Bulls Go for the Pin

Changing roles as if they were hair colors, Dennis Rodman turned back into, of all things, a basketball player Wednesday night, even using a chair for more conventional methods, as opposed to, say, slamming it across some guy’s back.

His fellow Chicago Bulls, riding the wave of the 86-82 victory over the Utah Jazz that made for a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals and the chance to win a third consecutive title on Friday, somehow managed to roll with the whole thing, as if they’ve gone down this road before or something. They shake their heads at him, they fine him, they welcome him back, they steam on.

But even this might have pushed the bounds of logic, such as they are with Rodman. Not that he couldn’t make it to practice Monday but could somehow find time for a trip to Auburn Hills, Mich., for a wrestling gig and a reported $250,000 payday, and not the 14 rebounds that came Wednesday or even the defense that held Karl Malone to 10 points over the final three-plus quarters after he had hit Luc Longley for 11 in the first 10 minutes. All that could have been expected.

But becoming an offensive hero, even while Michael Jordan had 34 points and Scottie Pippen scored 28?

Part of a WCW script, right?

Yet there he was, making five free throws in six tries in the fourth quarter, including all four attempts in the final 2:53, to hold off the Jazz. And making amends.

“Well,” Coach Phil Jackson said, “Dennis likes to back himself in a corner and come out of it with shining laurels. And he was able to make the plays down the stretch, and typically got himself out of a situation where he had to prove himself. Which is what he does.”

Constantly.

“I can never figure this guy out and I won’t even start,” Jordan said. “One day he’s wrestling, the next day he’s defending. We have come to live with it and not really try to dissect this individual. I don’t know if he is an individual.

“But, somehow, he’s always ready to play the game of basketball. Especially when the time is really of the essence. I think he went to Detroit to put pressure on himself, to come out and play the game with a lot more competitiveness. For an individual to need to do that to get himself ready to play a game, you have to commend him but yet you have to step back and dissect him and understand him, but there’s no understanding Dennis.

“As long as he steps on the basketball court and does his job, it’s hard to argue with him. I know you guys were probably waiting to write a bad article about him today or tomorrow, but the guy steps up and makes four free throws in the closing minutes. What else can you say about him?

“He may go and wrestle tomorrow, I don’t know. He may not show up at practice, I don’t know. But he seems to excel in adversity, and we’ve come to grips with that.”

“That” is the flaking out in a way that aggravates teammates and the dynamic return that insured they won’t strangle him. This time, at least.

The Jazz had its own motivations coming in, namely the 42-point beating it took Sunday and the way the Bulls handled it, partying on the bench through the fourth quarter and then seeing Rodman so concerned about the next game that he took off to Michigan. To the rest of the world, of course, that was Dennis being Dennis no matter the circumstances, but to a team looking for inspiration, it might have produced some.

“It’s just their attitude when we play,” Shandon Anderson, a key Utah reserve, had said the day before. “It’s a lack of respect. I think they’re [underestimating] us as basketball players, telling us, ‘We don’t have any respect for you guys and you don’t have any reason being here.’ That’s something we as a team have to step up and attack.”

Added Malone: “I don’t think they’re taking us serious at all. When you see things like that, it makes you want to come back and play hard.”

See things like that or hear things like that? Both, in this case, since a TV microphone had picked up Pippen as the Bulls exited the Delta Center after their Game 2 victory, catching his comment about how Salt Lake City can get ready for the WNBA season. As in, the NBA wasn’t coming back.

“I did make that statement,” Pippen later admitted. “But in a joking way. We’re going to take this series very serious.”

On the other hand . . .

“They can start preparing,” he reiterated, without hesitation.

By late Wednesday night, a Game 6 had been reduced to a possibility for the Jazz, not the automatic it had appeared when the teams left Utah at 1-1. It took losing three in a row for the first time this season to put the Jazz in such a predicament.

And so much of it was Rodman’s free throws. His two swishes with 44 seconds left were the biggest points of the night, providing the insurmountable 81-77 cushion the Jazz could not overcome, especially once John Stockton missed a reverse layup with about 30 seconds remaining. Toni Kukoc was fouled intentionally and made two from the line for an 83-77 lead with 26.6 seconds to play.

Malone finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds, but Stockton made only three of 11 shots and Jeff Hornacek three of eight. Bryon Russell was the only other Jazz player besides Malone in double figures, but he needed a meaningless three-pointer to reach 10.

* DEPARTURE POINT: The Lakers appear likely to trade Nick Van Exel. C4