Are Bulls Off Title Course? : NBA finals: Jordan weary, but he reportedly plays golf on days off. Game 5 is tonight.

Into the life of every champion a little rain must fall. But in Chicago, literally and figuratively, this is the year of the flood.

A year ago, the Chicago Bulls went 15-2 in the playoffs.

This season, forget the number. They’re going into Game 21, up to their necks in resurgent Portland Trail Blazers.

They’re tied, 2-2, going into tonight’s Game 5 of this final series, with people wondering if Michael Jordan is tiring. After his Game 4 fade, Jordan said he needs more rest, but he continues to play golf after practices.

A member of Waverly Country Club told the Oregonian that Jordan played 18 holes there Monday, the day he sat out practice with a sore heel. Jordan denied it, saying he rode around with friends and only “putted on a couple of greens.”

Peter Jacobsen, who played with him, said they went 18 Tuesday.

Jordan reportedly was off to the links again after practice Thursday. Of course, riding around in a cart and taking 75 swipes with a golf club might not be a lot of work, but in the NBA finals, Jordan is 54 holes ahead of the field.

“When you’ve got one ring, you seem to kind of relax a little bit,” Portland’s Terry Porter said. “I don’t think he played any golf last year.”

Ask Jordan, as hard-driving at work as at play, if a champion’s life only gets harder.

“That’s the problem of repeating,” he said. “You get a little complacent. Egos become a part of the situation. Work ethics tend to vary a little bit.

“The complacency that sets in--it’s there. It’s very evident. We’ve been fighting that all year now.

“The regular season gave us a false sense of security. We won 67 games (tied for third-highest in NBA history) and pretty much it was a cakewalk. We did the things we wanted to. But I think when we got to the playoffs, we forgot the elevation of the level of play.”

There’s another theory:

A year ago the Bulls skipped past the overmatched New York Knicks, 3-0, and Philadelphia 76ers, 4-1; the over-the-hill Detroit Pistons, 4-0, and the out-on-their-feet Lakers, 4-1.

This spring, fate served up a more vigorous test: the overmatched Miami Heat, 3-0, followed by the mauling Knicks, 4-3, the athletic Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-2, and the physically imposing, finals-tested Blazers.

Whatever, Jordan can feel the difference from last June.

“I’ve been trying to think about that,” he said. “I like to think I was fresher. I think our attitude was a little different. The confidence level was very, very strong and I think we really understood the challenge we were faced with.

“Here, we understand it, but we tend to forget it in spurts, and the caliber of the team we’re playing against and the hunger that they have.”

He might have a point there, too.

In his suite, Coach Phil Jackson runs his videotapes and simmers at missed opportunities.

From the Bulls’ viewpoint, they have won two games and blown double-figure leads in two.

Jackson, forgoing his we-don’t-have-an-advantage-at-any-position posture, says he’s, uh, angry.

“We’re (ticked) off and we have every right to be (ticked) off,” he said Thursday.

Jordan, asked if the Trail Blazers were fortunate to be 2-2, smiled.

“I think we’re unfortunate to be where we are,” he said. “Let me put it in those terms.”

The Trail Blazers think they were the better team after mid-first quarter Wednesday night and aren’t taking Jackson’s comments as a compliment.

Said Jerome Kersey, laughing: “I’m (ticked) off, too.”

By midnight, one of these teams will be even more upset than it is now and laughs will be few and far between.

Playoff Notes

Phil Jackson, continuing the new hard line, says of the Trail Blazers’ small lineup that turned Game 4 around: “They got away with it. It’s as simple as that. We have to exploit it. It’s nothing to get upset about.” . . . Danny Ainge, left to guard Scottie Pippen when the Trail Blazers go small: “That’s not a great matchup for us. He’s a great player and he’s got me by three-four inches and with those long arms, he can get off a shot in the low post any time he wants against me.” In Game 4’s fourth quarter, however, Pippen got off only two shots, which was one reason the Trail Blazers got away with it.

Jerome Kersey on shoving Ainge, who tried to cool him off after his flagrant foul: “With the emotion I play with, you know, it’s kind of like I got a little crazy there for a moment. Everybody got really fired up after that (the Blazers outscoring the Bulls, 19-8). Both ends, we were more aggressive. I know I was.” . . . Ainge, on being shoved: “Jerome thinks he’s a lot stronger than he is. I wasn’t surprised at all, to be honest. Jerome does that in practice.”

The Bulls lost Game 4 against the Knicks, Cavaliers and Trail Blazers, blowing a 2-1 series lead each time. They won Game 5 against the Knicks and Cavaliers, but both were played in Chicago. . . . If the Bulls are battered or worn down, a game other than golf may be responsible--basketball. Despite being the first NBA coach to clinch his playoff berth, Jackson let Pippen and Michael Jordan finish Nos. 5 and 10 in the league in minutes played. Jordan played 351 more minutes than Clyde Drexler, the equivalent of seven games. The Bulls have also played two more playoff games than the Trail Blazers.