Portland Not Safe at Home : NBA finals: Trail Blazers were also tied against Detroit in 1990 and lost three in a row.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Nothing could be finer than to be in Oregon with homecourt advantage and 12,888 Blazermaniacs tuning up for three games.

Or could there?

Two years ago, the Trail Blazers came home, exactly as today: tied 1-1 in the NBA finals, having won Game 2 in overtime on their opponent’s floor.

Last season, the Lakers came home tied, 1-1.

The Laker-Trail Blazer home record in the two series?

Try 0-6.

Two years ago, the Trail Blazers lost three in a row to Detroit. Students that they are, they are intent on learning the lessons of history before today’s Game 3 so as not to repeat its mistakes.

So what happened?

“Everybody wants to talk about Detroit,” Kevin Duckworth said Saturday, in one of his blue moods. “Go ahead.”

Duckworth said he doesn’t remember much about the series. It was two years ago.

OK, not all of them are equally intent.

“We could easily have won both the games in Detroit,” Terry Porter said. “We kind of lightened up a little bit. We got lackadaisical in the third game from the start, playing their type of tempo.

“It was just a situation, it was our first trip to the finals and we’d had a great chance to beat a very good ballclub twice at home and they hadn’t won in our building in 20 years. We pretty much thought we had a good chance of coming out, in the worst scenario, winning two of the three games. This Chicago team is totally different. They beat us the last time we played here.”

But of course, a local TV reporter offered, the Bulls couldn’t win three in a row this time.

“If somebody asked me that two years ago, I’d have said no, too,” Porter said, laughing.

“There’s no doubt about it, experience is the best teacher,” Buck Williams said, “and sometimes experience is quite costly.

“The finals are different. Number one, you’re dealing with a lot of media. You’re posturing back and forth, playing little political games through the press. I think this year we’re politicking a little better.

“What are the Bulls doing? They’re trying to get a psychological edge in terms of making different remarks about our inability to hold onto leads in the fourth quarter. I just think it’s part of the atmosphere they want to create to make us doubt ourselves.

“Oh yeah, that’s another one. (Bull Coach Phil) Jackson talks about how our team has the edge against his team. It’s kind of funny, the defending world champions making a statement like that.”

Williams doubled up in laughter at the prospect.

Actually, Jackson has more pressing business. The quotes Williams refers to came from the teams’ mid-season meeting, when the Bulls were a good deal hotter.

Rather than playing mind games with the Trail Blazers, Jackson now plays mind games with the Bulls, stressing Portland’s advantages, trying to get his players to play with an underdog’s urgency.

Saturday, Jackson called off practice to rest his team.

NBA Notes

Eastern Conference teams have won eight road games in a row in the finals: Chicago’s three in the Forum last spring, Detroit’s three here in 1990, Detroit’s two in the Forum in 1989. . . . Portland is 41-8 here this season--33-8 during the regular season, 8-0 during the playoffs.