Jazz Age Not Over Just Yet

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s only after the Utah Jazz players look least like champions that they start to play more like champions.

The Jazz offense was spotty and unreliable while Utah fell behind the Portland Trail Blazers, three games to one, in the best-of-seven series. It came back in full force during Game 5 Tuesday night at the Delta Center, enabling the Jazz to take an 88-71 victory.

Utah is 3-0 when facing elimination this postseason, following two do-or-die games against the Sacramento Kings in the first round. “It’s crazy,” Utah guard Shandon Anderson said. “I think it’s just the pride thing kicks in. It’s just the realization that if we lose the next game, we’re going home. That’s what also kicks in. No one wants to end the season right now, so everybody comes out focused and ready to play.”

Game 6 is Thursday night in Portland.

“The only thing I know is we’ve still got one more meal ticket and that’s about it,” Utah Coach Jerry Sloan said.

Portland’s defense held Utah to 41% shooting in the first four games, masking some poor offensive stretches by the Trail Blazers themselves.

Tuesday the Jazz got back to business. That meant harder screens, crisper passes, more aggressive cuts to the basket.

When the offense runs this smoothly, it’s as if point guard John Stockton knows exactly where everyone should be. At times he didn’t even appear to be looking when he found Bryon Russell in the corner for a three-pointer or flipped a pass to a cutting Anderson. Stockton controlled the game with 14 assists.

Karl Malone took a tougher approach, looking to post up and going hard to the basket.

“If I’m passive, I think [my teammates] are,” Malone said. “I tried to be aggressive right off the bat.

It resulted in 11 points in the first quarter. He finished with 23. Russell got untracked, went to the hoop himself, and scored 22 points. Jeff Hornacek added 14.

After conspiring with Portland to produce the lowest-scoring half in the playoff record books in Game 2, the Jazz spent much of this game chasing the NBA playoff record of 67% field goal shooting. The Jazz shot 63% in the first half, but cooled off in the second to finish at 50%.

Center Greg Ostertag didn’t help the shooting percentages with his one-for-six night, but he did outscore Portland counterpart Arvydas Sabonis, 4-2, and he played hard enough (with nine rebounds and three blocked shots) to persuade Sloan to leave him in for 38 minutes. It was indicative of Utah’s all-around effort.

“We had a little bit more energy to start off tonight than what we’ve had,” Sloan said. “We executed a little better because we put more energy into trying to make something happen.”

“We were too soft defensively,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We let them run their stuff too easily.”

Not only did the Jazz regain some offensive flow Tuesday, emotions entered the series--always a dangerous ingredient with the Trail Blazers.

Malone caught Brian Grant above the right eye with an elbow while going for a rebound in the first quarter, opening a cut on Grant that required six stitches.

In the second half, Grant was called for a violation for swinging his elbows after a rebound, and later was assessed a technical foul by Ron Garretson for pretending to throw the ball at Malone as Malone trudged upcourt after a Grant rebound.

“That set me off a little bit too,” Dunleavy said.

No kidding. Dunleavy charged onto the court, yelling at Garretson, then yelling at Portland point guard Greg Anthony, who tried to restrain him. Dunleavy was kicked out of the game. Meanwhile, Grant and Malone stood face-to-face near halfcourt, exchanging words. There was already bad blood between them stemming from the elbow to the face Malone gave Grant in Game 1. (The NBA fined Malone $10,000 for the incident.)

It’s hard to finish off a team if you don’t start off well, and the Trail Blazers didn’t in any of the four quarters.

The Trail Blazers scored only four points in the first 4:52 of the game, allowing Utah to get off to a 10-point lead. Rasheed Wallace scored the Trail Blazers’ first six points, eight of their first 10 and 13 of their first 25. He had 15 at halftime, but Portland found him for only three shots in the second half and he didn’t score again.

Wallace had the only basket for Portland in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter. But the Trail Blazers stuck with the Jazz and trailed by only seven at halftime. Damon Stoudamire scored the first two points of the third quarter, then Portland didn’t score again for more than 3 1/2 minutes, and the Jazz rolled off 13 consecutive points to go ahead by 18.

A Portland victory was in the realm of possibility at the start of the fourth when Utah led by only 11. Then the Trail Blazers broke out another clunker of a fourth quarter, failing to make a field goal until 2:38 remained. The Blazers shot two for 13 in the quarter and scored 13 points.