The state fair came to the Delta Center Friday evening. The only thing missing was a pie-eating contest and a pet-the-pig tent.
Here at Yahoo Central, the locals set off enough pregame fireworks to cause Scottie Pippen to stick his fingers in his ears. There was balloon waving, foot stomping and noise galore–and that was during the player introductions. There was even the “Let’s-get-ready-to-rrrrrrrrumble” guy, who earns something like $10,000 for one of his schmaltzy appearances.
They take their basketball seriously here, which explains why the Jazz entered the game with a 38-3 record at home, to say nothing of a 21-game winning streak and 8-0 playoff mark in the Delta confines. It was as if Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan had questioned their fanhood.
Even more psyched was Karl Malone, who was a mess at times during Games 1 and 2. Not Friday, he wasn’t.
Malone hit his first shot, missed his next two and then took control of a quarter that ended with a 31-22 Jazz lead. He was Michael Jordan, but with bigger biceps.
For the first time since Game 1, Utah actually sneaked ahead of the Bulls. So what if it was only a 4-3 advantage? It beat the alternative.
Malone was everywhere, doing everything and anything it took to prove that he wasn’t an MVP stiff. Still playing with a tender right hand, Malone quickly got Luc Longley to commit a pair of fouls. Out went Longley, in came a Malone resurgence.
Longley bothers Malone, Brian Williams doesn’t. Shortly after Longley was relegated to spectator status, Malone began imposing his will. He was a rebounding fool, leading everyone with six. He had 15 points, 11 of them coming after Longley was gone. He quit looking like a guy who had an apology on his lips.
The telling moment came with about 6 minutes remaining in the period. There was a missed Jordan jumper thath was rebounded by Malone. He shoveled the ball to John Stockton and then sprinted past Dennis Rodman, who reacted a second too late.
As Rodman, sporting his new yarn ball hairdo, tried to catch up, Malone took a perfect feed from Stockton and laid the ball in for an easy layup. Rodman looked embarrassed by the whole thing, which is how he should have felt.
Malone converted 7 of his 10 shots in the quarter. During one stretch, he scored nine consecutive Utah points. The Bulls couldn’t stop him. Truth is, the Bulls couldn’t do much of anything.
SECOND QUARTER: RENEWING SOME OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Is it a good sign when your star forward begins the second period with a scowl and a technical foul?
Bulls forward Scottie Pippen had both, thanks to his good buddy Hue Hollins. Hollins teed Pippen off because Pippen had the gall to question a no-call at the end of the first period. Never mind that Pippen could have filed an assault report against the Jazz’s Greg Ostertag on the hard hack.
Hollins and Pippen have history together. In fact, Pippen probably wishes Hollins was history. It was Hollins who called the touch foul during the infamous New Yorks Knicks series. And now, in his latest episode, it was Hollins who stuck it to Pippen again.
“That wasn’t a foul?” Pippen had said as he picked himself up from the ground.
“I didn’t see a foul,” said Hollins, clearly in need of a visit to Pearle Vision.
Pippen popped off and Hollins blew the whistle and made the magic T sign with his hands. That explains why Jeff Hornacek started the second period standing on the free throw line, hitting the first of many shots that would bury the Bulls.
Utah Coach Jerry Sloan had called the Jazz wusses after a loss in Game 2. Said they were intimidated. Said they gave in to the Bulls’ mystique. He laid it on thick.
Phil Jackson could say the same thing about the Bulls after the second quarter. Or better yet, just replay Sloan’s Game 2 postgame comments and insert the Bulls’ names whenever a criticism comes up.
Jordan did what he could to keep it close, but he couldn’t compensate for Rodman’s disappearance. Rodman played 10 of the period’s 12 minutes and set the game of basketball, to say nothing of hair fashion, back years. What a line: zero points, one rebound and one assist. Yikes.
Steve Kerr hit a couple of shots and so did Pippen. But it wasn’t enough, not with Jazz sub (and former Bulls cut-ee) Greg Foster kicking some serious butt. Foster missed just one of five shots and finished with 11 points and four rebounds in the quarter.
In most cases, that’s a trip’s worth of points for Foster.
Malone kept the heat on too. He added seven more points to his total, while Stockton chipped in five assists. The Jazz surged ahead, taking a 61-45 lead to the locker room.
The Bulls left with hanging heads and perplexed looks.
