NBA PLAYOFFS : Orlando Walking on Air : Eastern Conference: Magic scores last 14 points to eliminate Bulls, 108-102. Flu-bitten Jordan can’t rally team.

OK, Mike, it’s . . . baseball season!

Michael Jordan’s eight-week comeback gasped and died Thursday night. Jordan, weakened by a flu bug, had all he could do to stay on his feet, and the Chicago Bulls succumbed to a bad case of the Orlando Magic, blowing an eight-point lead in the last 2:46 and losing, 108-102.

The Magic scored the last 14 points to win this series, 4-2, and advance to the Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana-New York winner.

The Bulls are on vacation, and Jordan is free to take up baseball, golf or a new hobby.

Magic players, who had knelt on the court in prayer when they won their first postseason road game at Boston Garden two weeks ago, celebrated this one by hoisting ex-Bull Horace Grant to their shoulders.

“I felt 10 feet tall,” Grant said. “I was looking for Jerry Krause [the Bulls’ general manager who didn’t re-sign him] in the stands. Is he in here?”

Grant then pretended to peer around the interview room for Krause.

“I had to do that,” Grant said, laughing.

Jordan had one of those games mortals envy--24 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, four steals, four blocked shots--but for him, it was an off night. He missed 11 of 19 shots and in the final minute when the game was on the line, shot an airball and threw the ball away.

Jordan felt bad when he arrived at the United Center before the game. Coach Phil Jackson tried to nurse him through the game, but at the end, Jordan was plainly spent.

“I tried to get him out early in the first quarter, the second quarter and the third quarter,” Jackson said. “He kept sustaining and regenerating his energy on the bench. I thought he did a remarkable job for the state he was in before the game.”

Said Jordan: “I just didn’t have the energy I wanted to. I didn’t have the lift on my shots. I tried to do everything going to the hole. I just tried to give everything I had.

“I had a virus, I think. But I’ve never used that as an excuse and I’m not using it as an excuse now.”

The Bulls, trailing by nine points in the third quarter, stormed back to take a 102-94 lead with 3:24 left in the fourth, but by then, Jordan was virtually a ghost.

Jackson had rested him for the last 2:02 of the third quarter. Jordan normally leaves the game only once each half, if that often, but after a steal and a dunk midway through the fourth quarter, he was so winded, Jackson had to take him out again.

Jordan waited for the substitution, squatting, gasping for breath.

“I was just trying to muster the energy to finish the game,” he said. “When we had that eight-point lead, I thought we could fight them off defensively.”

It didn’t turn out that way.

With 2:46 left, Shaquille O’Neal (27 points, 13 rebounds, four assists) made a jump hook.

With 2:01 left, Nick Anderson, the Chicago native, made a three-pointer.

With 1:20 left, Brian Shaw made two free throws.

With the Bulls’ lead down to 102-101, Jordan tried to take over. He got off one of his classic 15-foot turnaround jumpers over Anderson, but it missed everything.

With 42 seconds left, Anderson made an 18-footer over Toni Kukoc, with the shot clock running out.

With the Bulls behind, 103-102, Jordan drew the defense and snapped a jump pass to 7-foot-2 Luc Longley open under the basket, almost identical to the pass he threw to Bill Wennington for the game-winning dunk in the regular-season victory at New York, the game in which Jordan scored 55 points.

This time, Longley fumbled the ball on the way up and wound up shooting an airball from one foot away.

After that, the Magic made its free throws and won going away.

The Magic players picked up Grant, their most consistent player in the series. Afterward, a Chicago radio reporter asked Grant if he regretted letting them do that.

“What kind of question is that?” Grant said.

“A lot of people thought it was tacky,” the reporter said.

“You talk to [Bull owner Jerry] Reinsdorf and Krause about tacky moves,” Grant snapped.

The Bulls took the loss hard. Their dressing room stayed closed for half an hour. Jackson said later he didn’t know if he’d be back. Scottie Pippen said he didn’t think he’d be back.

Jordan was the upbeat one. He talked for an hour after the game and said his decision is made.

“There’s no doubt,” Jordan said. “I’m coming back. I don’t know who’s putting questions in people’s minds. I have all intentions of coming back, going to training camp, playing an 82-game season.”

Of course, he has four full months before camp opens. Imagine the possibilities.