NBA FINALS : CHICAGO BULLS 104, LAKERS 96 (OVERTIME) : Scott Comes Up Scoreless in Game 3 : Lakers: He stays close to Jordan but can’t make any of his eight shots or two free throws.

Looking downcast, Laker guard Byron Scott headed for the training room as soon as he left the shower.

Scott didn’t go there for treatment of his ailing jump shot, he was trying to avoid reporters after failing to score as the Chicago Bulls defeated the Lakers, 104-96, in overtime Friday night at the Forum.

He missed eight shots and two free throws, and the Lakers fell behind in the NBA finals, 2-1. It was the third time in his career, and the first time in a playoff game, that Scott had failed to score.

He went scoreless in an April 11 game against the Utah Jazz this season and was blanked in a game against the New York Knicks on Dec. 11, 1983.

Scott remained for about 25 minutes in the training room, where he was consoled by Magic Johnson.

What did Johnson tell Scott?

“I just told him it’s only 2-1,” Johnson said. “We can’t sit here like it’s over, because it’s not. There’s a lot of basketball to be played.’

Scott normally dresses at his cubicle, but a Laker ballboy fetched his clothes for him, and he dressed in the training room. Emerging dressed in a suit and tie, Scott walked past reporters, avoiding an interview request, and entered a bathroom adjoining the locker room. He slipped out of the Forum through another bathroom door.

“Byron’s halfway down Manchester by now,” a security guard said after Scott’s hasty departure.

Although Scott spoke with a member of the Laker public relations staff, he didn’t have much to say. “That’s basically it (the shots wouldn’t fall),” Scott told the publicist. “Yeah, that’s it.

“We just lost the game. We gave it away. We just lost the game.”

Although Scott has struggled in the first two games of the series, scoring nine points in the Lakers’ 93-91 victory in Game 1 and only five in the 21-point loss in Game 2, the Lakers tried to get him involved in the offense at the start of Game 3, after he took only two shots in Game 2. They ran a triple screen play to spring Scott for a wide-open jump shot early in the game, but he missed.

“He got some good shots tonight,” Laker Coach Mike Dunleavy said of Scott. “It’s just a matter of making them.”

Altogether, Scott has made only three of 14 shots in the first three games.

But the Lakers are confident that Scott will come out of his slump.

“He’ll be back,” center Vlade Divac said. “Byron’s a good player, he’ll come back.”

Scott has had the toughest assignment on the team in the finals, trying to keep up with Michael Jordan.

Does having to guard Jordan deplete Scott’s energy?

“It’s possible,” Dunleavy said. “But there’s no alternative to that. He’s done that all year long--defend top guys at the guard spot--and it’s no different now.”

Forward A.C. Green agreed, saying: “I think Byron’s playing the game that’s asked of him right now. He’s doing exactly what we need him to do (playing defense on Jordan). That’s a tough assignment in itself.”

Does having to guard Jordan take away from Scott’s offensive game?

“It’s hard for me to comment for him,” Johnson said. “You have to ask him. I know that he has a tough assignment, but hopefully he’ll get it going.”

Scott did a good defensive job for the first three quarters, as Jordan scored 19 points. But Jordan scored four points in the fourth quarter, including the two with 3.4 seconds left that sent the game into overtime, and six of the Bulls’ 12 points in overtime

Jordan knows what Scott is going through. “He’s concentrating on defense a little bit more, which takes away from his offense,” Jordan said. “But that’s fine with me.”

After noticing in the box score that Scott had failed to score, Jordan said: “He didn’t score at all. That’s surprising.”

Chicago guard John Paxson, who has been guarding Scott, said the Bulls were concerned with stopping him at the start of the series.

“I’ve just been trying to find him early in the transition so he can’t catch (the ball) and shoot. We’re trying to take him out of the offense, but he can get hot at any time.”