Tender Knee Hampering Rider

After strong performances in the first two rounds of the playoffs, Portland guard Isaiah Rider was happy to at last be recognized for his basketball ability instead of his off-court problems.

Things haven’t gone so well for him, though, in the Western Conference finals. Rider scored 16 points in the two games in San Antonio, half of them in the third quarter of Game 1.

To make matters worse, his already sore right knee locked up in the third quarter of Game 2. And, much to his obvious displeasure, he didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio rallied for an 86-85 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“It just didn’t look like he was playing at the same level physically,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “It looked like he was thinking about his knee a whole lot, rubbing it, favoring it a little bit, not running as hard as he could run. Maybe it didn’t look that way to anybody else but it was kind of noticeable to me. I look for him to come back and have a big third game.”

Rider said after his team’s workout Wednesday that he will be ready to play when the series resumes Friday night at Portland’s Rose Garden.

“It’s just really sore,” he said. “It just locked up on me. I popped it out and made it swell and made it really sore. It has a spot there that’s really tender. It’s just a freak thing really.”

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Officials at Indiana’s Market Square Arena are discussing measures designed to improve security for the New York Knicks after several players were doused with beer and pelted with coins during Tuesday’s playoff game.

New York’s Larry Johnson, Chris Childs and Marcus Camby were the main targets of the fans’ outburst after Indiana’s 88-86 victory that evened the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals at 1-1.

Dave Checketts, Madison Square Garden president, complained to arena officials, wanting to know why his players weren’t better protected, said Bob Shorter, director of security at Market Square Arena.

Larry Jackson, the arena’s coordinator for safety and crowd management, said security personnel in Game 5 probably will be more visible and closer to the New York bench.

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The Clippers’ Michael Olowokandi has been named in a multimillion-dollar civil suit by a woman who claims he had sex with her without her consent while they were students at the University of Pacific in 1998, according to Olowokandi’s agent, Bill Duffy.

The unidentified woman, who filed the suit in Stockton on Tuesday, gave birth to a boy four months ago and since then, she and Olowokandi have given the baby up for adoption, Duffy said. Olowokandi denies the claim, Duffy said.

“They were friends who grew intimate,” Duffy said. “They both agreed to put the child up for adoption.”

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The Clippers, who have the fourth pick in the June 30 draft, worked out UCLA point guard Baron Davis on Wednesday at USC. Davis, who looked trim and did not wear a knee brace, is one of several players on the Clippers’ list of potential draftees.

Staff Writer Lonnie White contributed to this story.