Portland's shot goes up and Jerome Kersey prepares to do what he does best - crash the boards. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he sees No. 33 in red, standing on the wing.
Kersey's dilemma: Go for the rebound and risk letting Scottie Pippen run free if the Chicago Bulls come up with the ball? Or suppress his natural instincts and get back on defense?In the split second it takes Kersey to make that decision, it's too late. The shot is off, Pippen is taking the outlet pass and the Bulls have the offensive advantage against Kersey's Trail Blazers.
"You have to take a look where Pippen is on the court," Kersey said Tuesday. "If you don't get the rebound and they get it to him, it creates a lot of things for their other players."
The Michael Jordan-Clyde Drexler matchup has gotten the ink, but the Pippen-Kersey matchup has been at least as important in the NBA Finals.
Pippen is winning and so are the Bulls, who lead the best-of-7 series 2-1 going into tonight's game.
"I wouldn't say that Pippen is dominating Kersey," Jordan said. "But I would say he's outplaying him."
Though they're both 6-foot-7 small forwards, Pippen and Kersey play very differently.
Pippen handles the ball more for Chicago than either Jordan or point guard John Paxson does and
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leads the team in assists. Kersey is the second-leading offensive rebounder in Portland history and a better all-around board man than 7-foot center Kevin Duckworth.
In the Finals, Pippen is averaging 19 points on 45 percent shooting, with 6.7 assists and 8.8 rebounds per game. Kersey's norms are 10 points on 41 percent shooting, 2.7 assists and 9.0 rebounds.
"It's a hard comparison to make because he's going to get a lot more opportunities with the ball than I am," Kersey said. "I'm not the go-to guy on this team. I'm the fourth or fifth option in our half-court offense."
Offensively, Kersey is at his best when the Trail Blazers are running. He fills passing lanes as well as any NBA forward.
But Kersey, who averaged 18.6 points in the previous playoff rounds against Utah and Phoenix, has been victimized by the Trail Blazers' failure to quicken the pace against the Bulls.
"I've been able to do what I want against him, make him catch the ball in uncomfortable positions and make him try to drive," Pippen said. "He's one of the guys who can really spark his team if he gets running. I'm trying not to let him run free."
Said Kersey: "If I could just get into the open court early, maybe get to the offensive boards, it would help me a lot. If we have good ball movement, it makes it easier for me to lose my man and get to the offensive boards. If we're standing around, like we were in Game 3, I'm at a disadvantage."
Defensively, "it's difficult for Jerome," teammate Terry Porter said.
"Jerome's not used to guarding the man with the ball," Porter said. "Pippen presents problems that Jerome doesn't usually have to deal with."
Kersey's matchup problem with Pippen is a microcosm of Portland's matchup problems with the Bulls. Except for a brief stretch in Game 2, Chicago has dominated the series by winning almost every individual contest.
Jordan is far more comfortable and accomplished in the half-court game than Drexler is. The Bulls' Horace Grant has battled Buck Williams evenly on the boards. Bill Cartwright and the rest of Chicago's aggressive defense has kept Duckworth from establishing an inside game.
The biggest surprises have been the way Chicago's bench has outplayed Portland's supposedly superior reserve corps and, mostly, the way Paxson has held his own against Porter.
Porter averaged 23.5 points in the first three rounds but is at 14.7 against Chicago. He had only seven points on 3 for 7 shooting in Portland's 94-84 loss in Game 3.
"One-on-one, Terry Porter will beat me nine times out of 10," Paxson said. "But it's not a one-on-one game. We're all getting back on defense."
Portland coach Rick Adelman said Porter must break loose - or the Blazers will keep losing.
"We need Terry to be one of our shooters," Adelman said. "We cannot have Terry taking seven shots and beat the Chicago Bulls."