Iced...and Burned

MIAMI — Superman fell out of the sky. Nureyev nose-dived during “Swan Lake.” Picasso couldn’t draw a happy face. Michael Jordan couldn’t make a jump shot.

Of course, after taking 22 shots and missing 20, Jordan got his game back, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter as Chicago launched a furious rally that almost, but not quite, melted a 21-point Heat lead. The Bulls ended up losing, 87-80, Monday, missing their chance to end the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Chicago, now leading the series, 3-1, closed to 79-78 on Jordan’s 19-footer with 2:19 left and had a shot for the lead, which Jordan took, of course. He had shot on the previous 13 possessions.

This one was a lean-in 15-footer after faking Voshon Lenard in the air. Surprise! It missed. The Bulls one more chance to tie--a Scottie Pippen three-point brick--and the Heat exhaled.

“I was like most of the coaches that watch him [Jordan] go off on one of those runs of his,” said Miami’s Pat Riley. “You hope the game ends before he gets all the way back.

“I mean, you just do. You try to do the best job you can on him. You just hope the game ends before he gets that last shot.”

Jordan finished with 29 points, making only nine of 35 shots and going 0 for eight on three-point shots. But he scored 18 of the Bulls’ points in a row in one stretch and 20 of their 23 in the fourth quarter.

He might have scored more of their points in the first quarter had he not spent Sunday playing 46 holes of golf at Turnberry Isle on a steamy, 90-degree South Florida afternoon.

For the uninitiated, 18 holes is a full round and a day’s work for most golfers. Jordan and the club’s assistant pro were trying to go 54--three full rounds--but darkness fell first.

“I let him have the day off as far as work,” said Coach Phil Jackson. “They had their opportunity to have a good time.

“It might have cost us. But that’s the way it is this time of the year. Sometimes it’s better to do things than stick your nose to the grindstone all the time.”

Did Jackson think the golf slowed Jordan?

“Well, you saw the game,” said Jackson. “You can ask him that question.”

Faced with Jordan in the interview room, Chicago reporters found myriad other things to inquire about until one finally asked if he thought the golf had been a problem. Jordan said he didn’t.

This wasn’t the way the Bulls had this planned. After romping in Game 3, they got the obligatory lecture from Jackson, reminding them of last spring’s failure to close out the Seattle SuperSonics, who won twice and sprang back into the series.

Those losses were only the Bulls’ fourth and fifth failures in games that could have ended one of the 22 post-season series they have played, dating back to the start of their first title run in 1991. They were not only confident but loose at a light Sunday morning practice, enjoying Alonzo Mourning’s predicament after he guaranteed a win in Game 4.

Pippen called it “pretty dumb.”

Said Jordan, grinning: “What else is he gonna say? Additional motivation for us. Additional pressure for him.”

Jordan also noted the Bulls’ 10-1 record during their trying, distraction-studded post-season showed they were “consummate professionals.”

Whether it was golf, Heat defense, bad karma or the moon in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars, Jordan came out missing Monday, one shot after another.

He was 0 for 11 at halftime, when the Heat led, 47-31. He was 0 for 14 before finally making a 15-footer with 8:09 left in the third quarter and the Heat up, 56-35.

But cross training must make him strong. Having stunk the place out and, to all appearances, lost his team the game, Jordan did what he always does--fought on, as ferocious and determined as ever.

His first basket started a 22-5 run that shot the Bulls right back into it, closing to 61-57 by the end of the third quarter. The Heat fought back in the fourth, jumping it back up to 72-60 but here came Jordan again.

The Bulls’ triangle offense was filed as Jordan took shot after shot, knocking down six of eight in his 18-point run, plus six free throws. His last hoop was a fadeaway 17-footer from the right wing, cutting it to 79-78.

To show who was in charge, Jordan came down on one leg and froze right there, striking a pose in front of Riley on the sideline and giving him a look.

That was the end of magic time Monday. The Heat lives on, until Wednesday’s Game 5 in Chicago, at least. “Do I have any predictions?” said Mourning later, laughing. “No. I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”

The Heat, however, is considering buying Jordan a membership to the swank Medinah club outside Chicago. It needs any help it can get.