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Jazz-Sonics Game 2 Utah looks to ride with the Mailman to 2-0 lead
Posted: Monday April 24, 2000 03:43 PM
During the playoffs a year ago, the high-water mark for points in a game was 37. Tonight, the second game of our doubleheader on TBS features Karl Malone, who blew that mark away on the first weekend of the NBA Playoffs 2000. That old Utah '57 Chevy (credit to Kenny Smith for that nickname) was purring along at 50 Saturday. That's what the Mailman laid on Seattle in the opener. And when he's scoring like that, it helps everybody's numbers. Jeff Hornacek actually had more assists that John Stockton (11 to 10) in fact it was 5 more than his season high in that category. It was vintage bruising Malone on the block and on the break, as he nearly doubled his season scoring average. Don't overlook the often easily overlooked Greg Ostertag. Sure this wasn't a battle with Shaq, but he did some heavy-duty work in the middle off the bench with 10 boards and 5 blocks. Utah did the things in the playoff opener that it did in the regular season en route to the Midwest title. No. 3 in the league in three-point accuracy, they nailed 7 out of 11, negating Seattle's production from the arc (8 of 15). Not that the Sonics can't hang with this bunch. Gary Payton put up 24, but that's been the story all year. He brings it every night. The question is always "who else is gonna help?" Vin Baker didn't in the opener (4 of 18 from the floor). Shammond Williams did ... with 23, and he found himself NBC's quickie halftime interview. Who would have figured? Interesting that the Seattle playoff roster does not include Vernon Maxwell. He creates mayhem, which can be a good or bad thing, but often come playoff time you need somebody like that to energize a team, or get hot when you need it. See you tonight on TBS with the Jet and Sir Charles. Ernie Johnson is in his 10th year as the studio host for TNT and TBS Superstation's NBA telecasts, as well as TNT's live coverage of the NBA Draft every June.
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