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 Blazers big men come up huge Wallace, Grant lead Portland over Utah, take 2-1 lead
Posted: Sunday May 23, 1999 11:22 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Portland Trail Blazers are halfway toward eliminating the Utah Jazz, who looked Saturday every bit the aging team whose shot at the title may have come and gone. Rasheed Wallace scored 20 points and Brian Grant had 16 points and 15 rebounds as the Blazers used terrific defense and an early 19-0 run to defeat the Jazz 97-87 Saturday and take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-7 second-round series. "They won't go easy," Grant said. "They'll fight and scratch right to the end, and we have to play the same way so they don't come back on us." Game 4 is Sunday night. Utah fell behind with one of the worst stretches of playoff basketball in recent memory, even by the low standards of this shooting-impaired season. The Jazz missed 13 straight shots and scored just two points during a drought that spanned 11:18 of the first and second quarters. "They were as good as anybody we've ever played," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "They would have beat anybody in the world. We didn't come out ready to play. I have no idea why. We couldn't give them a reason to make them aware of us." After John Stockton's driving layup put the Jazz ahead 14-9 with 6:08 left in the first, the Blazers went on a 25-2 run that included 19 straight points over nine minutes. A steal and two free throws by Greg Anthony gave Portland a 34-16 lead with 7:39 left in the second. The Jazz opened the quarter with seven turnovers in the first 4:41, and a left-handed hook by Todd Fuller finally ended the run with 6:50 left. "You have stretches in the game where things aren't going right, but they usually happen for two or three minutes," Utah's Shandon Anderson said. "But for us, it happened for nine minutes. Unfortunately, that's the stretch where they opened the game up on us." Arvydas Sabonis added 15 points and Isaiah Rider 13 for the Blazers, who have beaten the Jazz in eight straight home playoff games dating to 1988. Karl Malone had 25 points and 14 rebounds, but Grant largely dominated the intriguing matchup of power forwards. The dreadlocked Grant played his usual furious inside game, but he complemented it with a soft touch, hitting several short turnarounds and hooks over Malone. "It's an honor to be able to go one-on-one against him," Grant said. "He's a great, great player, one of the best ever in the NBA. For the most part, I think I did a good job on him. It's definitely an advantage if I can keep him under control by myself, because we can play everyone else straight up." Despite the terrible early play, Utah actually stayed in it by shooting 50 percent for the second quarter (6-for-12) while the Blazers made just 29 percent (5-of-17). A 3-pointer by Howard Eisley with 7.1 seconds left pulled the Jazz within 47-30 at halftime. The Blazers pushed the lead to 25 when Damon Stoudamire drove for a layup that made it 58-33, but the Jazz cut it to 65-51 on Malone's two free throws with 2:27 left in the period. A 3-pointer by Rider and two short hooks by Sabonis helped make it a 72-55 lead heading into the fourth. Malone had 12 points in the quarter. The Jazz pulled to 91-83 on a layup by Thurl Bailey with 45 seconds left, but could get no closer. "This is the same thing as Sacramento," Malone said of the first round, in which the Jazz rallied to win the last two games after falling behind 2-1. "We never expect to be in this spot, but we are again. We've always been able to pull ourselves out. And I have the utmost confidence we'll do the same in this series." The Blazers went 22-3 at the Rose Garden during the regular season, and the most raucous crowd of the year turned out to see the Blazers' first second-round home playoff game since 1992. The fans, trying to counter the racket made by the Utah crowds in the first two games, made full use of the free cowbells and noisemakers. Portland's aggressiveness on defense was epitomized by Anthony. As is the custom with the Blazers, he played the fourth quarter at point guard instead of Stoudamire, and drew two quick fouls on Stockton. First Anthony drew a charge, then a frustrated Stockton fouled him at the other end. Anthony made one of two free throws to make it 84-67 with 6:19 to play. It was Stockton's missed shot that allowed Portland to escape with an 84-81 victory in Game 2. Stockton finished with nine points, six rebounds and five assists Saturday. "We've got one half a job done," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "We haven't done anything yet. It doesn't do one bit of good to win this game if we don't win [Sunday]. If we don't come ready to play, they can beat us here." Notes: As bad as Utah's 30-point first half was, it didn't come close to the franchise- and NBA playoff-record low of 20 points, set by the New Orleans Jazz at Seattle in January 1975. ... NBA commissioner David Stern presented Dunleavy with the Red Auerbach Trophy before the game for winning the NBA coach of the year on Friday. ... The Blazers, who lost Game 1, are trying to reverse a trend in which they've lost 19 of 21 playoff series when dropping the first game. ... The crowd of 20,720 was Portland's largest of the season. ... Utah had nine of its 16 turnovers in the second quarter. The Jazz committed 18 in Game 2.
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