Insights

TALE OF THE TAPE

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34 Minutes 43 17 Points 22 4-13 Field goals 8-12 1-3 3-pt. field goals 2-4 5 Rebounds 6 4 Assists 3 6 Turnovers 4 0 Steals 6 6 Fouls 4

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OTHER VIEW

CHUCK CULPEPPER

The Oregonian

And with five games in the books, this series has located its essence.

It’s a comedy. It’s an absurd, uproarious comedy.

Comedies usually air weekly; this one airs thrice-weekly. This is what is known as innovation. This comedy is a takeoff on those movies when the hero is riddled with bullets and thoroughly unconscious, then awakens to demonstrate sharp, brute, keen strength. Only in this one, the sides take turns doing it. Clever.

The joke is on the people who attend the games in both cities, shell out their hard-earned money, buy concessions, stuff their gullets with tripe, then drive home bummed-out. This is the series of the dreary drives home.

The joke is on the NBA, which doesn’t yet have another great team that might help it push forward into the new era. Oh well, it’s not a crime. At least it does have a sparkling Laker bunch growing in resilience, and a Trail Blazer bunch rather amazing in resilience, given the fact it’s only newly-formed.

You wonder where this goofball is headed next, now that Trail Blazer Coach Mike Dunleavy has had to answer a question about eeriness with, “I’m not into the supernatural.”

This thing is so skittish it’s hard to keep up with just who is complaining about the officiating. They seem to take turns. Sometime mid-to-late week, somebody should decline the home-court advantage, offer to play in a gym in Eureka. Maybe the Trail Blazer organization could rescind all tickets and sell them to Lakers fans, trying to exact advantage. Maybe the Trail Blazer fans could hold up anti-Blazers signs, just trying to give their team that old Staples Center feel.

IN QUOTES

“He was a presence who shouldn’t have been there.”

PHIL JACKSON, commenting that Portland forward Scottie Pippen should have been suspended for an elbow in Game 4.

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“Phil is not my coach. I’m not listening to nothing you tell me about Phil. Have a good day.”

SCOTTIE PIPPEN, who was fined $10,000 for the incident.