PORTLAND, OREGON (May 22, 1999) -- The Portland Trail Blazers are creating big problems for the
Utah Jazz.
The massive front line of Brian Grant, Rasheed Wallace and Arvydas Sabonis dominated
inside and powered Portland to a 97-87 victory over Utah for a 2-1 lead in their Western
Conference semifinal series.
After matching the Jazz's precision execution down the stretch of a tight Game Two, the Trail
Blazers simply muscled their way to an easy win. Utah looked small and slow and is running
out of ways to attack Portland.
The 6-9 Grant again won his duel with Karl Malone, collecting 16 points and 15 rebounds.
He set an early physical tone with his work on the boards.
"That's been our force throughout the series, going inside, being able to score," Grant said.
"Brian Grant has done a great job," Malone admitted. "He works very hard."
The 6-11 Wallace scored 20 points, most of them on dunks off quick moves near the
basket. The Jazz simply have no one on their team who can match the strength and speed of
Wallace, who added seven rebounds.
"I thought we had a lot of energy on defense," Wallace said. "I tried to turn all my emtional
energy toward the team today. I thought we had a really good team effort."
The 7-3 Sabonis had 15 points and eight rebounds, clogging the middle and again making
Utah center Greg Ostertag a non-factor. Sabonis sat for all of the fourth quarter.
All three frontcourt men scored 11 points in the opening half, when the Blazers grabbed 26
rebounds, shot 26 free throws and bolted to a 47-30 lead. Portland led by 25 points early in
the third quarter and by double digits until garbage time.
Malone had 25 points and 14 rebounds, most of them after Utah fell hopelessly behind. The
Jazz had 12 turnovers against 11 baskets in the first half and showed their frustration with a
handful of technical and hard fouls.
"The Blazers kicked our rear ends right from the beginning," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said.
"Portland had all the energy. We just showed up. I can't acdept that. That's the worst thing in
pro basketball, when you don't even show up to play."
Game Four is Sunday night at Portland, where Utah has lost eight of its last 10 games. The
back-to-back games appear to work in favor of the Blazers, who are much deeper and
younger than the Jazz and never have lost a series when taking a 2-1 lead.
"If we go into the game tomorrow thinking it's going to be easy, then Utah will take the
home-court advantage back," said Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy, who received his NBA
Coach of the Year award from Comissioner David Stern prior to the game. "If we go into
this game with some kind of feeling that we can turn them on and off, they can beat us. They
can beat us here, they can beat us across the street and they can beat us in Utah if we don't
play our game."
Isaiah Rider had 13 points and eight assists, Damon Stoudamire added 11 points and Greg
Anthony 10 as Portland's guards shook off some early cold shooting. Walt Williams added
nine points, all on 3-pointers.
"You're out there playing as hard as you can and you don't get caught up in the score,"
Anthony said. "You just play hard, you play the basketball and play the man and you defend
him and you don't give up an inch. That's all you can do and then you look up and see the
score, but you don't get caught up in anything else."
Jeff Hornacek scored 12 points and John Stockton added nine for the Jazz, who shot less
than 39 percent (28-of-72) from the field while committing 35 fouls and 17 turnovers.
Grant's early energy helped the Blazers overcome poor shooting. Portland trailed by five
points when Grant dunked after a series of offensive rebounds and made a short jumper
around a pair of free throws by Sabonis, triggering the huge burst.
Two free throws by Ostertag were the Jazz's last points for more than nine minutes. Most of
that stretch came with Howard Eisley at point guard and Stockton at the bench.
Meanwhile, Portland was blazing, scoring the last seven points of the first quarter to take a
22-16 lead. Matched up against Malone, Grant had eight points and six rebounds in the
period.
"Portland was scoring inside in the first quarter and we didn't work very hard," Sloan said.
"Portland wanted the game right from the start."
Anthony, who hounded Stockton in the fourth quarter of Game Two, came off the bench
and harassed Eisley, stalling Utah's offense. Sabonis hit two free throws, Wallace dunked
and Williams buried consecutive 3-pointers before two foul shots by Anthony extended the
lead to 34-16 with 7:39 left in the second quarter.
"I thought defensively that was about as good a stretch as we've had," Anthony said. "That is
what you have to do against them. They are so disciplined and in tune with one another that
you can't have mental lapses on defense or they'll pick you apart."
"As a team, I think that's the best we've played in the playoffs," Grant added.
