Show Scoreboard Business Sports Editor 625-426- www 1 standard net Comics Standard Examiner Fnday Apnl - Lakers’ season begins Turnover troubles woes follow Jazz to Sacramento? Will INSIDE: Starks left off playoff roster 4C By TOM McEACHIN staff Standard-Examin- WEST VALLEY CITY - For the Jazz to have any chance in their first-roun- d playoff series with the Sacramento Kings they need to find a way to turn off the turnovers This year was their worst at throwseaing the ball away since the 1989-9son and their average of 165 turnovers in the NBA per game was second-wors- t “We need to take care of the ball” Jazz point guard John Stockton said “(The Kings) are very good especially in the open court and if we take care of the ball we’ll have a chance” Turnovers have been especially crucial against the Kings this season The Jazz averaged 192 in their four games which they lost by margins of 33 24 26 and eight points 0 Utah gymnasts soar into NCAA finals The Associated Press After three blowout losses the Jazz fell behind by 22 points early in the final meeting yet rallied to make a game of it “The time we got into our half-cou(offense) didn’t turn the ball over and took good shots we were right there” said Malone who missed that game with a knee injury sum up the NBA with a question: Can anybody beat the Lakers? Wait a minute here’s a better question: Can anybody in the West beat ’em once? Lest we all forget nobody beat them last year until Game 1 of the finals Montreal steals home-ic- e advantage from Boston 3C American League Minnesota 4 Kansas City Tampa Bay 6 Detroit 4 Oakland 4 Anaheim 2 into playoffs By CHRIS SHERIDAN Let’s Examiner Jazz forward Malone has the ball knocked away during Wednesday’s loss to the Spurs Utah Karl See JAZZ4C See PLAYOFFS4C Dm 2002 Starzz Grizzlies’ loss evens AHL playoff series Hlede Utah sends By JIM BURTON guard to NY for draft pick Standard-Examine- The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Starzz acquired anothWNBA draft er first-roun- d round Now they might not be so sure One game away from winning choice Thursday trading guard Korie Hlede to the New York Liberty for 14th the their first ever playoff series at the E Center the Grizzlies came out Thursday night and played with a bad case of tentative-iti- s sloppily skating their way to a Xi overall se- 2-- lection loss Utah went The move should open additional Marie Ferdinand the player Utah took in last year’s draft It also moves Hlede a Croatian who played in college at Duquesne to her sharp-shootin- home “We feel like this is a situation” Starzz coach Candi Harvey said “They receive a veteran player and we feel like we will get a good player with the 14th pick a player we think we can develop” Hlede averaged 84 and 24 assists during three seasons in Utah She also played with the Detroit game-winnin- y g y Shock in 1999 The Starzz now hold the No 11 and No 14 picks in the first round of the WNBA draft which begins at 9:30 am MDT today at Secaucus NJ on ESPN2 power-pla- chances putting the Grizzlies at for the series They were for the game and outshot their only real highlight was the play of goalie Wade Flaherty who 41 stopped a team playoff-recorshots “(The Aeros) put pressure on us they outworked us” Utah coach Don Hay said “They really came and played a real solid game and we didn’t play as well as we It looked like- we were recan ally hesitant We weren’t sharp in moving the puck around” Houston’s Brendan Yarema scored the goal on a power-plachance late in the first period The Aeros added a late empty-ne- t goal from Mark Beaufait with 31 seconds left in the game shots Flaherty stopped while Houston’s Jamie McLennan turned away 24 Utah shots The Grizzlies still have a chance to advance but if they’re going to be successful they’ll need to do it on the road The series is now tied at See GRIZZUES3C d g off-seas- win-wi- n in 0 43-2- 4 playing time for Hlede staff r WEST VALLEY CITY - Just two days ago the Utah Grizzlies seemed confident they could wrap AHL playoff up their first-roun- d series with the Houston Aeros and quietly move on to the second Utah’s Flyan Jardine (left) and Jim Montgomery (right) collide with Houston’s David Cullen during Calder Cup playoff action Thursday night at the E Center in West Valley City best-of-fiv- e Jazz may need some wiggling widebodies to survive in West Utah Jazz have had a tough “What I’ll need from the guys is energy and personality” Sattler told up with the best The thekeeping West this season And now they may be falling behind on the sidelines too Two of Utah’s Western Conference rivals have big plans for their fans when the playoffs tip off this weekend Really big s As in pounds big In addition to what should be a pretty good ballgame between the Mavericks and Timberwolves on Sunday NBA fans in Dallas will witness the debut of the “Mavs dance squad ManiAACs” - an made up of the beefiest bunch of Texans Mavs owner