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 NBA Playoff Recap (UTAH-Portland) Posted: Sat May 22, 1999 at 8:08 p.m. EDT PORTLAND 97, UTAH 87PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- 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 © 2000 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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