Trail Blazers Lose Games on Court--and in Mind : Basketball: Bulls’ psychological ploys paid off in Game 5. They can win another title today at home.

It’s not easy being a Portland Trail Blazer.

The Chicago Bulls have worked them over psychologically and physically. Tonight in Game 6, they have them teed up for extinction as the world’s greatest basketball player/golfer reaches into his bag for his driver.

That’s Michael Jordan, who is expected to play on the ankle he sprained Friday, colliding with a sideline photographer.

Jordan left briefly, but he returned to score 19 of his 46 points during the second half.

He later said that if the Bulls had gotten back here Saturday morning rather than the afternoon, he would have played another round of golf. That would have made 72 holes in a week, plus three basketball games in which he averaged 35 points.

The Trail Blazers, meanwhile, maintain their silence and nurse their rage.

The Bulls have been freely expressing their disdain for them since Coach Phil Jackson decided to forgo the humility with which he had started the series when he declared the Bulls had not a single physical advantage at any position.

Instead, Jackson decided to try a little arrogance.

He said after Game 4 the series should already be over and he was “(ticked) off” about it.

After Game 5, he called the possibility of a Trail Blazer victory today “an unlikely event.”

He also said the Terry Porter-Scottie Pippen matchup, created by Trail Blazer Coach Rick Adelman, was “definitely a mismatch.”

Said Adelman: “I have no comment on his comments.”

A Trail Blazer didn’t dare open his mouth. After Portland’s Game 4 victory, Jerome Kersey said innocuously he thought the Bulls had been overconfident.

To which Jordan, who was also complaining about his team’s attitude, replied:

“That’s his evaluation of our team. I could say a lot of things about his team, but we won’t go into that.”

Burning for revenge, the Trail Blazers came out in Game 5 and were routed. They trailed the Bulls by 15 points during the first quarter and 20 during the third, suggesting motivation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or at least it helps if you can play the game on the same level as your opponent.

Late Friday night, Jordan called the Bulls’ confidence “an arrogance (that) was picked up last year.”

The Bulls are moving into fast, brash company. A victory today would make them the third consecutive back-to-back champion, joining the 1987-88 Lakers and the ‘89-90 Pistons.

If they weren’t as up-front about it, the Lakers had a confidence that crossed over into arrogance and infuriated helpless opponents.

Their East Coast foils, the Celtics, were famous for intimidation, starting with Larry Bird, who once told the venerable Julius Erving he was an old man who was through.

The Trail Blazers still yearn for revenge, but they will have to seek it on the Bulls’ court. Since the NBA went to its 2-3-2 format in 1985, only one team has come from 3-2 behind, and that was the ’88 Lakers, who beat the Pistons twice in the Forum.

* FINAL ANALYSIS

The Bulls have led almost throughout the series, but they have only a 3-2 advantage. Still, they are one victory away from repeating, and they could get better next season. C7.