Back to Drawing Board : NBA finals: Jordan ruined Portland’s game plan in Game 1. Drexler plans to stay in touch in Game 2 tonight.

Disciples of the KISS school--Keep It Simple, Stupid--the Portland Trail Blazers started the NBA finals with a streamlined game plan.

Instead of Jordan rules, they had one Jordan rule: Here he is, Clyde, you take him.

Didn’t work too well, did it?

Jordan outscored Clyde Drexler, 39-12, in the opening round of their battle of the titans, dropping in six three-pointers in a row.

Said Drexler, after a night to think it over: “I’m shocked but I’m not amazed.”

To see how he performs in this peculiar mental posture, tune in tonight’s Game 2. The Trail Blazers, behind 1-0 to the Chicago Bulls, hope to spare him further horrors. Should they again be confronted by a runaway Jordan, they will have reinforcements and alternate tactics ready.

“With a player of his caliber, you’re going to have to give him different looks,” sadder, wiser Blazer Coach Rick Adelman said Thursday.

“They do that with Clyde. They put (Scottie) Pippen on him. They put Jordan on him. They try to take the ball out of his hands overplaying him. We’re going to have to change a little bit.

“To be perfectly honest, we talked about it and we thought we had some things we could do. . . . We were thinking about helping on him, but where he was shooting the ball from, you’d have to run at him from the stands.”

The problem was that Drexler wasn’t much closer.

Assigned to the game’s most devastating offensive force, he was splitting time, shadowing Jordan and helping out on other players in the lane.

“They were way off,” Jordan said. “They wanted to give me that shot. They were daring me early. No hands up, nothing. Drexler was surprised I was taking those shots.”

How far out of the picture was Drexler?

Jordan, a 29% three-point shooter, missed his first two tries. He needed an engraved invitation to fire a third midway through the first quarter.

Drexler was happy to extend one.

“He missed his first two and I’m going, ‘Yes! That’s exactly what we want,’ ” Drexler said. “And then he started to make a couple, off penetrations, and he was wide open. There’s nothing you can do about that. You’ve got to stop penetration.

“Those shots will be available in Game 2. I think I’ll be a little closer to him, though.”

Jordan may have earned a special niche in Trail Blazer history, but they have other problems.

Chicago Coach Phil Jackson once set Portland jaws grinding, declaring that the Trail Blazers “will self-destruct if we show them how.”

In Game 1, Jackson set out to do just that, pressing to get the ball out of the hands of steady Terry Porter. The Trail Blazers had 11 turnovers by halftime.

“It’s like Coach Jackson said: ‘They’ll self-destruct,’ ” said Buck Williams. “That’s exactly what we did.”

Then the Portland defense collapsed entirely in the third quarter, when the Bulls shot 16 for 24, including eight layups and dunks.

Also, the Bulls out-worked and out-rebounded the Trail Blazers, who are known for their hustle and rebounding.

Thursday, however, the Trail Blazers were back in Chicago Stadium, cheerful as could be, eager for the rematch.

“I didn’t have a whole lot to say to the team in looking at the film,” said Adelman, laughing. “But I felt like, if I had to look at it, they should have to look at it.

“I saw it three times, a triple feature. It was ‘The Good, the Bad’--no, it was ‘The Bad, the Bad and the Real Ugly.’

“I know Phil says that we out-match ‘em at every position, but I have to doubt that after last night. I believed him until last night.

“I’ve been around long enough to know it’s a game of momentum and a game of mistakes. We’ve done that to teams. It’s a one-game situation. Same thing happens (tonight), I’m going to get real concerned.”

Jordan’s Records

NBA Championship Series records set or tied by Michael Jordan of Chicago in the Bulls’ 122-89 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 on Wednesday night:

RECORDS SET

Three-point field goal attempts, game: 10; old record 9, Bill Laimbeer, Detroit vs. Portland, June 7, 1990 in overtime, and Terry Porter, Portland vs. Detroit, June 14, 1990.

Points in a half: 35; old record 33, Elgin Baylor, Lakers at Boston, April 14, 1962.

RECORDS TIED

Three-point field goals made, game: 6; tied Michael Cooper, Lakers vs. Boston, June 4, 1987, and Bill Laimbeer, Detroit vs. Portland, June 7, 1990 in overtime.

Field goals, one half: 14; tied Isiah Thomas, Detroit at Lakers, June 19, 1988.