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Show The Salt Lake Tribune NBA BASKETBALL Sunday, April 27, 1997 Up-and-Down Forward Does theLittle Things BY STEVE LUHM THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A year ago, the Jazz learned a lesson regarding Unlikely Playoff Heroes when Bryon Russell shed his regular-season role as i2th man and helped key a run to the Western Conferencefinals. The Jazz got another crash course Saturday night. Chris Morris, who did not play in Game1 of the Jazz-Clipper se- ries, played well in an unexpected 14-minute stint of Game 2 that helped Utah win 105-99 at the Delta Center. Morris did notscore, but he did just about everything else when Utah certainly needed it. He entered with 7:35 left in the second quarter and the Jazz clinging to a 37-35 lead. Morris quickly cooled the Clippers’ Lamond Murray, who had 12 points in the first 4:25 of the period. He also helped prevent the second shots that L.A. was usingto stay close. “Chris played well,” said Coach Ryan Galbraith/TheSalt Lake Tribune John Stockton heavesan outlet pass over the shoulderof Los Angeles defender Malik Sealy in the Jazz's victory on Saturday. They Need Three Wins, But the Clippers Still Think They Can DoIt BY JAY DREW THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE One more. For the Jazz, that means one more win over the Clippers and they're on their way to the West- to the wire. “We proved something to ourselves,” said Coach Bill Fitch. “There is light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, there’s a very big light.” The Clippers played the entire ern Conferencesemifinals. For the Clippers Saturday second half without starter Malik night, however, it meant one more field goal, one more rebound, one moredefensive stop. One more of just about anything, the Clippers after playing 17 first-half minutes. Loy Vaught fouled out, said, and Game 2 could easily have gonethe other way. The Jazz took a 105-99 victory to get a step closer to the first playoff sweepin teamhistory, but Los Angeles players were talking about anything but getting elimi- nated in three. Theseries shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 Monday. And Game 4 on Wednesday, according to Clipper guard Darrick Martin. “We're down two games, but we've got two games at home, then it will be 2-2," said Martin. “It’s very difficult [to beat the Jazz], which will make it that much sweeter when we win. Bae looking forward to Mon- Martin, who scored 16 points and played a team-high 36 minutes, madethe floating shot in the key that gave Los Angelesits only “leadof the secondhalf, 75-73 with » 4:28 left in the third quarter. “It would have beeninteresting to see what they would have done, if we had went upbyfour orfive points” in the third quarter, said Martin. “We were one play away from makingit interesting.” Martin wouldn't say what he thought the Midwest Division champions would have done at that point, only to add, “When teams get down, you never know what can happento them.” Martin wasn't alone. Confidence was the Clippers’ postgame theme, after nearly taking the Jazz — favored by 15% points — Sealy, whowassick to his stomach while Rodney Rogersand Richard Manning played muchof the sec- ond half with five fouls each. “We sat out there tonight and really had to use the Ouija Board, getting guys in and out of the game,” said Fitch. Still, the Clippers managed to stay so close that they were talking about specific plays and sequences that cost them a chance of winningforthefirst time ever in the Delta Center and thefirst timein Salt Lake City since April 18, 1989. Fitch was upset with the way the Clippers endedthefirst half. The Jazz outscored them 22-9 in the final 6:19 of the second quarter. “Wefinished that half in disgrace, not being ableto tell time,” he said. “Our clock management was something you would be sure we had never talked about.” Brent Barry, who started in Sealy’s place in the second half, said Terry Dehere unwittingly got Karl Malone (39 points) going after the Jazz star started slowly. “Karlgotoff to a slow start, and Terry Dehere was on the bench talking to him, saying, ‘Oh no, Karl, watch out. You're off to a slow start.’ And Karl said, ‘No, when I get off to a slow start I really get going.’ And he did. He didn’t lie. I guess nobody in the postal servicelies,” Barry said. And nobody in the Clippers’ locker room was ready to lie down. Especially not Darrick Martin. With Bucks Near Bottom, Dunleavy Quits as the GM THEASSOCIATEDPRESS MILWAUKEE — Mike Dun- leavy resigned Saturdayafter five disappointing years as Milwaukee Bucks general manager, saying he will be shopping elsewherein the NBAfor work. Dunleavy, 43, who was coach for the first four of the five years, said leaving is “a calculated risk, basically, on my part, but I think there are a number of good jobs openI hopeI can have a chance at this year.” Theteam owner, U.S, Sen, Herbert H, Kohl, said there is no suc- cessor waiting in the wings. ‘The Bucks, who have failed to reach the playoffs for six seasons, replaced Dunleavy as coach with Chris Ford for the 1996-97 sea- son, Dunleavy would like a job as NBAcoach, Bucks vice president John Seinmiller sya. refusing comment on names suggested as successors. They included Dunleavy chief assistant Bob Weinhauer, a former assistant general manager for the Philadelphia 76ers and former vice president of the Houston Rockets. Other names were NBA retiree Doc Rivers, whois now a sportscaster; Brad Greenberg, who was fired a week ago as 76ers general manager; and New York Knicks president Ernie Grunfeld, with whom the Bucks talked before hiring Dunleavy. Dunleavy completed five seasons ofan eight-year contract. He had a 107-221 record as coach of the Bucks and is 208-284 overall Milwaukee finished 33-49 this season with forwards Vin Baker and Glenn Robinson scoring 44 percent of the points. o Jerry Sloan. “IT played OK, when things weren’t going right for us,” Morris said. “Basically,I tried to stay in front of [Murray], play aggressively on the basketball and ... hold my ground.” With Morris in the game, the Jazz outscored the Clippers 24-10 and grabbed a 61-45 halftime lead. Morris also playedin the fourth quarter, and his defensive stand against Murray forced a key 24second violation when Utah owned only an 86-82 lead. When Karl Malone was fouled on the next possession, however, Sloan replaced Morris with Russell. “I was frustrated when I came out of the game,” Morris said. “I thought I was playing good defense.”” Said Sloan: “I just felt a little more comfortable coming down the stretch with Bryon. It was nothing against Chris. I know he probably wanted to play, and maybeI should have played him.I just wanted to go with Bryon at the end.” MISSED ONE Game 2 wastightly called, as the 65 personalfouls and 87 free throws that were attempted will attest. The game took 24 hours Onthe final play, however,referee Bill Oakes decided to let things go, and Antoine Carr was upsetwith the decision. The Clippers’ Brent Barry scored on a layup with 4.9 seconds left, cutting the Jazz’s lead to the final margin of 105-99. Against a token L.A. press, Carr went deep, caughta long inbounds pass and seemed ready to. end the game with a thunderous dunk. Instead, Murray clobbered him with one full second remaining. Carr crashedinto the basket standard as the horn sounded, but