NBA playoffs: Testy Jordan leads Chicago past overmatched Heat, 100-87, and into championship series.

CHICAGO —  Good news for Chicago Bulls fans: Tuesday’s off-day was cloudy and cool with a stiff breeze driving the wind chill into the 50s . . . and Michael Jordan off the golf course after only 36 holes, 10 fewer than he warmed up for Game 4 with.

Also, Jordan was angry, declaring the Eastern Conference finals had become “personal,” refusing to shake Alonzo Mourning’s hand before the game.

The Miami Heat? It was already on borrowed time and Wednesday night, it went, falling, 100-87, in the overdue finale of the Eastern finals.

The Bulls won this droning mismatch, 4-1, and now await the Utah-Houston winner. The Bulls will be favored against either, although not by as much as they were in this series.

“They should win it,” Miami Coach Pat Riley said. “They’re the best team in the league. . . . I’m sure as they get closer, their game’s gonna get better. Their intensity’s gonna be more consistent.

“Maybe there might even be 46 holes of golf somewhere along the way, you never know,” he added, grinning.

Jordan scored 28 points with six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals, a memorable game for anyone else but not for him. He scored 15 of his points in the first quarter when he made six of 10 shots; after that he went 5 for 21.

Said Coach Phil Jackson, doing his golf joke of the night: “I told [Jordan] to make sure he shoots better in golf than he has shot from the field [20 for 66] the last two games.”

There’s nothing like an 11-2 playoff run to get people’s minds off the franchise player’s struggles. Wednesday’s fade was the more remarkable since Jordan went out of his way to challenge the Heat and himself.

Jordan is nothing if not creative in turning minor slights into insults that must be answered. Now, this veteran of horrific series against Detroit’s Bad Boys and Riley’s fearsome New York Knicks, in the days before the NBA cleaned up play, decided the Heat was just as menacing.

“When my teammate got a knot on his head, I got a knot on my head,” Jordan said after practice Tuesday but before hitting the links, a reference to Mourning hitting Scottie Pippen.

“When Dennis got punched out,” said Jordan, referring to the wrestling match between Dennis Rodman and Mourning, “we got punched out.”

The league fined Mourning and Rodman $5,000 each and Jordan set about assessing his own penalty, starting when the captains met with the referees before the game. Mourning extended his hand. Jordan ignored it.

The game started furiously, as Jordan planned. The Bulls shut down the Heat offense completely for the first five minutes, in which Miami went 1 for 12 from the floor, turned the ball over twice and had four shots blocked. By then, the Bulls were leading, 16-2.

Everything else was garbage time. Pippen left in the first quarter because of a sprained ankle and after that, all that sagged was the Bulls’ offense and the Bulls’ defense. Proving it was really in over its head, the Heat still couldn’t get within 10 points the whole second half.

“It’s tough for us,” Riley said, “obviously a team that had a lot of hopes and dreams. Then you run into the Chicago Bulls and reality hits, even if you don’t want it to.

“We’re going to try to celebrate, as much as we can, what we’ve done this year in our little corner of the world. . . .

“You know, when we were in L.A., and I know this for a fact, this is one of the dilemmas of a lot of good teams, the Knicks, for instance--sometimes you can build a team and that great team that could be a championship team. You never win a championship because you have the misfortune of being born the same time Jordan was.

“That’s what we had. We had Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and Magic [Johnson] and [James] Worthy and there were some good teams in the Western Conference , Phoenix and Seattle, there were teams that really could have won, had it not been for that team.

“I think the same thing with the Boston Celtics. It’s just unfortunate that some teams that are good right now have to be good while this team is great. . . .

“How do I feel about it? I don’t think anybody’s gonna win again until Michael retires.”

Said Jordan, on hearing Riley’s compliment: “I plan on being around for a little while, I hope.”

Good news for Bulls fans, bad news for Riley, et al.