Pippen Is Mr. Everything for Revived Trail Blazers

Scottie Pippen always did fare better when the spotlight shined somewhere else.

So while everyone prepared to honor the Lakers and prepare for their coronation as Western Conference champions, Pippen crept in once again and took this series back to Portland.

The story of the Trail Blazers’ 96-88 victory in Game 5 begins with Pippen’s statistical line: Twenty-two points, six rebounds, six steals and three assists.

Pippen even borrowed a page from Shaquille O’Neal and declared a new name for himself upon hearing he blocked four shots: “Manute Bol.�

The player Phil Jackson called Portland’s “lead jackal� looked more like the alpha male of the wolf pack Tuesday night.

Pippen set the tone for Portland’s aggressive drives to the basket that ultimately resulted in more trips to the free-throw line than the Lakers. He chased down loose balls from corner to corner. He played up-in-your-grill defense. He played despite two dislocated fingers on his left hand.

And he even took his attitude into the postgame interview room. Instead of his usual stylish suit, he wore sweats and a pair of sunglasses.

He said things like: “We feel like we’re going to outplay them. We’re going to outplay them every time we go on the court.�

And he tried to gain the upper hand in his ongoing battle with Jackson, his old coach in Chicago.

Jackson started it before the series by saying Pippen needed to be Portland’s leader in order for the Trail Blazers to advance. He continued it by teasing Pippen that he couldn’t guard every Laker on the court when Pippen sure seemed like that was his intention.

On Tuesday, Jackson said Pippen should have received a suspension in addition to a fine for elbowing John Salley in the final minute of Game 4. Jackson told it to Pippen after the buzzer sounded on Game 5.

Pippen’s response: “And . . . ?�

I’ll worry about my team, and you need to worry about yours is the attitude Pippen harbors.

When the brief postgame exchange was brought up, Pippen said: “Phil is not my coach. I’m not listening to Phil. I’m not listening to nothing you tell me about Phil.�

Where Pippen once suffered an infamous migraine headache, this game he was more like a time-release Tylenol capsule. The full effect of some of his plays didn’t kick in until much later.

Kobe Bryant was driving to the hoop with 16 seconds left in the first half when Pippen knocked the ball loose. At the other end of the court, Pippen made a three-pointer from the right corner just before time expired--a five-point swing that was crucial in the third period.

That extra cushion meant that every time the Lakers made a push they still faced a four- or five-point deficit instead of a tie score.

In the biggest moments it was still the little plays by Pippen that made the difference.

With just over two minutes left to play, O’Neal got the ball inside. Pippen appeared from nowhere to foul him on the arm, and O’Neal missed the layup. He also missed both free throws. So the best the Lakers could do when they made a quick six-point run later was come within seven points instead of five.

A play earlier in the fourth quarter demonstrated how much Pippen had control of this game. After Ron Harper stole a pass and took off toward the other end of the court, Pippen tracked him down while waving off Steve Smith like a center fielder calling a pop fly.

Let me handle this, Pippen was saying, and then he calmly reached in and knocked the ball out of Harper’s hands and out of bounds. No layup, not even a foul, and the Lakers wound up with a missed jump shot by Bryant.

Pippen was the main reason Bryant, Harper and Brian Shaw got into early foul trouble, messing with Jackson’s rotation.

It was a nice turn of events for Pippen. He scored 12 points in Game 3, and after spending the off day saying he needed to be more aggressive played even worse in Game 4, with 11 points on four-for-12 shooting, with five turnovers and only two assists.

“Today I didn’t get in foul trouble,� he said. ‘It allowed me to be able to push the ball in transition and stay aggressive.�

He had the Trail Blazers believing in themselves, where previous editions of this team might have collapsed.

“He’s our veteran player, he’s our leader and we just tried to follow suit behind him,� backup guard Bonzi Wells said. “He’s been there. We just try to follow his lead. He just said we’ve got to play hard, we’ve got to be intense out there. We’re the only people that are rooting for each other in this gym.

“We’ve got to stay together, and if we stay together, good things will happen.�

People will always question Pippen’s fortitude until he takes a team all the way to a championship by himself.

And it’s natural to wonder how much more abuse his body can take. He was breaking down by the end of the 1998 NBA finals and all of those runs deep into June with the Chicago Bulls will have to catch up with him at some point.

He has played in 196 playoff games, an extra two seasons-and-a-half over the course of his 13 NBA years. He played through two summers with the Olympic basketball teams in 1992 and 1996.

Yet there he was Tuesday night, the most energetic player on the court, the biggest talker off it, the main reason anyone’s still thinking about the Trail Blazers at all.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].