FINALS WATCH : For Bulls, This Was a Grungy Effort

Maybe the Chicago Bulls weren’t only too full of themselves. Maybe they were partied out too?

The Bulls lived huge after Game 3 and, of course, none of them bigger than Dennis Rodman, spotted at a restaurant called Wild Ginger with Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament from the band Pearl Jam and supermodel Cindy Crawford.

Earlier, Rodman had given his jersey to Crawford, who hugged him. Crawford left Wild Ginger by herself, though Rodman did escort her to her limo.

“I had never met Dennis before,” Crawford told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “He’s just the nicest guy. He’s a sweetheart. He has a killer body.”

Rodman said he was ready for Game 4, even if it didn’t turn out to be one of his best efforts.

“It’s no big deal,” he said. “All the great teams in history fall sometimes, but they make sure they can climb back up.”

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Discipline, SuperSonic style: Before Game 4, center Ervin Johnson, who was about to be benched, said Coach George Karl told him he wasn’t talented enough to be on the floor at this point. Reserve Vince Askew, unhappy with his playing time, didn’t attend a media session and was fined $11,000--$10,000 by the league and $1,000 by the team.

Wednesday, Karl used every player except Johnson and Askew.

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Short memories: Even Chicago players who embraced the notion they were the greatest team in history claimed after taking their Game 4 beating that it was the press’ idea.

“I feel like we ignored it,” said Scottie Pippen, who had announced the Bulls were the greatest team. “I know as players we knew what we had at stake tonight to win.”

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Of Pippen’s 17 shots, eight were three-pointers. Of the eight he tried, one went in.

“We’ve been very prosperous with Scottie shooting threes,” said Michael Jordan. “It opens up his game. So by no means do you want to contain or shrink his game. I think he should continue to shoot the ball with confidence.”

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The Bulls’ 32 points in the first half tied their franchise playoff record low. . . . This was the second game they have lost by double figures during the regular season and playoffs. The other one was a 104-72 regular-season loss at New York on March 10. This drops their overall record to 14-2 in the playoffs and 86-12 overall.

--MARK HEISLER and SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

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The Bulls’ failure to win their fourth NBA championship left fans disappointed and the city with a $1-million tab for the extra police sent out to handle the celebration that wasn’t.

Fans in Chicago’s trendy Rush Street nightclub district poured into the streets moments after the Bulls’ loss chanting “Friday, Friday, Friday.”

Minutes later, the crowd had dispersed.

Mindful of serious rioting that followed the Bulls second NBA title in 1992, city police had stationed officers in riot gear throughout the city. Patrol cars cruised virtually every block. A spokesman said they will be back Friday for Game 5.

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NBA champions, beware of fakes.

Just hours before Game 4, police said a look-alike display model of the golden NBA trophy was missing and believed stolen en route to a Chicago jewelry store.

Like the real thing, the display trophy was made by Tiffany & Co. in New York. It was part of a shipment destined for display at the jeweler’s Michigan Avenue store, according to police and a Tiffany’s spokeswoman.

The trophy was reported missing Monday, though the actual theft is believed to have occurred May 28 or 29. The police report put the value of the trophy at $9,000.

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Are the Bulls, on the verge of winning their fourth NBA title in six seasons, the best team ever?

Magic Johnson, who led the Lakers to five titles in the 1980s, says his Lakers could have beaten the Bulls because they would have been unable to defend Laker center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“Kareem is the X-factor, because there’s nobody that could stop him on their team,” Johnson said on NBC at halftime Wednesday. “He would set up shots for everybody else. The only way you can beat this Bulls team is to have a dominant front line and that’s what we had. “It would have been a great finals, but at the end I think Kareem would have wound up winning it for us, maybe in a game six or game seven.”

Larry Bird, who led the Boston Celtics to three titles in the 1980s, says the NBA has been diluted by expansion.

“I think the expansion has depleted some of the talent in our league, but you’ve got to give them all the credit in the world, they’ve won three NBA titles,” Bird said.

How would the Bulls fare against Bird’s Celtics?

“We might do some damage against them,” Bird said, “because we did have a height advantage and our front line was so unbelievable with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.”