Road Sweet Road Again as Bulls Take a 2-1 Lead : NBA finals: They win for the fifth time in eight road playoff games away from home, beating Portland, 94-84.

There’s no place like the road for the Chicago Bulls.

Michael Jordan scored 26 points as the Bulls took a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals Sunday night with a 94-84 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

With their fifth victory in eight playoff road games, the Bulls continued to take a roller-coaster ride in the postseason, in sharp contrast to their romp in 1991 when they won 15 of 17 games on the way to their first NBA championship.

Chicago has six defeats in this year’s playoffs, but they have not lost consecutive games.

The Bulls did it with defense, holding the Trail Blazers to 36% shooting. Portland, now 8-1 at home in the playoffs, also matched its playoff-low in scoring in franchise history having lost, 99-84, to Seattle in 1978.

For the third straight series, the Bulls won Game 3 on the road after losing the home-court advantage by splitting the first two games at Chicago Stadium.

In fact, the home-court advantage has vanished for the Western Conference, whose champion is 0-9 at home in the NBA finals since 1989.

Detroit won two games on the road against the Lakers and three at Portland in winning consecutive titles in 1989-90, while the Bulls beat the Lakers three times at the Forum in 1991. The last finals victory at home by a Western Conference team was when the Lakers won Game 7 against Detroit in 1988.

Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant scored 18 points apiece for the Bulls, while Clyde Drexler had 32 for Portland, which plays host to the Bulls in Games 4 and 5 on Wednesday and Friday nights.

The defenses got so intense and the offenses so sloppy in the fourth quarter that Portland scored only six points and Chicago four in the first six minutes.

Two free throws by Drexler made it 74-68 with 5:13 left, but there was no repeat of Game 2 when Chicago blew a 10-point lead in the final 4:36 and lost in overtime.

Jordan’s jumper started a 10-2 spurt that increased the lead to 84-70 with 2:57 left. Reserve forward Stacey King keyed the burst with a rebound basket, two free throws and a layup.

Drexler’s hot scoring down the stretch wasn’t enough for Portland to catch up. Danny Ainge, with 12 points, and Kevin Duckworth and Jerome Kersey, with 11 each, were the only other Trail Blazers in double figures.

The Trail Blazers, who trailed by as many as 15 points in the second quarter and 54-45 at halftime, started the second half with a 10-4 spurt to close to 58-55. But they committed four turnovers on their next four possessions, including an offensive foul call on Terry Porter that put the sellout crowd in a booing mood.

Bobby Hansen’s three-pointer capped an 8-0 run that gave the Bulls a 70-58 lead with 1:03 left in the third quarter. Drexler’s two free throws with 47 seconds remaining made it a 10-point game going into the final 12 minutes.

Chicago outscored Portland 16-15 in the quarter, making it the lowest-scoring third period in finals history. The previous low was 33 points by Seattle and Washington in 1979.

Portland went without a field goal from the 2:00 mark of the first period until there were eight minutes left in the second quarter. Taking advantage of the Blazers’ 0-for-nine shooting in that span, the Bulls used a 14-2 run for a 40-26 lead.

Chicago extended the margin to 45-30 before the Trail Blazers, who missed 11 of their first 13 shots in the second period, scored five points on free throws in less than a minute to close within 10.

A rebound basket by King rebuilt Chicago’s lead to 52-37 with 2:07 left in the quarter. Then Drexler started an 8-2 run with a 3-pointer and finished it with a left-handed layup with 9.1 seconds remaining, pulling the Blazers to a 54-45 deficit at halftime.

The Bulls, who took most of their shots from outside in losing Game 2, had success by penetrating inside and passing in the first quarter, when they had 12 assists.

Grant, averaging 11.9 points in the playoffs, had 11 points and four assists in the opening period, leading Chicago to a 34-26 lead.

Neither team led by more than three points until a three-point play by Grant gave the Bulls a 25-19 advantage with 3:08 left. The Trail Blazers were hurt by two-for-seven shooting from the free-throw line in the first seven minutes.