A jump hook by Todd Fuller ended a run of 12 straight misses and a basket drought of
nearly a quarter for Utah. But nothing was slowing down Portland. Grant made two free
throws and Wallace one before flying into the lane for a dunk while drawing a foul. His free
throw gave the Blazers a 40-19 bulge with 4:09 to go.
The frustration mounted for Utah as Malone and Stockton were hit with technical fouls with
1:02 left. The Jazz trailed 47-30 at halftime and it could have been worse as they held the
Blazers' backcourt to 1-of-15 shooting.
Any chance Utah had of quickly getting back into the game in the second half ended when it
missed six of its first seven shots. Portland's big men continued to assert themselves as Grant
and Wallace strung together three dunks before Stoudamire's driving layup gave the Blazers
their biggest lead at 58-33 with 7:58 to go in the third quarter.
Malone scored 12 points in the period and the Jazz put together a 12-2 run to cut the deficit
to 65-51 with 2:27 to play. Rider responded with a 3-pointer and the Blazers rebuilt the
advantage to 72-55 entering the final period.
A layup by Adam Keefe pulled the Jazz within 78-65 with 8:35 to go and Stockton made a
steal. But Malone missed a layup and Anthony hit a 3-pointer before trading hard fouls with
Stockton.
"We just have to play with more sense of urgency," Malone said. "We hate to lose anytime
and we went through a stretch when it was embarrassing."
UTAH (87)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Malone 43 8-19 9-12 2-14 3 3 25
Russell 23 0-8 5-7 1-3 1 4 5
Ostertag 25 0-3 2-2 3-7 0 3 2
Hornacek 32 5-10 2-2 1-3 4 3 12
Stockton 30 4-7 1-2 2-6 5 4 9
Eisley 18 1-5 5-5 0-0 2 3 8
Anderson 25 1-5 1-2 0-4 0 6 3
Foster 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Keefe 27 4-7 2-2 3-5 0 4 10
Fuller 6 2-2 2-2 0-2 0 0 6
Bailey 7 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 3 4
Vaughn 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2 3
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 240 28-72 29-36 13-45 17 35 87
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.389, FT-.806. 3-Point Goals:
2-9, .222 (Russell 0-3, Hornacek 0-1, Stockton
0-1, Eisley 1-3, Vaughn 1-1). Team rebounds: 10.
Blocked shots: 3 (Ostertag 2, Russell).
Turnovers: 17 (Hornacek 4, Anderson 2, Fuller 2,
Malone 2, Stockton 2, Eisley, Foster, Keefe,
Russell). Steals: 9 (Malone 4, Keefe 3, Anderson,
Stockton).
PORTLAND (97)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
B Grant 43 6-11 4-6 5-15 3 4 16
Wallace 35 6-11 8-13 3-7 2 5 20
Sabonis 29 5-12 5-6 1-8 1 0 15
Rider 31 2-7 8-10 3-6 8 3 13
Stoudamire 29 3-7 4-6 0-1 1 3 11
Augmon 11 1-2 0-0 0-2 0 2 2
Anthony 19 2-6 5-7 0-0 1 3 10
Jackson 24 0-4 1-2 0-0 3 0 1
Williams 19 3-6 0-0 1-2 2 5 9
Cato DNP - coach's decision
G Grant DNP - coach's decision
Oneal DNP - coach's decision
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 240 28-66 35-50 13-41 21 25 97
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.424, FT-.700. 3-Point Goals:
6-15, .400 (Wallace 0-1, Rider 1-3, Stoudamire
1-1, Anthony 1-3, Jackson 0-1, Williams 3-6).
Team rebounds: 8. Blocked shots: 1 (B Grant).
Turnovers: 11 (Anthony 3, Rider 3, B Grant 2,
Jackson, Stoudamire, Williams). Steals: 10
(Anthony 4, B Grant 2, Stoudamire 2, Williams 2).
____________________________________________
Utah 16 14 25 32 - 87
Portland 22 25 25 25 - 97
____________________________________________
Technical fouls: Utah 2 (Head Coach Sloan, 1:02
2nd; Malone, 1:02 2nd). Portland 2 (Illegal
Defense, 7:55 2nd; Wallace, 9:49 4th). Flagrant
fouls: None. A: 20,720. T: 2:41. Officials: Dan
Crawford, Joe Forte, Luis Grillo.
Jazz Fall in Game 3, 97-87 and Blazers Gain 2-1 Edge