Oakes waved off the entire incident. Sensing trouble, Karl Malone and John Stockton went down to gather the disbelieving Carr and escort him to the locker room, thoughthe veteran they call “Big Pat Sullivan / The Associated Press Minnesota's Stephon Marbury tries to drive around Houston's Matt Maloney on Saturday. With Some Savvy on Their Side, Rockets Win War With Wolves THE ASSOCIATED PRESS separated by teammates. IT don't have bad blood HOUSTON — TheHouston Rockets had to wait until the with Sam,” Willis said. “It got finalfive minutes before their heated. My focus was just to NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE win the game,Thatdid proba- experience tookover. Western Conference Eastern Conference ROUND — Ces.) FIRST ROUND — (Best-of-5) bly focus us little bit. we rvs. Cltees (Ui cst —Wa 6LAChee 8 Hib 105, LA. Clippers 99 Nab at LA, Clippers, 830 pm. EWettey— Ushi Lk Cpe, TEA wllay 4— L.A. Clippers at Utah, TBA Charles Barkley scored 20 knew it was getting crunch points and led a spurt in the time and wehadto bear down final crucial minutes as the andget the win.” Houston Rockets broke away Mitchellhad otherides. late to beat the Minnesota “J'll meethim in the hall, on Timberwolves 96-84 on Satur- the court in the parkinglot, I szMay 4 — Wasbingloa at Chicago, TRA ay. don’t wantto wait until we get W Heat vs. Magic The Rockets lead the best- back te Atlanta,” Mitchell of-5 Western Conference said. “I'm not going to be a playoff series 2-0 and can punching bag.” sweeptheseries with a victory Sonics ys. Suns (Alam! leas series, 1-0) Game 1 — Miami 99,Orlando 64 ‘Today —Orlando at Miami, 10:30 am. ‘Tuesday — Miami af Orlando, 5 pm in Game 3 Tuesday at Minnesota. The Timberwolves still are searching for their first playoff victory ever. MINN. Min MA MA O-T APP Pls Garnett 48 7-14 00 41212 14 Guglotta 42 821 12 2954 17 KnicksHornets_ Garett «42 15 22 6434 4 2) Wat «5610 LO 34 Gane 1 —New Yr 18 Cait8 02 1562 2 TheRockets jumped on the Marouy 411 1025 —New York 100,Charlotte 02 12 1215 1 Timberwolves early for an Mitchel — Nex York Carte 6p Porer 18 48 34 1231 15 Munday s x T h u r d a y — New Y o r k Chace, "BA easy 112-95 victory in Game1, Heal 1 00 60 6900 0 but it took the whole game Tolals 240 26-85 B13 15392222 $4 May 4 —Charkote New York. TBA Lakers vs. Blazers Saturday to put away youthful — FG 424, FT 1, @ Hawks vs. Pistons (Lakers lead series, 1-0) yt sit20 ore 26, Ma Minnesota. Game 1 — L.A. Lakers 95, Portland 7 bury 2-7, ‘Today — Portland at L.A. Lakers, 1 pn. “Every possession was a nu WedelPara830pn. ected Ghats — 6 (Garrat 2 Gupta 2, war,’ Hakeem Olajuwon said. uftiday—LA Labert Porter The Timberwolves led for ‘Garnett, Turpovers —iata, Garnett 8, Gu. Hoy lcPotead Lkre the final time 79-78 on a lotta, Garrett, We Ef necessary ‘Times MDT May4 — Detroit at Atania, TBA three-point basket by Stephon SaGt.Ggliotta 3, Garrett 2, 44 411-59 34221 13 Marbury with 5:47 to play. points from Rice and held the Mason Dic «8G 2.2 G12 2S But a free throw and threeHornets without a field goal Perce «98 00 02 18 10 point play by Mario Elie gave for more than 842 minutes of Dek TAS OO 7 23S O1 12 121 1 Houston an 82-79 lead with BOUTON ite WA MA OF APE Pe the fourth quarterto take a 2- Smith 23 08 1443 12 Ge Fees ft 5:22 to go. bekiy $7 Gib eis gis 81 0 leadin the best-of-5 Eastern Geiger 14 00 0 After a basket by Olajuwon Olyjuvon 40 9:12 00 11055 18 Conferenceplayoffseries. Taos tae sor cauibaniows a8 at eit oo 28°75 7 Game 3 is at Charlotte on and two free throws by Elie, Drake 4 O08 10 2 Persie Barkley stretchedthe lead to Wiis” 38 «19 «38 34 O112 8 Monday. Premaiets Delt 15, «17 $6 00 0121 8 “We're beating ourselves,” ab. reee 