Magic Finds Best Number This Time : NBA playoffs: Jordan scores 40, but Orlando leads Bulls, 2-1, after 110-101 victory.

Back to No. 45?

Michael Jordan donned the forbidden No. 23 Friday night but, with the NBA’s meter running, flamed out after a sensational first half. The Chicago Bulls plummeted with him and were upended, 110-101, by the Orlando Magic.

The Magic, supposedly too young, too inexperienced and too jittery, thus recaptured the home-court advantage in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series which it leads, 2-1.

Jordan scored 18 points in the first quarter on nine of 11 shots. He had 29 by halftime but only 11 the rest of the game. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he needed another change of wardrobe.

“I don’t think Michael Jordan ever gets tired,” said Orlando’s Shaquille O’Neal. “I think he’s Superman. I’m just Superboy.”

Superboy scored 28 points and made eight of his 10 free throws. For the series, he’s at 72%, almost 20 points higher than his regular-season percentage.

The game began amid a vintage Jordan-style circus. The league office fined the Bulls $25,000 for letting him switch numbers and announced there would be further penalties--although they won’t be decided or commented on until the season ends--if he did it again.

Jordan, of course, never wavered in doing it again.

“As Michael said, he was hitting .202 with No. 45 on his back,” said Coach Phil Jackson. “And I said he was shooting about the same percentage too.”

Jordan did make one concession to authority: He switched from the predominantly white shoes he wore in Game 2 to mandatory black ones like his teammates wore. Remember, the league office fined Jordan, personally, $5,000 for that. Maybe it wasn’t fatigue. Maybe, as Mars Blackmon used to say, it was the shoes.

Of course, before Jordan got tired, he was his legendary self. He came out smoking, making his first five shots, and the Bulls jumped out to a 20-10 lead before the game was five minutes old, amid a bloodcurdling outcry from the crowd of 24,281.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the wipeout.

The Magic, who had fallen apart on the road at the end of the season and who had looked shaky in Boston Garden during the series against the Celtics, rallied.

Perhaps seduced into thinking this one would be easy, the Bulls had gotten away from their tight, pressing defense and the Magic started putting points on the board as fast as the Bulls.

By the end of the first quarter, the Magic was within 37-32 and feeling better.

“All we said at the end of the quarter,” said Magic Coach Brian Hill. “they’ve made every shot. They’ve made them from deep outside and we’re only down five. All we have to do is keep our composure. We’re right where we want to be.”

Orlando was ahead, 65-61, by halftime. After that Jordan rested, or tried to let his teammates into the game.

Early in the fourth quarter, he tried to step up again. He sank a 17-foot basket to put the Bulls ahead, 88-86. Then he made a driving layup, was fouled and made the free throw to make it 91-86.

There was 6:52 left. He made only two free throws the rest of the way.

With 1:38 left, Jordan fouled Penny Hardaway, if lightly, on a three-point shot. Jordan glared at the referee and Hardaway made two of the three free throws.

The Bulls ran a play for Jordan, who drove left on Nick Anderson but lost the ball when Horace Grant reached in and tipped it away.

The Magic has now won two games in this series that turned on key steals from Jordan, the first in Game 1 by old friend Nick Anderson and this one by old teammate Grant.

Grant, now vilified on Chicago talk radio and booed loudly, had another big game--18 points, 14 rebounds--but pulled a Jordan and ducked the press. Jordan made it five days without talking.