Suns, Blazing Away at Home, Try to Even Series at 3-3 Tonight

Choose a site roughly halfway between Portland and Phoenix--remote Warm Springs, Nev., would do--and the Suns know they could eliminate the Trail Blazers in the NBA Western Conference finals.

But the Suns are not dealing with the hypothetical now. They go into Game 6 tonight at home trailing Portland, three games to two, in the best-of-seven series. All three Sun losses have been close and at Portland. Their two victories have been home blowouts.

Now, to avoid elimination, Phoenix must continue its home dominance, then find a way to break through in the Northwest in Game 7.

“Maybe we are the better team at our arena, and maybe we’re better than them at a neutral site,” Sun guard Kevin Johnson said. “But they have been better at their place, and they’ve got the home-court advantage. That’s all that matters to them.”

Although the Suns have outscored the Trail Blazers, 112.4 to 104.8; outrebounded them, 233 to 224, and outshot them, 49% to 44%, they trail in the series because Portland has won close games at home.

“The better team is up, 3-2,” Portland’s Clyde Drexler said. “We do a lot of intangibles that don’t show up in the box score.”

The Trail Blazers do not have to win tonight, and if form holds, they will not beat the Suns at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. But should the Trail Blazers break the home-court pattern and advance to the championship series, perhaps it would be more of an accomplishment than winning four home games.

“We plan to finish it in Phoenix,” Trail Blazer Coach Rick Adelman said. “We don’t plan to wait to come home for a seventh game.”

Because Portland has not even come close to winning on the road in the semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs or against the Suns, but is undefeated at home in the playoffs, some observers believe that the Trail Blazers can afford to lose tonight.

Adelman refuses to think that way.

“This team is very capable of winning on the road,” Adelman said. “If you ask Cotton (Fitzsimmons, the Suns’ coach) in a truthful moment, he would say we’re capable. At least, I hope so.”

The Suns may be the better team in this series, but they have not been able to make the big plays at the end of the close games at Portland. It is the source of mounting frustration.

“It must have been frustrating to San Antonio, too,” Sun forward Tom Chambers said. “(The Spurs) dominated Portland at home, too, but they lost squeakers up there. It almost makes you think (the Trail Blazers) are a better team. But we think we’re better.”

By virtue of winning 59 regular-season games, the Trail Blazers earned the home-court advantage, and they have taken full advantage so far.

“You can only hide under the home-court umbrella for so long,” Fitzsimmons said. “Some time, that security blanket is going to be taken away. We don’t have that security blanket, because we know we can be beaten at home.

“They think they’re going to end it here. I heard Rick say that. Well, that’ll be a first for them then. They didn’t finish it in San Antonio, and they haven’t finished it here yet.”

Adelman’s response: “If Cotton’s that worried, he should have won 60 games and then he would have had the advantage of his home court. It’s not our fault we’ve won nine in a row at home.”

The Suns admitted that they need more than just familiar surroundings to beat the Trail Blazers tonight and in a possible Game 7.

Fitzsimmons said his team needs to come up with a defensive “stop” at crucial moments in close games. That has not happened in any of the Suns’ three losses, especially not in the 120-114 loss in Game 5.

Kevin Johnson said Sun players talked about increasing their level of play, on the chartered flight home Tuesday night.

“(Sun center) Mark West said it best when he said that it takes a little more to be champions,” Johnson said. “Most guys felt they’ve done enough. It may be good enough to advance to the conference finals, but not the championship.

“Each of us has to do more, be more aggressive. I don’t think we’ve given 100%. It’s important not just to win Game 6, but play Phoenix Suns basketball and do things that will carry over to the next game.”

Providing there is a next game, the Suns will have to go back to Portland once more. For now, though, they want to maintain the home-court theme of this series.

Western Conference Notes

Since 1967, the first season that division champions had to play a semifinal series, no team has advanced to the championship series without winning a road game either in the conference semifinals or finals. . . . Portland and Phoenix have played 10 games this season, counting regular-season play. The Trail Blazers have won six by a total of 20 points, the Suns four by a total of 66 points.

Portland guard Clyde Drexler raised his playoff shooting to 41.7% by making 13 of 24 shots in Game 5, when he scored 32 points. “He’s such a competitor,” Trail Blazer forward Buck Williams said of Drexler. “I don’t care if he misses 400 jump shots in a row, he’s untouchable.”