Mark Cuban could corral (The team’s name is pronounced “maniacs” but it uses the odd spelling to include the Mavericks’ home court - American Airlines Center) “Imagine having the guys from the offensive line at SMU” Matt Fitzgerald the Mavericks’ senior vice 300-plu- all-ma- le president of marketing and communications told The Dallas Morning News “We’re looking for big guys who want to go out there and have fun” The Mavs solicited applicants at their website (dallasmaverickscom) throughout April encouraging “men ages 0 who are beefy likewant to dance and consider themselves Mavs fanatics” to fill out a registration form and send it in - along with a y photo of course The winning widebodies were then passed on to Shelia Sattler director of the Mavericks’ real dance squad to work on their wiggle 21-5- full-bod- Simon didn’t have to fill out any applications or take any lessons to the Dallas Morning News “They have slip into his NBA gig He was just to be so full of energy and personality having a good time at a Sonics game when a couple of team officials that they capture the crowd” That’s been the case in Seattle spotted him dancing in the stands and where the Sonics’ “Dancing Guy” has invited him down onto the court to gotten so big - figuratively - that fans shake it with Squatch - the team’s mascot now hit him up for postgame and consider the And he’s been boogieing ever players autographs him one of their own since “He’s part of the team man” “It’s been a lot of fun” said Simon center Jerome James told the Seattle who stands and weighs in at “He’s a better 300 pounds “I like to dance-anget dancer than I am It’s nice to see people going It’s one thing to be a fan and show your support It’s a whole somebody like him who’s always other thing when you’re getting happy” involved I feel like I have a duty to James was talking about Ben Simon a Sonics fan who’s cheer them on to victory" been living large and shaking his Do you have a strange sports substantial body to the delight of story ? Have you witnessed something Key Arena crow'ds throughout the funny at a sporting event? Do you season think Rick Majerus can rumba? “ Say “I laugh every time I see him on What?” wants to hear about it Contact assistant sports editor Jared video” Sonics coach Nate McMillan 3 told the or Page at “Big fella can go” jpagest'andardnet er 625-427- u ‘it 4 1 New York 8 Baltimore 4 Chicago 7 Cleveland 1 National League Cincinnati 5 Houston 4 (10) New York 1 Montreal 0 Florida 8 Philadelphia 7 Milwaukee 7 St Louis 5 Los Angeles 5 San Diego 2 s V 'i it1- - - 5 Sportscasters hurt in accident TRENTON ship out ‘ ! mental edge ROBERT JOHNSONStandard 3C Upset on ice LA takes rt 9 2002 V Solid start The Kings ranked third in the league in steals and second in scoring and there was a correlation between the two “The first time we played them there we were in the ballgame and then we had seven eight nine turnovers in a row” Jazz forward Karl Malone said “They make you pay for it on the other end because they like to get out and run” 1 W?U£ SPf 4- N J -- Sportscasters Marv Albert and Mike Fratello will miss the start of NBC’s NBA playoff coverage after being injured early Thursday when their limousine hit a stalled truck on Interstate 295 Fratello 55 and Albert 60 were cut on the face and Albert had a -- concussion and a sprained ankle said Dr Louis D’Amelio director of the Fuld Campus of the Capital Health System The announcers were returning from Indianapolis where they called TNT’s broadcast of the regular season finale between Indiana and Philadelphia Albert and Fratello - who also work for NBC - flew on the 76ers’ team charter to Philadelphia where they were met by the limousine Albert was scheduled for a CT scan today and probably will be held at the hospital until Saturday for observation D’Amelio said Fratello was released at 9 a m Thursday about six hours after the accident The NBA playoffs start this weekend and Albert was scheduled to call games for NBC on Saturday and Sunday Bob Costas will fill in Fratello will miss NBC's studio show anil 1 itLL College tennis: Big Sky men’s regional at Ogden Athletic Club: Northern Arizona vs Sacramento State 1 1 :30 am Weber State vs Portland State 6 pm Prep sports: See complete schedule on Scoreboard 5C 11 am - Women’s tennis Family Circle Cup ESPN 1pm- - Tennis Masters ESPN Series Monte-Carl1 20 p m - Baseball: Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs o WGN 1 :30 pm - PGA Classic FSN TGC 5pm- - NHL playoffs: Vancouver at Detroit ESPN 5 30 p m - Baseball: Florida at Atlanta TBS 5 30 p m - NHL playoffs: New Jersey at Carolina ESPN2 - S t wo-- ' I " t s ¥ c sK f4 Targeting the Tigers the announcement that Kmart is ending its sponsorship of Detroit teams including the struggling Detroit Tigers comedian Jay Leno said “Cn man how embarrassing is that7 " Kmart thinks you re a loser - Standard-Examine- r staff and wire services With |