NBA FINALS : CHICAGO BULLS 104, LAKERS 96 (OVERTIME) : NOTES : Riley Catches the Irony of Things and Still Wants Best for the Lakers

After coaching the Lakers to eight NBA finals and winning four titles, Pat Riley has moved from the sidelines to the broadcast booth for the 1991 finals.

“I have mixed emotions,” Riley said from his spot on the NBC Showtime stage behind the south basket. “But I can’t look back because I’ve got a great challenge in front of me (as coach of the New York Knicks).

“It’s a little bit of an irony. But it’s good, it really is, for a number of reasons. I’m happy for them (the Lakers).”

Riley, who had picked the Lakers to win the championship series before Game 1, said Friday that the winner of Game 3 will win the series.

NBC also had something to say about Game 3 when the contest was held up for four minutes in the second quarter because the network lost its picture because of an electrical problem. NBC also lost its picture for 2:20 during its pregame show, but that didn’t affect the game.

Michael Jordan turned down an invitation to appear on the Arsenio Hall show while in Los Angeles because he wants to concentrate strictly on basketball.

“I want to keep my focus on basketball,” Jordan said. “If I’m here in the summer (to play in Magic Johnson’s All-Star game), maybe I’ll do it. That’s what I did last year.”

While Jordan is trying to maintain a low profile while the Bulls are in town, his teammates are going Hollywood. Bull forward Scottie Pippen is scheduled to appear on Hall’s show on Monday.

“It’s no big deal,” Pippen said. “No, it’s great, honestly.”

Guards B.J. Armstrong and Craig Hodges appeared on “Into the Night” starring Rick Dees Thursday night.

“We had fun,” Armstrong said. “It was quite an experience. We just came out to L.A. and did a little L.A.”

Archbishop Roger Mahoney, Cardinal-elect of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, and Cardinal Joseph L. Bernadin of Chicago have made a wager on the NBA finals.

If the Lakers win, Bernadin will donate 50 pounds of Chicago-style hot dogs to be distributed to a center for the homeless. If the Bulls win, Mahoney will donate 25 boxes of California fruit to a homeless center in Chicago.

What’s the most important game to win in a best-of-seven NBA finals? Other than the seventh game, statistics show it’s Games 1 and 3. Teams that have won either of those games have gone on to win 31 of 44 NBA finals.

The last time a team won an NBA title with a starting center who averaged fewer than 10 points a game was 1978, when Washington won with Wes Unseld averaging 7.6 points per game.

Chicago center Bill Cartwright averaged 9.6 points per game, and Laker center Vlade Divac averaged 11.2 points.

Guard John Paxson and Cartwright will become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, but the Bulls say they intend to resign both starters.

Although Jack Nicholson has followed the Lakers on the road for the NBA finals in the past, he has been unable to attend games in Chicago because he is filming a movie, “Man Trouble,” in which he stars with Ellen Barkin.

Since the movie is shooting at night at several Southland locations, Nicholson was unable to leave town. He left the Forum after Friday’s game and returned to the set for more filming.

During a break in the game, referee Joe Crawford yelled at Frank Robinson, recently fired as manager of the Baltimore Orioles, “Yo Frank! You could be arguing with (umpire) Ken Kaiser! Instead, you’re here.”

When the Pistons trooped off early in their Game 4 loss to the Bulls, there was speculation that the Detroit players were upset at Michael Jordan.

Jordan had claimed that everyone was rooting for the Bulls to eradicate the Pistons’ unworthy style of play.

Does Jordan regret his remarks?

“That’s what I meant to say,” he said Thursday.

“I didn’t think that type of dirty basketball was meant for this game. . . . “If they were really the true, sportsmanlike champions, why would they walk off the floor? It speaks for itself. What kind of explanation can you give?

“Joe Dumars, James Edwards, John Salley and the coaches, they stopped (in the Bull locker room) and showed respect. They showed class. The other guys didn’t. But it isn’t something that’s going to break my heart. I didn’t think they had to tell me that we won the series.”

And what about speculation that Isiah Thomas led the walkout?

“Well, he’s the head of our players’ association,” Jordan said. “That should tell you something.”

As association president, Thomas helped knock down the proposed Jordan-Magic Johnon one-on-one exhibition.

Jordan is thought to want someone else elected head of the union.

The Bulls are 13-2 in the playoffs. They swept New York in three games, Detroit in four, lost once to Philadelphia and lost Game 1 to the Lakers.

Only once in the postseason have the Bulls trailed at the end of the first quarter--in Game 3 against the Knicks, which they won.

Of Vlade Divac’s basket that nearly won the game, defender Scottie Pippen said: “I thought Divac was totally out of control. When he picked up the ball, he was stumbling and I was standing in the lane the whole time. I felt I was established. When the whistle blew, I thought I had the call.”

Times staff writers Mike Downey and Mark Heisler contributed to this story.