Despite Injury, Pippen Did His Handy Work

Scottie Pippen acknowledged the two dislocated fingers on his left (non-shooting) hand caused him problems in Game 6, when he missed five of six shots and scored only nine points.

“They’re fine,” he said Saturday. “I’m not saying they’re as well as I would like for them to be. But I was able to get through the game [Friday] and do things that I needed for my ballclub to pull out with a win. I wasn’t as aggressive [Friday] and maybe my finger did hamper me a little in that area. But other guys stepped up.”

Pippen suffered the injury in the second quarter of Game 5 at Staples Center. He spent the final 4:42 before halftime on the bench, sometimes in obvious pain while being attended to by Portland’s medical staff, then played the entire second half and made two of six shots.

That made Friday night at Portland the first full test. The problems were obvious.

“Picking the ball up, dribbling it,” he said. “Just being aggressive defensively and being able to use my hand.”

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Center Arvydas Sabonis had a big role in the Trail Blazers’ victory in Game 6 with 11 rebounds and six assists. He also played 45 minutes against Shaquille O’Neal, 10 more than at any other time in the series, boosting his confidence for Game 7.

“Of course,” he said. “You have a game like this, it always feels good.”

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This being a Game 7 between a major-market team and a small-market team, two familiar words are already being pondered by the small-market guys.

Conspiracy Theory.

Damon Stoudamire, Trail Blazer guard, acknowledged that the idea has crossed his mind.

“It’s something you think about, sure,” he said. “I mean, [the NBA] has already got one small-market team in the finals [Indiana]. Maybe in the back of their minds, they don’t want another small-market team.”

He shrugged.

“But the way we have to look at it is, we have to take it out of anybody else’s hands,” he said. “If we do what we can do, then that will take the outcome away from anybody else.”

Forward Brian Grant agreed.

“If it comes down to a bunch of bull calls, then that’s where the NBA is right now,” he said. “But I believe a lot in the integrity of this league and its referees. And I believe they they will let the players decide.”

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Several Lakers were talking Saturday about Portland playing an illegal defense in its double and triple-teaming of O’Neal.

The last time they talked so much about it was before the deciding Game 5 in the first-round series against the Sacramento Kings.

Sure enough, two illegal defense calls against the Kings in the first half deflated the Sacramento effort in a Laker rout.

The Trail Blazers wonder if the Lakers are trying the same trick again.

“Against Sacramento, one or two of those calls were not correct,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “Maybe Phil was able to affect the referees in that sense. But if they call illegal defense [today], they will also be calling it on them.”