaliers led most of the second half and threatened to break it open several times. But each time they built a double-digit lead, Jordan answered.

His short bank shot cut Cleveland’s lead to nine with 7:19 to play in the third quarter. He twice made three-pointers to reduce double-figure leads to single digits.

The Cavaliers took their final lead, 99-96, on Wilkins’ three-pointer, but Jordan outscored them, 7-2, the rest of the way, sinking two foul shots, a three-point play on a twisting drive off a fast break and, finally, the winner.

The Bulls trailed, 52-48, at the half, a good showing considering the poor shooting percentages of Pippen and Jordan. Pippen missed eight of his first 10 shots, and he and Jordan combined to shoot 33% through the first two quarters.

The lead changed 12 times in the first quarter before the Cavaliers ran off the last six points of the period--four by Daugherty--for a 27-23 advantage.

They stretched the margin to 48-39 late in the first half, but Pippen scored five points in the final 2:08 of the second quarter to get the Bulls within four at the half.