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'It's an embarrassment to all of us'
Malone's recovery couldn't prevent Jazz from futility record
Posted: Monday June 08, 1998 12:56 AM
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Malone hit 8-of-11 and scored 22 points, but his teammates combined to shoot just 13-of-59 (AP) |
CHICAGO (AP) -- Karl Malone's
slump is over. Now the problem is the rest of the Utah Jazz are in one of
their own.
"This is actually the score? This is the final?" coach Jerry Sloan said as
he studied the box score of Sunday's 96-54 Game 3 blowout that showed the
Jazz with the fewest points in any NBA game since the 24-shot clock was
introduced. "I thought it was 196.
"It's an embarrassment to all of us. I take responsibility for that."
Don't blame Malone. After saying the Jazz could not win the NBA
championship if he didn't play better, he came out with a vengeance Sunday,
connecting on his first six shots, scoring almost at will in the early
stages.
The problem was as soon as he found his shooting eye, the rest of the Jazz
lost theirs.
"We didn't come ready to play," said Malone, who finished with 22 points on
8-of-11 shooting. "If this doesn't wake us up, nothing will."
Sloan said he wasn't sure if the Jazz could bounce back in Wednesday's Game
4.
"I would think it'd be real easy, very easy if you're a competitor to shake
it off," he said. "They were shooting 3-pointers at the end to see how they
could bury you. If that wouldn't get you to play, I don't know what would.
"But I'm not sure my team will do that."
Sloan agreed with Malone that his team simply wasn't ready for the Bulls
and the defensive intensity it faced in Game 3.
"I don't know if I've ever seen a team play any better defensively since
I've been in the business. I thought they were sensational defensively. And
they ate us alive," Sloan said.
Even Malone was shut down after his fast start.
"They had a hell of a defensive game and we didn't respond," he said. "Our
plays work when we run them. We'll see what happens. We have to execute."
The Jazz looked ready to be executed and Sloan knew it.
"I'm always surprised when we don't come to play hard," he said. "That's
always a disappointment. I'm somewhat embarrassed for NBA basketball for
the guys to come out and play at this level with no more fight in them than
what we had."
Malone refused to buy into the excuse that their 10-day layoff had left the
Jazz rusty.
"You can't say we've been off for 10 days and in the third game of the
championship series, we don't compete," he said. "We got what we deserved,
a good old-fashioned one. We got no execution. We've got to respond as a
team."
Malone, who was 3-for-22 from the perimeter in the first two games of the
series, nailed two quick jump shots at the start of the game and it seemed
to energize him. He made every shot he tried in the first quarter, but he
got no help. Utah fell into the shooting trance that had shackled its star,
struggling through a 1-for-19 stretch that helped the Bulls pull into the
lead.
The Jazz had confidence that Malone would snap out of the doldrums. "He
just has to keep shooting," said forward Antoine Carr.
"That's the way you break out."
It must have made sense to Malone, who went to work immediately, showing no
reluctance to fire away at the basket, despite a dreadful 14-for-41
performance in the first two games of the Finals. And it worked. Early on,
he made everything he tried -- jumpers, drives, even a fadeaway against Dennis Rodman.
His teammates, however, simply could not locate the basket and when Malone
sat down for a breather, he took Utah's offense with him.
When Rodman began fronting Malone, the Jazz could not solve the problem.
Soon, trouble set in and the game got away.
Sloan said Malone's recovery was not a silver lining in this blowout.
"We want him to be able to shoot well," he said. "We want everybody to
shoot well. But the main thing is to execute well. We can't get so
concerned about one individual that we fail to play a team basketball
game."
And that was what the Jazz did Sunday night.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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