Extras Star in Chicago’s Showtime

He was king of the court Friday night at the Forum, that irrepressible, indefensible, internationally recognized, Dream Teaming, three-time NBA championship diamond ring-wearing, lean, mean, scoring machine . . . Scottie Pippen.

Third wheel of sorts in a game that had seemingly attracted interest from Peru to Peoria, the often-overlooked Pippen popped in three-point shots to begin each half, pumped in 30 points in three periods, then took a seat and enjoyed the rest of Chicago’s 99-84 cakewalk over a Laker team that still has a long way to go, Magic or no Magic.

“Sitting to my left,” Magic Johnson said after the game, after Michael Jordan had joined him in an interview area, “is the world’s greatest player. But I’ll tell you, Scottie Pippen is playing like the world’s second-greatest player.”

Hmmm. Makes you wonder:

Could the unthinkable really be possible, that basketball’s most DiMaggioan record, the Lakers’ sacred 33-game winning streak, actually might fall to these Bulls, who have now prevailed in 18 in a row? Could an unbreakable record be broken by a team that comes off the bench with Jud Buechler, Dickey Simpkins and Randy Brown?

Well . . .

Tell you this much, this latest game was one more reminder that Michael Jordan has help, lots and lots of help; that he has Pippen and Dennis Rodman in the very same way Jerry West had Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, that every posse needs more than one gun.

They made it clear Friday that, no matter what buildup the game had had, the Bulls were not going to come into some game with a record of 40-3 and be told that this was a contest between one man from each side.

“This was not the Michael Jordan Show versus the Magic Johnson Show,” Pippen said.

Chicago forward Dennis Rodman hauled down 21 of his 23 rebounds in the first three quarters, and came within six of outrebounding the Lakers all by his curly blond self.

The Bulls got off with a bang, Pippen nailing the first game’s shot from 23 feet out, 16 seconds after the opening tip.

After that, the visitors got the shakes, Ron Harper and Pippen each losing control of the ball, and Bill Wennington throwing a poor pass. The sold-out Forum crowd romped and stomped. Observing this, Chicago Coach Phil Jackson thought things over, scratching his beard, then made a decision: Let them play.

“He’s a very patient coach,” Pippen said. “He could have snatched a couple of people by the collar at that point. But he let the emotion of the crowd settle down.

“Phil knows us, knows what we need.”

For instance, Jackson did not go into this game believing that all the hoopla would affect his streaking bunch, that the Bulls were bound for their fourth road defeat of the season because of all that Magic-Michael madness.

Asked if he thought it might distract the Bulls from their game, Jackson said: “No, I thought it would elevate it.”

The place was definitely ready to party. After what happened in Tuesday’s game against Golden State, when the Lakers scored a season-high 128 points in Johnson’s homecoming game, fans galore stormed the castle. Among those in Friday’s audience were Denzel Washington, Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, Chris Farley, Arsenio Hall and Jack Nicholson, who was filming “Blood and Wine” in Miami, but got on a plane as soon as he heard that director Bob Rafelson had taken ill and called off filming for the day.

“This is like a great heavyweight fight,” Nicholson said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen, but you don’t want to miss it.”

What had Nicholson’s reaction to Magic’s comeback game been?

“Thunderstruck,” the actor said.

Three nights later, Pippen stole the thunder and Jordan added the lightning.

Pippen had 20 points by halftime. In contrast, fellow forward Johnson, in a 16-minute stint, not only was limited to seven points, but went into the Laker locker room with an embarrassing zero assists. Magic ended the game with only three.

“We started feeling comfortable a couple minutes into the game,” Pippen said. “We started finding loopholes in their defense. Then we took total control.”

The more Magic tried to straighten the Lakers out, the more he failed.

Rodman said of Johnson’s efforts at forward, “I don’t see him playing there too much. I see him going to point guard or second guard. I see him doing that because it’s just too physical down there.

“I was just trying to frustrate him, try to go around him, try to outjump him, try to do the things that I’m accustomed to doing and he’s not accustomed to doing. He tried to score on me with that swooping Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hook and it just wasn’t working. You’ve got to have more than that now in this day and age.”

That you do.

Johnson said, “They gave us an old-fashioned whupping.”

The Bulls have been doing many times this season. Forty-one, in fact, and counting.