89-81 with a reboundandhas- Thratt x 06 1512 0 said Rice, who had only six ket at 2:20 to go and a free Totals M2619 6 age points iin the final 12 minutes. Sea throw with 2:05 to play and ‘Mason 5,Smith 3, Delk 2 “We madea lotof mistakes on Rice, Dra Fare‘Gury, Geiger) Clyde Drexlersealed it with a Threat?5, Malovey2-6, Barkley 1, Objowon the offensive end, we didn't ‘Steal 4 (Rice, Divac, Pierce, Smith) three-point basket with 1:12 O41, Johnson 0-2), PO PT Reb take care of the ball and we N.YORK Min HA to go. MA OT APF Pix “We had some down and Hloced Shas — € (Olajwon 4, Dreier, didn’t play as aggressive as Johnson A 47 34 1904 UL we're capable of jate in the Oakley 19 or 03s 8 dirty play in the trenches,” ‘Threat Taravers — 17 Barly 8. Osan 3, Wh Bwing 3152103 1635 00 said Rockets Coach Rudy Ie Johan akon fae rea game.” Howton 42 $12 00 12 11-2 Patrick Ewing led New ‘Steals — 10 (Otajuwon 4,Drexler 2 ‘Tomjanovich. TM 00 02 94 IT dheTart, eho York with 30 points on 15-for- Childs Sars 20 043 02 OS 42 14 Barkley also had 15 re- ‘Technieal Fouls — Wills, 1:11 fis 21 shooting with six rebounds Ward oo O61 2 bounds and Olajuwon fin- Misocote =o) St andthree blocks. Chris Childs Rwitas M22 223918 6 ished with 18 points and 10 re- Howion 1730-8 added 17, including three eas A MATS BAB GH 2727 100 bounds, Marbury led the at6H, T—238 Orice—- straight jumpers late in the ir Garretson, Derrick Stat ‘Timberwolves with 22 points toy G10, $6 (Cl, How fourth that helped New York ton2elt 24 Sta 24 Wad, etn 09) and Tom Gugliotta had 17. wrapit up. ‘Team Kebounds Minnesota’s Sam Mitchell “He wasopen three times in was called for a flagrantfoul Knicks 100 arrow because we had poor and ejected with 9:25 left in Hornets 93 tation on defense,” Rice said 2, Ward 2, Johasoc, OatleyStara ces sStarks2,8Wi the game following a confronNEW YORK — GlenRice ofChilds, “but we didn’t think ame2, tioaien Bwing! tation with Kevin Willis. did all he could for three he would continue to knock eae Pul — Sart, 25 end Mitchell hit Willis from be- quarters, but he and the rest them downlike he did.” Cure =O OM hind with a forearm as Willis of the Charlotte Hornets NewYok % 2M SLM drove for a layup. The two ex-| didn’t do muchin the fourth. cayz win HA WA O% Avr tu ATiaTO UOTE PC BaT Oma — changed words and had tobe! New York withstood 39] mee 4 11251517 05 04 39 Joe Crmeford Jin Clark, BAP Rash Dog” got in a final word as he passed the veteranofficial. Carr was upset with Murray's hard non-foul and Oakes’ no-call. “In the last few seconds of the game,” Carr said, “there’s no need for that. It could injury somebody's career. But if they're goingto give a hard foul,the least they could do is let me shoot the free throws.” Looking ahead to Game 3 on Monday, Carr said, “Hey, that’s 5 CLIPPERS Mia MA MA APF Rogers OST 25 Vag 2 1 M8 we oer aot Marlo «=. $12 BT 0084 a little bit,” ‘The Jazz seemed in com-| mandat halftime of Game 2,| when they built a 61-45 lead by outscoring the Clippers 24-10 in the final 7% mines. SUMMARY_ Jazz Mury Pu 2 S$ Wh 16 4 410 55 25.15 15 Shi P Ip ast : e Ips Malone had alreadyscored lead to 94-85 with 5:38 left. ee. ha eee 9 points, and Stockton had| 1 made him lose his focus Padows 18 03 Se 201 8 on therim,” said Morris, who Barry 1 00 19.32 1 Mi Continued from C-1 tiaee were pretty happy payed well, orette going Tak 0 ORV O ms with 61 points in the first $coreless in 14 minutes. PRAa a tnt nem Bee |eteenhe| paa Te eeene ats 54-89 deficit when Brent fine. If they want to bang, let's open the door all the way and bang. I'll be ready.” oO H41 Paton6 Min 3 Hoes 4 Vag. Salye ingjn like it should.” BRIEFLY After two straight ineffectual games, Jazz center