THIRD QUARTER: BULLS FLOORED AS JAZZ PUTS PEDAL TO METAL
Jet engines and Urkel make less noise than Jazz fans when Utah makes a move. So imagine what it was like as the Jazz gunned the motor and reached 75 on the scoreboard speedometer–Utah 75, Bulls 51, with 6:46 left in the third period.
The Bulls, even with their regulars in, looked like they had just been told Hue Hollins was the new team mascot. Nothing was going right. Pippen was missing. Pippen was throwing bad passes. Pippen was fouling.
Meanwhile, Ostertag actually resembled an NBA center. Bryan Russell, who did a nice job guarding Jordan, canned a three-pointer to die for. Later, he took a pass from Malone, shuffled his feet on the fastbreak (no call) and then did a reverse slam.
That bumped the Jazz lead to 24 points and the Bulls’ self-esteem to negative integers. It stayed that way as late as 4:40 remaining in the quarter.
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Sloan kept pushing his team, kept challenging them. The wussy factor was non-existent as the Jazz rendered Rodman useless, if not invisible. Imagine that–Rodman invisible. The next thing you’ll say is that Utah can win three in a row here.
“Don’t look at the scoreboard,” Sloan told the Jazz during a timeout.
This wasn’t a matter of the Jazz making everything they tossed toward the rim. Utah only converted 7 of 23 shots, while the Bulls made 6 of 13. The Jazz had fewer rebounds, fewer free throws, but also fewer turnovers, committing zero mistakes to the Bulls’ five, which resulted in 6 Utah points.
Lots of numbers, but they meant something in this period.
And how do you explain Jordan’s absence in the quarter? He was there, but you would never have known it. Ten minutes of Jordan translated into one field goal attempt and two free throws. That isn’t exactly what Jackson had in mind.
The Bulls made a slight push at the end, though it didn’t seem as if it would matter. What was once a 24-point lead was whittled to 17 as the period came to a close. Still a slight pulse.
Sloan couldn’t leave well enough alone. He pushed a little too hard on Antoine Carr, a proud veteran who played only 2 minutes during the quarter.
“Do something,” Sloan said. “Do anything.”
Carr did. He stormed toward the end of the bench and scowled. A little team unrest, perhaps? An indication of just how tense the Jazz really was?
Yep.
FOURTH QUARTER: DESPARATE TIMES, DESPARATE MEASURES
This is how desperate the Bulls were at game’s end.
Down 101-93 with 21.3 second left to play, John Stockton converted the second of two free throws. The game was finished, no matter how many seconds remained on the clock. Utah had won fair and square.
But there was Bulls Coach Phil Jackson bolting off the bench, pleading with referee Hue Hollins to call some sort of infraction on Karl Malone. Malone’s so-called mistake: not being in the proper place during Stockton’s free throw.
Maybe it was worth a try, but there was no way Hollins was going to blow a whistle for that. That would have been the same as calling Michael Jordan in the same quarter for one of the most amazing carries ever seen during a crossover dribble. You just don’t do it.
But Jackson begged. And so did Scottie Pippen, who wasn’t about to get any sympathy from Hollins, not after the technical earlier in the game.
Chicago didn’t deserve to win Game 3. They barely deserved to be in the game.
Down by 17 points to start the final quarter, the Bulls took their trusty chisel out and began hammering at the Jazz lead. They had the Jazz nervous, but not flustered.
“I think you always get in that situation, you get a little conservative,” Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan. “You play not to lose.”
The Bulls played not to win during most of the game. Only in the fourth period did they come to life, though too late for it to really matter.
Pippen made all sorts of three-pointers, bad foot and all. He had no fear and the Bulls fed off it.
The 17-point lead shrunk like cotton in hot water. From 17 to 15, from 15 to 13, from 13 to 11 and at one point, from 10 to 7, thanks to another Pippen three-pointer with 2:52 remaining to play–plenty of time for another Bulls comeback.
But this was the old and improved Jazz. They played with heart that the Bulls lacked for most of the game. Malone wouldn’t be denied this time. He finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, four steals and a renewed confidence.
All the Jazz did.
“We’re going to take one game at a time,” he said. “We’re going to forget about this game. We’re going to get ready for Sunday. The intensity level is going to be much higher.”
He has that much right.
Forget about this game, eh? The Bulls shouldn’t. They should remember every second of this mess.