NBA FINALS : Suns Right Where Bulls Want Them : Game 6: The visiting team is 6-1 in the Phoenix-Chicago series this season.

By the time they got to Phoenix, the Chicago Bulls, after succumbing to the unenviable task of playing home games, had the NBA finals back under control. They had regained the road-court advantage.

Good riddance to ear-splitting support from fans at Chicago Stadium and the league’s loudest man-made moment, the pregame introduction of Michael Jordan. Keep that string of at least 30 home victories for six consecutive seasons and the 7-0 record the first three rounds of these playoffs. Nothing but trouble.

Destiny dictated that the Bulls, owners of a 3-2 lead, and the Suns come back here for Game 6 tonight, one of the few things both sides can agree on at this point. Maybe it had to be this way for Chicago, after winning all three games at America West Arena, once during the regular season, while going 1-3 at home. Charles Barkley says it had to be because God is rooting for Phoenix, and the only way to win the title was by forcing a return trip to the Valley of the Sun after an 0-2 start.

Said Jordan: “We’re here to say he’s got the wrong destiny.”

The visitors are 6-1 in the season-long Bull-Sun series and 4-1 in the finals. The only block to a visitors’ sweep the last week and a half was Chicago’s Game 4 victory, when Phoenix was within two points with 14 seconds left on the night Jordan scored 55 points.

Taking it back even farther, since the 1988 Laker-Piston seven-game finals, the home team is 8-17 in the championship series.

The Suns welcome the challenge. More than that, though, they welcome the opportunity, considering the way the series started.

“I really believe if we’re the best team,” Coach Paul Westphal says, “we can win two games at home to prove it.”

The Suns have always won when necessary during the playoffs. Five times they have faced elimination, five times they have won:

--Game 3 against the Lakers. After going in as heavy favorites and then losing the first two games at America West Arena, the Suns, inspired by Westphal’s prediction that Phoenix would win the next three games, win at the Forum, 107-102.

--Game 4 against the Lakers. A 101-86 victory, their only dominating showing of the first round.

--Game 5 against the Lakers. The Suns need overtime but win, 112-104.

--Game 7 against Seattle in the Western Conference finals. The SuperSonics, after being down in the series, 2-1, grab the momentum by winning two of the next three. With a spot in the championship series at stake, Barkley has 44 points and 24 rebounds to carry the Suns to victory.

--Game 5 of the finals. All around the Suns’ downtown Chicago hotel, preparations are being made for the Bulls’ third consecutive title, both for celebration and prevention of the same civil unrest that struck a year earlier. Barkley says before the game that it is like dividing up the estate before the owner is dead, then scores 24 points in a 108-98 victory.

“One of the trademarks of this team is that we are not afraid to fail,” Westphal said. “We are not afraid to take a chance. They hear the fans boo (on the road), and some of the guys feed off that. We have some tough guys even though we play in the West.”

NBA Notes

Richard Dumas, who didn’t play in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, is averaging 17.4 points--No. 2 on the Suns behind Charles Barkley--in only 27.6 minutes while shooting 59.4%. Game 5 was his best showing: 25 points and 12 of 14 from the field in 30 minutes. “We’ve got to get a handle on Dumas,” Chicago Coach Phil Jackson said. “We just can’t allow 25 points in 30 minutes, that kind of scoring from a guy playing that kind of minutes.”

When the Suns returned to Phoenix at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, about 11,500 fans were waiting at the airport. . . . The Suns are attempting to be the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the finals, but the sixth to win after being down by 3-2. Most recently, the Lakers did it against Detroit in 1988.

* LIVING IT UP: The Suns were loose on the town as the Bulls tightened up. C9