NBA FINALS NOTES : It Was a Long Game, but Was It a Great One?

CHICAGO — They dragged tired and aching bodies back to a practice that came too quickly, confirmation they had played three overtimes and 3 hours 20 minutes in all the night before.

Monday at the NBA finals was for rest, rehabilitation and rehashing. The Suns’ Charles Barkley with his elbow. The Bulls’ Michael Jordan with his leaden legs. Both teams contemplating the historic worth of Phoenix’s 129-121 victory.

A classic? Maybe not, unless length equals greatness. It was great theater, with two of the top players, Barkley and Jordan, playing to one of the noisiest crowds in the league and, in the East, a prime-time television audience.

And it was triple overtime in the NBA finals.

But it was also a game in which the critical moments were determined by missed shots, turnovers and mental mistakes. No last-second heroics on offense or defense for the victory or even a memorable play, good or bad, that made for a crescendo. The closest was the 18-footer by Sun Dan Majerle with 3.2 seconds left to force a third overtime, concluding a period in which Phoenix went three for nine.

Monday, John Bach, the Bulls’ assistant who has been coaching on the professional and collegiate level for 42 years, was asked if it was a great game or merely a long one.

“I think it was a long game and an arduous game and, for us, a very disappointing game,” he said. “But I think we can play better, and I think Phoenix might say the same thing.”

Sun guard Danny Ainge, even in the euphoria of the winning locker room, did not join several others, including Barkley, in saying it was the greatest game he had played in. Ainge had no problem ticking three off he said were better: Game 2 of the 1984 finals when his Celtics beat the Lakers with the help of Gerald Henderson’s steal near the end of regulation; Game 4 in the ’85 championship series against the Lakers when a 20-footer at the buzzer by Dennis Johnson gave Boston another victory and Bill Walton’s late tip-in in Game 4 in ’86 to clinch a Celtic victory against Houston.

Sunday’s victory at Chicago Stadium, which got the Suns within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series that continues here Wednesday night, had other memorable aspects:

--Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the Bulls’ two all-stars, were nine for 37 from the field through the fourth quarter and three overtime periods.

--Kevin Johnson, in the midst of setting a finals record by playing 62 minutes, stole the ball from Jordan with 14 seconds left in regulation in a tied game, but erred by calling time out before noticing Majerle streaking alone for what could have been a breakaway layup and the possible victory.

--Stacey King getting a defensive rebound with the Bulls down by three points in the third overtime, but seeing his short pass intercepted by Barkley for a lay-in with 1:42 to play.

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Barkley, who had fluid drained from his badly bruised right elbow about 30 minutes before tipoff of Game 3, is trying to rest the joint on the off days, skipping all shooting drills at practice Monday and planning to do the same today.

The injury limits the range of his shooting arm and makes full extension on jump shots difficult, if not impossible.

He went nine for 20 Sunday with 24 points and had 19 rebounds in 53 minutes, but trainer Joe Proski said the elbow was in such bad shape that Barkley would not have played if it was the regular season.