Bulls’ Winning Effort Is Far Cry From Game 2 : Game 3: Chicago takes an early lead, then keeps Porter out of the Portland offense to take a 2-1 lead, 94-84.

Who’s sorry now?

Trail Blazer fans arrived Sunday afternoon with banners such as “Who’s Crying Now, Bryant Gumbel?”

Within the afternoon, they got their answer.

The Bulls, who were supposed to be the battered team on the ropes, won a defensive battle, 94-84, regained home-court advantage and took a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals.

As if to prove Gumbel’s point--the “Today” host had called them the “CryBlazers”--the Trail Blazers then complained at length about a call, Terry Porter’s third-period offensive foul.

In fact, replays suggested that rather than leaning into Bill Cartwright as referee Mike Mathis ruled, Porter had, instead, been knocked silly by Cartwright.

The Trail Blazers had cut a 15-point deficit to 60-56. Had the foul been on Cartwright, Porter would have shot two free throws.

During the ensuing timeout, the Trail Blazers returned to their huddle. Jerome Kersey waved his arms angrily. The TV scoreboard flashed a shot of a woman with a “Bad Call” sign, then a shot of Mathis.

Whether the Trail Blazers ran out of gas at that point, lost their composure, or were simply outplayed, their rally screeched to a halt.

Scottie Pippen was allowed to shoot an unopposed five-footer on the next possession, a shot he made.

The Bulls then scored 12 of the next 16 points to put the game away.

“I thought it was a flagrant foul or a three-point play and we got neither,” Buck Williams said.

“It did (take a lot out of them). We were making our move. Terry Porter goes to the goal as he’s been doing all season long and they call that?”

Of course, the Trail Blazers have other concerns, such as their lack of offense. Kersey and Cliff Robinson went a combined six for 24.

Porter, whose matchup against John Paxson is supposed to be the biggest Trail Blazer advantage, had only seven shots, two during the second half.

The entire Trail Blazer team had 12 assists, fewer than half the Chicago total.

“I was trying to be aggressive, but the ball wasn’t coming back to me,” Porter said. “You can’t be aggressive when you don’t have the ball.

‘I’m the point guard, but when I give it up, I have no control over the next guy.”

Said Danny Ainge, the Game 2 star, who was four for 12 Sunday: “I think it’s pretty critical to get Terry shots. I think it’s really critical. Terry is our best shooter. The thing is, I don’t think Terry has to score 25, 30 points every game for us to win, but when we get 12 assists as a team and Terry gets seven points and four assists, it means something’s going wrong.”

The Trail Blazers said they stood around, didn’t pay attention to their spacing, didn’t move the ball and give credit to the Bulls. None was sure why any of this took place.

The Bulls came into the game off their Game 2 disaster. The conventional wisdom was they were tired, Michael Jordan, who had gone 50 minutes during Game 2, wasn’t going to be able to carry them, and they were in trouble. Their best chance of a breakthrough was supposed to be Wednesday’s Game 4.

The conventional wisdom was half right--the Bulls were tired.

“These were tired teams,” Bull Coach Phil Jackson said. “That was a short break, 48 hours, with the travel. There was no way I was going to practice (Saturday) after looking at the guys on the plane. They were all out. We were depleted energy-wise and emotion-wise.”

But it was the Bulls who came out executing.

With Jackson reining in Michael Jordan, the other Bulls stepped up.

During the first quarter, Pippen had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Horace Grant had 11 points and four rebounds.

Jordan waited until the ninth possession to take his first shot, took only four during the first quarter, and the Bulls still led, 34-26.

After that, the Trail Blazers’ offense faded. They scored 19 points during the second quarter, 15 during the third.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Bull reserve B.J. Armstrong said. “In fact, it was pretty ugly. But I’m just glad we were on the right end of it. The thing that matters is that we had to win one here, and we won the first one and now we, not them, have at least the chance to win the series here.”

That’s what the Pistons did in 1990, sweeping three here. Some decades, it goes like that.