Greg Ostertag said, “I don't know whatthe problem is. I haven't been able to get into the flow. I felt great today — all day. I was ready to go. But I can't get into a flow, andit's killing me.” Jeff Hornacek went 3-for-10 in Game2; he's 5-for-18 in the series Referring to Game 3, the Clippers’ Lorenzen Wright said, We have nothing to lose. So we can just go out there and shock the world.” Malone shot 19 free throws. The Clippers seemed to foul him whenever he got close to the basket, apparently in response to Malone's 1-for-6 free-throw shooting in Game 1 rgb Merry 2 Patho Vaught. Not important, he said. What matters’ is the big UTAH Mis MA MA OT APF Mis picture and, even though the Ruel 9 16 WDA Malooe 42 1228,151041125 09 Jazz struggled and couldn't Onertag — oo 2213 0 the Clippers away, Utah Homa 12310 44 27 44 11 put Sotion 4 Tl 22 0243 8 heads to the Sports Arena 24 W212 0 knowing it hasn't played its Your ol 14 46 0422 6 game. Anderson 16 11 220134 4 best Far fromit, in fact. Carr Y4 MWS “You play every [races on Keele 2000 OL Merrs 4 Oo 412 0 its own merit," Stockton Toss 40-24-70 SDL DAO2041 105 said. “We wouldlike to play Percentages PG 486, PT 06 better. You want to be at Polat Goals — 414, 200 (Stockton 24, Bu yourbest for 48 minutes every night. But the first two But he cameback by hitting 15 in Game2, “You just have to keep your head in the game,’ he said ray from getting to the bas: ket. Murray held the ball, faked, dribbled and passed clock expired e Jazz followed with an 8-3 flurry that pushed their just as the 24-second rd ” myself, it’s just not hay n vC y. " when the houseis going to Stockton scored nine of cave in on you. , Teams Barry drove and lofted a shot Shots ~3 (Rogers, Vaught the Jazz's first 11 points and aren't going to quit. People from the lane. But Antoine ee13 oat ‘Vaught 3, Sealy 3, blocked it to Bryon Rusfinished with 18 on 7-for-11 just think they're going to Carr aria sell, who went coast-to-coast shooting. TeamRebun are over, and we wou. ‘Tarvevers — 13 (Hlorusedk 3, Stockton 3, Os tara2 Ca Ra, Malo, Mar sf Mareen. echo 3. Mer wakes Data ogra Fouls — Merrie, 9fourth teen 2 HR tt Uh nou non —108 nt deat Y— 290 Officials — Terry Durban, Rill Oakes, ew ett Salvatore jet's go and play ourbest me in L.A." Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan agreed The Clippers “came in| quit.” L.A. opened the third for a layup. quarter by scoring on 13 of its first 16 possessions. Fast- er than you can say “homecourt advantage," the Clippers owned a 75-73 lead. ‘The four-point turnaround jave the Jazz a seven-point lead, and Stockton i the win with 3:21 left with a three-pointer that made it 99-89, 1 don't know if I was con1 Just saw [Barry] trying cerned,” said Malone, “be- to take one of our guys off cause I know what we're ca- the dribble,” Carr said. “I pable of,” knew I hadto get over there As quickly as Utah's de- pretty quickly. He just fense disappeared, however, putit up there where I could it came back. The Clippers get my hand onit.” managed only two free Besides Stockton and Ma. throwsout of their final nine lone, the Jazz got just enough from other players to defeat the Jazz eased to an 84-77 the Clippers, whose top scor lead er, Loy Vaught, fouled out possessions oftheperiod From there, two key de-| with 1:49 left fensive stands kept L.A. quarter, from getting closer than| in the third Carr and Jeff Hornacek here ready toplay hard and | four scored 11 points ench, while win a basketball game,” he Tt was 86-82 with eight Howard Eisley continued a said. “We lucked out a few minutes left when Chris Mor point-a-minute pace in the times. Weare struggling | ris prevgnted Lamond Mur- playoffs with 10. |