BE LIKE THIS MIKE\DUNLEAVY HAS DONE WELL AS TRAIL BLAZERS COACH.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

Go ahead, just because you're a Lakers fan under stress and you have to blow off steam. Boo Mike Dunleavy, the Portland Trail Blazers' head coach. Jeer him, as the Staples Center customers did most of Saturday afternoon and all of Monday night.

Hate him for ordering the Hack-a-Shaq (breaking the NBA's unwritten First Commandment - thou shalt not put the pursuit of victory ahead of entertainment value).

Disdain him for presuming to compete with Phil Jackson in pre-series psych games (Jackson: The Blazers are the best team money can buy. Dunleavy: Are not. Jackson: The Blazers are the series favorites. Dunleavy: Are not).

Shun him for having presided over the post-Pat Riley demise of the Showtime Lakers (as if it's his fault Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson retired) and then leaving them to Randy Pfund.

As long as you feel a little sorry for him, too.

Think about what Dunleavy is up against, and how little credit he gets for it.

Here's a mental image to take with you into Game 3 of the Western Conference finals tonight at the Rose Garden in Portland.

Dunleavy at the wheel of a van full of children in basketball togs, each as special as the next. Scottie, Bonzie and Brian. Damon, Steve and Arvydas. And Stacey, pleading, ``Tell Rasheed to stop staring at me.''

They are on their way to the gym, where Coach Mike will take on the thankless task of keeping all the kids happy, dividing up the playing time just right, wishing he could carve the ball into 12 pieces.

That's the way it is, day in and day out, for the coach of the deepest and most balanced NBA team in decades.

Dunleavy went to Portland in 1997 when the Blazers had many of today's players plus Isaiah Rider, who was a dozen clashing personalities all by himself. For adding .139 to the team's winning percentage in 1998-99, while keeping the passengers from breaking out the van windows, he was named NBA Coach of the Year.

The challenge got a little easier when the enigmatic Rider was traded before this season. But not by much.

By the time the season started, the Blazers had added Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith and Detlef Schrempf, boosting owner Paul Allen's player payroll to the league high. Dunleavy's 12-man playoff roster includes 10 who have been fulltime NBA starters. It's an ideal coaching situation or a nightmare waiting to unfold.

Dunleavy wound up improving the Blazers' win percentage again this year, coaching them to a 59-win season, their best since Rick Adelman won 63 in 1990-91, and now they're three victories from their first NBA Finals appearance since 1990.

``You've got to sell a lot of people on giving up something (and) playing together to win,'' Dunleavy said of his challenge. ``Most of us are mostly selfish. We're looking for self-gratification.''

He made the sale. Only one Blazer veteran scored better than his career average - Rasheed Wallace, who put up a new career high, 16.4 points a game. Portland didn't put a scorer in the top 40.

When Dunleavy won his Coach of the Year award, he said it ``embarrassed'' him because he'd ``talked about our team being a team . . . I just hope our players understand that this is really a team award.''

Unfortunately, the voters must have listened. Last month, Dunleavy received not a single vote for the 1999-2000 Coach of the Year award that went to Orlando's Doc Rivers.

Credit is hard-earned in this line of work unless you're an old star player, you're coaching in Los Angeles, New York or Chicago, or you win a championship. Dunleavy was never a star in his NBA career, which covered parts of 11 seasons. He coached in Los Angeles for only two seasons before skipping off to the Milwaukee Bucks for more money, a longer contract and a better place to raise kids. And this is his best shot at a title since he was a rookie coach taking the Lakers to the 1990-91 NBA Finals only to lose 4-1 to Jackson's Chicago Bulls.

Those Lakers - with Vlade Divac at center, replacing Abdul-Jabbar - beat the Bulls in Game 1 in Chicago. Then James Worthy got hurt.

``Their goal during that series was to wear Magic down, try to put different defenders on him. One guy gets tired, you rotate in another guy,'' Dunleavy remembered. ``They pressed him, they picked us up fullcourt a lot. Back then, our press-breaker was James Worthy, and when James was injured that put us in a tough situation.''

The 36-year-old Dunleavy's low-key good nature had made him an ideal successor - if not antidote - to Riley. A fashion writer compared the two men's wardrobes and noted Dunleavy's ``penchant for navy suits.'' Nobody bothered to compare their hair.

What happened next was out of Dunleavy's hands. Johnson made his shocking retirement announcement. The Lakers were down to Worthy and a bunch of guys. They went 43-39 and finished sixth in the Pacific Division in 1991-92.

Dunleavy had two years left on his Lakers contract and the team offered a two-year extension. But Bucks owner Herb Kohl needed a coach and offered eight years and $8 million.

Years later, Dunleavy would tell a Portland business publication that leaving Los Angeles had been his ``worst business decision'' despite its benefits for his family. He didn't break .500 again until he went to the Blazers.

Now he's working on the highest winning percentage (.654) by a Blazers coach, and he might be on his way to the NBA Finals for the first time in nine years. Other than Jackson, the Lakers and those 12 kids behind him in the van, he doesn't have too much to overcome.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Former Lakers head coach Mike Dunleavy (remember that?) deserves more credit than he receives for his work in Portland.

(2) Mike Dunleavy could finish with the highest win percentage among Portland coaches.

David Crane/Staff Photographer