Questionable Performance Needs a Reply : * Game 3: Lakers must stop Jordan, and stop Pippen from stopping Johnson.

Some questions the Lakers have to answer tonight in Game 3 of the NBA finals:

-- Which is the real Michael Jordan?

In Game 1, he took over prematurely and Chicago lost by two.

In Game 2, he became the point guard without telling Coach Phil Jackson and led a furious effort by the Bulls.

Between games, he publicly challenged his teammates to keep up, far from his smiling corporate spokesman image. They should change the picture on those cereal boxes to Michael snarling, “You better eat your Wheaties, you little chumps.”

--Having fired up the Bulls, can Jordan fire up the Lakers?

His wide-eyed looks of amazement after spectacular plays had several Lakers bristling.

“That’s something you just don’t do this early in the series,” Byron Scott said after Game 2. “But since he’s Michael, I guess he feels he can get away with it. . . . I’ve seen him do it before so I’m not surprised.

“I think it got everybody a little upset.”

Jordan says it was all a misunderstanding.

“I don’t think it was (taunting),” Jordan said Thursday. “I wasn’t pointing fingers. I wasn’t saying anything to any of their players. It was more or less my self-motiva-ttion and excitement at what I did. I can’t see anything wrong with that.”

--Can the Lakers pry Scottie Pippen off Magic Johnson?

Jackson found something when he was obliged to take a foul-plagued Jordan off Johnson and put Pippen on him.

Johnson says Pippen is “much more physical” than Jordan. Magic can tell you what Pippen weighs, having carried him on his back all Wednesday night.

Jackson says he will start Jordan on Johnson again for the sake of the rest of his matchups.

However, Pippen will never again be far away from Johnson.

--Is Magic bionic or 32 years old?

He played a lot of minutes this season, more in the playoffs and acknowledged he was fatigued Wednesday.

If it was more than a momentary thing, forget the number because the Bulls are targeting him in earnest.

--Can the Laker bench help?

It’s not impossible, but it will take a rally.

Terry Teagle, upon whom bench scoring depends, is five for 27 over five games, two for 15 over the past four.

This is where the Lakers were vulnerable all season. Teagle did well in the playoffs before hitting one of his walls midway through the conference finals.

Now the Lakers are vulnerable again.

--Will the Bulls collapse in the Forum as the Portland Trail Blazers did in Games 3 and 4?

The Bulls arrive with more momentum than Portland ever worked up. The Lakers messed up the Trail Blazers’ minds and threw them off stride. Even while outrebounding the Lakers, 51-28, in Game 2 at Portland, the Trail Blazers couldn’t put them away, leading by four points in the last three minutes.

The Lakers planned to offer the Bulls their chance to choke but couldn’t keep Game 2 close.

The Bulls arrive with their confidence intact, perhaps even soaring.

“I was definitely concerned,” Jackson said. “I felt (the Bulls) were a little tentative in Game 1. For them to have to regroup and come back again, with their backs against the wall and thinking about losing, what it would mean to your season--I just had to say, ‘You don’t think about those things. You just go play basketball.’ ”

--Will the series get more physical?

Believe that.

“We came up and took care of business,” Mike Dunleavy said after Game 2. “We did what we had to. We came up here without the home-court advantage. Now we’re going home with the home-court advantage.

“We have to see if we can make it pay off for us. We can’t afford to play a game like we played (Wednesday night), let them dictate the game to us. I thought that was the key to the game, their aggressiveness, their pressure.”

--Are the Lakers glad to be home?

The Forum may not have Chicago Stadium’s wall of noise, but it’s one of the least mellow places in Southern California.

“Their basketball fans have grown so much over the years,” Jackson said.

“I can remember in 1970 being here with the Knickerbockers. Dave DeBusschere hit a jump shot to put the Knicks up by two. Wilt Chamberlain took the ball out of bounds and gave it to Jerry West who threw a jump shot up, a full-court shot and by the time the ball came down, everybody was out of their seats.

“We played the overtime with about 6,000 people here.”

There will be 17,505 tonight, at least at the beginning.

* TELEVISION: Ch. 4, 36, 39

* RADIO: KLAC (570)

* TIME: 6 p.m.