NBA PLAYOFFS;Game 4 Whistles Haunting Van Gundy

With his team on the brink of elimination, Jeff Van Gundy did not expound on the dire straits facing the Knicks at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday night. He was not half as worried about his team's showing up for Game 5 as he was about what happened at the end of Game 4.

Van Gundy sounded convinced today that all those seeds Bulls Coach Phil Jackson has been planting in the minds of the officiating crews working the Eastern Conference semifinal series finally came to fruition in the Bulls' 94-91 victory at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

In particular, he was upset about five instances in the final 2 minutes 16 seconds in which he believed Chicago got the benefit of the officials' judgment. While again praising the Bulls for their determination, Van Gundy made it clear that he thought his team had been sorely wronged by the officiating.

Maybe not as wronged as Chicago felt when Hue Hollins called Scottie Pippen for a late foul after the final buzzer that allowed the Knicks to escape with a victory during the 1994 Eastern Conference finals. But wronged, nonetheless.

Game 5 is at 8 P.M. Tuesday in Chicago, where the Bulls can win the four-of-seven-game series, 4-1. And the Knicks, well, they are hoping for a traveling call in the final minutes against Michael Jordan, much like the one that was called against Patrick Ewing with 50.8 seconds left and New York ahead by 91-90 on Sunday.

"I would just say this, that in Chicago tomorrow, when they're up 1 and Michael Jordan is posting up Hubert Davis, I'm sure we'll get the same call," Van Gundy said facetiously outside his office at SUNY-Purchase before the Knicks left for Chicago.