NBA PLAYOFFS : Pistons Deflate Bulls, 86-80 : Detroit Limits Jordan to 23, Evens Series at 2-2

CHICAGO — This was a day when basketball fans from both the winning and losing sides must have felt like chanting: “Can’t Beat L.A.! Can’t Beat L.A.!”

The Detroit Pistons were held to 86 points, made a miserable 36% of their shots, messed up 15 free throws, got just three field goals from their starting front line--and still defeated the Chicago Bulls, 86-80, Monday afternoon at Chicago Stadium, to tie the National Basketball Assn.’s Eastern Conference finals at 2-2.

Best thing Detroit had going for it was its bench, which outscored Chicago’s, 36-2. Dennis Rodman was particularly mean and hungry, ripping down 18 rebounds and taking turns hounding Michael Jordan, who, during the last three periods, managed only two baskets. Jordan scored 23 points, half of what he got in Saturday’s Game 3.

With the Lakers obliged to wait until June 6 to begin rumbling with one of these teams for the NBA championship, it might be wise for them not to study these latest game films.

It was an ugly but not totally uninteresting little game, made uglier by a pint-sized rum bottle, flung from the stands, that smashed onto the court early in the fourth quarter, scaring the wits out of several players.

Chicago’s 90th consecutive sellout crowd of 18,676 came hoping for more of Michael Python’s Flying Circus, but instead saw Jordan and the Bulls yield their home-court advantage. Game 5 will be played Wednesday night at Auburn Hills, Mich., where the Pistons have won 26 of their last 27 games.

Mostly out of desperation, due in great part to Detroit’s slam-dance defense, the Bulls fired up a club-record 20 three-point shots, missing 14 of them. They made only 27 baskets from any distance, a new low for the franchise in postseason play.

As for the Pistons, they didn’t make any more baskets than the Bulls did. That’s how feeble both of these offenses were.

Detroit’s domination was on the boards, 56-40, and at the free-throw line, where it had 19 more chances than Chicago did. For most of the second half, Coach Chuck Daly completely abandoned his starting center and forwards, playing James Edwards, John Salley and Rodman--”Buddha,” “the Spider” and “the Worm,” as known to their friends--instead.

Bill Laimbeer scored two points, giving him six in the last two games. Mark Aguirre spent only 15 minutes on the court, donating six points. Rick Mahorn played a minute less, pointlessly. Detroit’s Front Line II was far more productive, and Daly intends to use this unit more and more.

Laimbeer injured his left hand slightly, another reason he played only nine minutes of the second half. The Pistons hardly missed him, though, what with Edwards scoring 13 points, and Laimbeer returned for the game’s final 82 seconds, in time to block a Horace Grant shot and snuff Chicago’s last hope.

Isiah Thomas also was a factor for Detroit, as he has been--one way or another--throughout this series. Thomas had 27 points Monday to top all scorers. In Detroit’s two victories, he has scored 60 points. In the two losses, he scored 14.

“That’s the easy way out, to make that the reason we win or lose,” Thomas said. “The key to our winning is our defense, not my scoring. Our team goes beyond my leading them every night.”

Any team that can afford not to start Rodman is no one-man team. Eight of Rodman’s 18 rebounds were on offense, and Chicago only had nine offensive boards as a team.

“Rodman was everywhere,” Chicago guard John Paxson said.

Detroit needed him to be. At halftime, Thomas and guard partner Joe Dumars had all but two of Detroit’s baskets. Nobody on the starting front line had a hoop. The Pistons made only a dozen field goals in 24 minutes, and the only reason they broke the 40-point barrier was that Thomas hit a three-pointer at the horn.

It was a truly gruesome half of basketball. The Bulls made one-of-17 shots over one span, succeeding only on a Scottie Pippen breakaway dunk. The Pistons answered with an equally pitiful two-of-19 stretch, from the middle of the first period to midway through the second. After 18 minutes, Detroit had 28 points.

Chicago led early by as many as seven points, but the last edge it held in the game was at 56-55, late in the third period. It was then that Edwards got hot, twice sinking turnaround jumpers in the lane, with Salley adding a dunk and Thomas two long jumpers. After three periods, the Pistons led, 64-60.

With 9 1/2 minutes to play, Pippen faked two Pistons out of their shoes, but not Rodman, who planted himself and took a charge, nullifying Pippen’s dunk. A presumably angry spectator hurled an empty pint of rum that landed near Detroit’s free-throw line, no less than 15 or 20 feet from the nearest player. No one was hurt.

“All of a sudden I saw some white thing flying toward us,” Rodman said. “Then it smashed. I said, ‘Omigod, I hope that’s not a bottle.’ And sure enough, it was.

“People are scary, man.”

Four more points by Edwards quickly put Detroit up by eight, and after a three-pointer by Chicago’s Craig Hodges, the Pistons got a corner shot by Vinnie Johnson and a layup by Rodman for their largest lead to that time, 76-67.

The Bulls never threatened thereafter. Jordan did get a dunk--only his second in three games--but Laimbeer’s rejection of Grant with 32 seconds remaining cost Chicago a chance to cut Detroit’s advantage to four, and the Pistons had the game they needed so desperately.

“The bottom line is, we’re alive,” Daly said. “That’s all we are is alive. We know the Bulls believe they can win another one in our building. But at least we’ve got our heads above water again.”

Rodman, too, was properly respectful.

“People don’t realize that Chicago is a great team,” Rodman said. “If you forget that, they’ll be all over you. Especially with Jordan. You’ve got to use two or three guys on him, just to keep him under control. Any time you hold Michael Jordan somewhere around 20 points, you’re doing a great job.”

Arguably the NBA’s top defensive player, Rodman does not draw Jordan on defense more of the time partly because he is not in Detroit’s starting lineup and partly because guard Joe Dumars, who does guard Jordan, does not match up with Bull forward Scottie Pippen. The Pistons threw Rodman, Dumars and even Vinnie Johnson at Jordan in Monday’s game, keeping fresh legs on him whenever possible.

“My own shots weren’t falling, so I tried to spread it around to the other guys,” Jordan said. “But, as a team, we couldn’t hit baskets when we needed them. And we didn’t get second shots. They were faster and more aggressive over every loose ball than we were.”

Said Bull Coach Doug Collins: “They make Michael work every time down the floor. But it’s their second team that really beat us. Rodman, Salley and Edwards and those guys. We just ran out of juice.”

Eastern Conference Notes

Even if this series ends by Friday in six games, the NBA championship series will not begin until June 6 at 6 p.m. (PDT). The Lakers either will visit Detroit or play host to Chicago in Games 1 and 2. . . . Bill Laimbeer’s hand injury is not serious, and he should be able to start Wednesday.