For Bulls, a Pothole at End of Road

That’s the way it goes in the traveling circus biz. One moment the Bulls are on top of the world, licking their chops at the prospect of teaching Shaquille O’Neal another lesson.

The next moment, O’Neal is gone. The next, they get turned upside down and shaken like a piggy bank by the rest of the Lakers.

Now the Bulls have six losses and when they resume play after the all-star break, Dennis Rodman will be back, meaning their vacation is over. All in all, it was a disappointing night for them.

You think Laker fans were saddened by the news O’Neal wouldn’t play? How about Michael Jordan, who had been looking forward to the matchup for a week?

“I am disappointed, to some degree,” he said before the game. “Everybody wants to see both teams at full strength go at each other . . .”

If Jordan had a real rival, he wouldn’t have to contrive all these challenges--Did that coach say something about me?--but fate has dealt him everything but that. In four title runs, the Bulls have played four different teams in the Eastern finals and four West teams in the NBA finals.

Bill Russell had Wilt Chamberlain. Jerry West had Oscar Robertson. Magic Johnson had Larry Bird.

Jordan has . . . Jeff Van Gundy?

“It hasn’t been the same,” said Jordan, ruefully. “Orlando was a team because of what they did to us when I did come back. New York has always been a rivalry and we seem to have overcome that, up to this point. Detroit’s not quite the same as it used to be but we will reestablish that rivalry because of Grant Hill and Doug [Collins] being the coach.

“You don’t have the individuals, like a Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I can always say my friend, Charles Barkley--but he’s never won anything. [Hakeem] Olajuwon is probably the closest because of his success.

“I guess the question is, would I have loved to take this team or the ‘91, ‘92, ’93 teams [the first three Bulls champions] and played against the Lakers of the ‘80s or the Celtics of the ‘80s?

“Yeah. That would have been fun, but that’s just a dream situation. I don’t know how it would have come out but it would have been a hell of a challenge. Competition would have been fierce every night. I don’t think anyone could have picked who was going to win and that’s part of the dream of seeing the matchup.”

Everybody thought they knew who was going to win Wednesday but that wasn’t the way it turned out.

The Lakers, flattened the night before by the . . . Clippers? . . . turned into some other team, led by Elden Campbell, awakening from a long winter’s nap to become the man they gave that $7 million-a-year contract, once more. Tuesday, he got three more rebounds than a manikin would have as the Clippers stomped them on the boards, 54-31. Wednesday, he went for 34 points and 14 rebounds.

What can one say but . . . Elden Campbell?

The Bulls, as they sometimes do, assumed the prone position and waited for Jordan to carry them, but on this night they were just too heavy.

So they broke for all-star weekend with the din of a Forum crowd ringing in their ears. As a “message” game, this one meant less than usual. Del Harris will start O’Neal the next time they see the Bulls, Wednesday’s inspirational effort notwithstanding and the Bulls won’t be playing their fifth game in seven nights.

For all their diplomacy, the Bulls don’t seem entirely eager to have Rodman back. On one hand, he’s a demon rebounder. On the other hand, there’s everything else.

Scottie Pippen said recently it was easier to play without Rodman than with him, since they’re never sure what he’ll do when the play is over. Remember when Pippy and Jordan tackled him to keep him off O’Neal in the first Laker game?

Said Jordan to reporters, gathering around him before Wednesday night’s game: “Nothing about Rodman.”

Bill Russell’s Celtics didn’t win them all, nor Johnson’s Lakers nor Bird’s Celtics. No one has ever put together a season-and-a-half the way the Bulls just did, when they went 114-16.

“To be honest with you,” said Jerry West, whose Wilt Chamberlain-Elgin Baylor team was the most celebrated of its era, “the team that I played on was so short-lived that it’s rally hard to judge.

“We had a lot of old guys. We had people who were at the end of their careers and this team [Bulls] has the two very best players and obviously a great player in Rodman.

“Where they go from this year to next is going to be hard to ascertain but they are just a remarkable team and to me, everyone else is playing for second place.

“If they don’t get an injury to the wrong person and obviously, you know who that is, everyone else is playing for second place.”

All you-know-who had hurt Wednesday was his feelings, so the dynasty lives.

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Bull Losses

The Bulls have lost only six games , five on the road:

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DATE WINNER Oct. 23 at Utah, 105-100 Nov. 7 Miami, 83-80 Nov. 8 at Toronto, 97-89 Nov. 26 at Atlanta, 108-103 Dec. 19 at Houston, 102-86 Feb. 5 at Lakers, 106-90

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