The Portland Trail Blazers spent most of the game chasing Chicago.
When they finally caught up, not even Michael Jordan could reverse the tide and keep the Bulls in control of the NBA Finals.Jerome Kersey broke out of a slump and joined Clyde Drexler with 21 points Wednesday night as the Blazers beat Chicago 93-88 to even the best-of-seven championship series 2-2.
Kersey, whose flagrant foul against Scott Williams in the fourth quarter could have been costly, shot 40.6 percent from the field in the first three games before coming through with 8-for-12 shooting in Game 4. He scored 10 points in the pivotal fourth quarter. That was his average for the first three games.
"I came out trying to be more aggressive," Kersey said. "I think the flagrant foul did get us fired up. I don't think it was a flagrant foul, but it did get us going."
Kersey attributed his improved shooting to extra jump shots after practice.
"I got my confidence back; I wasn't hesitating to shoot," he said.
Jordan scored 32 points but none in the final 10 minutes as he missed his last four shots. The Bulls were outscored 27-19 in the fourth quarter, committing five turnovers to none for Portland, and managed only three points after John Paxson's 3-pointer tied the score 85-85 with 2:35 left.
"They played solid defense on us down the stretch," Jordan said. "We played a good 42 minutes, but the last six minutes we didn't execute. We didn't do it as a team down the stretch."
"Clyde did a great job staying in front of Michael and bothering his shot," Portland coach Rick Adelman said.
The Trail Blazers, overcoming a combined 17-2 deficit in the opening minutes of each half, improved their playoff record to 9-1 at home this year. Wednesday night's victory also snapped a four-season, nine-game home losing streak in the Finals by the Western Conference champion.
The streak included four consecutive losses by the Trail Blazers at Portland, three against Detroit in the 1990 championship series and one against Chicago.
Previously, the Western Conference hadn't won a Finals home game since the Los Angeles Lakers captured Game 7 against Detroit in 1988.
"We had confidence that we could win here," said Drexler, whose layup over Jordan with 3:35 left after slapping the ball away from the Bulls' superstar gave Portland its first lead. "There's a sense of relief, but we're looking
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forward to Friday's game."
Adelman called Drexler's steal from Jordan "probably the key play of the game."
One more victory at Portland on Friday night would give the Trail Blazers a 3-2 lead in the series, which moves back to Chicago Stadium for Game 6 Sunday night.
But the task probably won't be easy for the Blazers, even at home. While the defending champion Bulls are 13-7 in this year's playoffs, they have yet to lose consecutive games and won both of their previous Game 5s.
The Bulls have lost all three of their Game 4s in the playoffs on the road.
"We had the game in hand and let it slip away," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. "We led the whole game but didn't execute down the stretch. And Portland did."
After Paxson's 3-pointer tied the score with 2:35 remaining, Jordan missed on two consecutive possessions, and the Blazers took control with two free throws each by Cliff Robinson, Terry Porter and Drexler in a span of 1:06, giving Portland a 91-85 lead with 1:16 remaining.
Robinson came off a poor performance in Game 3 to score 17 points and Porter had 14. Scottie Pippen finished with 17 for the Bulls, but he and Jordan had no other teammates in double figures.
The Blazers fell behind 10-0 in the first 3:08 of the game and spent the entire first half trying to catch up, twice pulling within one before Chicago took a 48-45 halftime edge.
Portland started the second half almost as poorly, missing nine of 10 shots and falling behind 55-47 in the first four minutes.
Again, the Blazers rallied, closing to 65-62 on Kersey's free throw with 2:25 left in the third quarter.
Drexler's only two points of the period made it 67-64 before Craig Hodges, making his first appearance of the series, hit from just inside the 3-point line. Robinson, coming off a 2-for-11 performance in Game 3, finished the third quarter with a layup, leaving Chicago with a 69-66 edge.
The margin was 77-74 with 7:43 remaining when Williams was fouled while shooting by Robinson and was hit again by Kersey, who was called for a flagrant foul. Williams made all three free throws for a six-point lead, but Jordan missed a 3-pointer that would have made it a 6-point possession.
Two baskets by Kersey helped close the Blazers to 82-81 before Drexler slapped the ball away from Jordan and took a return pass from Porter for a layup, giving Portland its first lead of the game with 3:35 left.
Jordan scored seven of the Bulls' first 10 points, including his first 3-pointer since making six in the series opener.
The Trail Blazers missed their first five shots and nine of their first 13 and turned the ball over six times in the first nine minutes.
Trailing 22-9, Portland energized the restless home crowd with a jumper by Robinson, his dunk after a steal and sprawling save of the ball by Danny Ainge, and Buck Williams' rebound basket.
Jordan's breakaway dunk with 11 seconds left, giving him 11 points in the quarter, put Chicago ahead 26-18 at the end of the period.
A 6-0 run early in the second quarter - a three-point play by Kevin Duckworth and a 3-point goal by Ainge - closed Portland to 30-26. The Trail Blazers then got within four points on five other occasions in the period before a free throw by Drexler made it 42-39 with 3:24 left in the half.
After a turnaround jumper by Bill Cartwright for the Bulls, a fast-break dunk by Kersey and a rebound basket by Drexler pulled Portland to 44-43. Two jumpers by Jordan around a layup by Drexler left Chicago with a 48-45 halftime edge.
The Trail Blazers, after shooting 34.8 percent in the first quarter, came back with 73.7 percent accuracy in the second period.