We haven't done anything yet," said Karl Malone as he sat in front of his Salt Palace locker Friday night, speaking of the Jazz's playoff-opening 113-96 win over the Phoenix Suns. But still, there was a perceptible lift in the Jazz locker room. The shutout was over. The playoff drought had ended.
Only two years since the last time, the Jazz had a postseason win.Time doesn't fly in such situations. It had been since May 19, 1988, when the Jazz beat the Lakers 108-80 to force a seventh game in Los Angeles, that the Jazz had sat even a little bit smugly
in a locker room after a playoff game. It had seemed a lot longer than that.
Last season they lost three in a row to the Golden State Warriors.
So even if the best-of-five series with Phoenix is far from over, and even if Kevin Johnson, the Suns' guard, finds something for his stomach between now and Game 2 Sunday, the Jazz are on the scoreboard.
If history is any help, they're also off and running with quite a tailwind. In 48 previous best-of-five series played in NBA playoffs history, the team that has won the first game has gone on to win 41 times.
In response, no doubt, to the rather long span between playoff wins, the atmosphere prior to Friday night's big game was subdued. There were no Vegas-style neon signs flashing from the front of the Salt Palace, as there were a year ago. There wasn't an elaborate opening ceremony with fireworks and a serious attempt to set the Salt Palace on fire, as there once was against Denver. There weren't any balloons filled with helium that had to be cleared from the arena before the game could start, as there was once against Houston. Nobody wore tuxedoes.
There was a lot of trepidation. Scalpers didn't do a great business. People like to flock to an execution unless it might be theirs. One fan, apparently fearing the worst and not wanting to see it in person, parked her Oldsmobile across the crosswalk on the street outside the Salt Palace entrance and held up her four game tickets through the driver's window.
"Face value," she said as the crosswalk sign flashed "WALK" and the crowds came directly toward her. She was ready to take the charge if necessary.
"How about 10 bucks?" she said when she got no takers.
Adding to the pregame dread was the fact that a lot of people were predicting that Phoenix would dominate the series. Granted, these predictions assumed that Johnson would be at full strength, and not barely able to walk.
In an effort to increase enthusiasm, the Jazz sponsored a contest offering a trip to Phoenix to the fan who dressed up the craziest. Only about 30 fans took them up on it. It was not difficult to spot who they were.
They were brought en masse onto the court in the third quarter, during a time out, to determine the crowd favorite for the free trip to Phoenix. The winner was a man wearing a pair of shorts who had whitewashed his entire body, painted 32 - Malone's number - on both his front and his back, colored his hair in the Mardi Gras (and Jazz) colors of purple, gold and green, and added a green Hawaiian lei as an accessory.
He will be Utah's official ambassador to Phoenix next week.
Wearing their ordinary costumes, the Jazz got terrific team balance to start off the playoffs. Six players scored in double figures and it might have been seven if Eric Leckner, who had eight points in 11 minutes, had played another 30 seconds.
"We were real focused all week," said Mike Brown, who didn't score in double figures (seven points), but was second high on the team in rebounds with six.
Apparently, anyone who played in last year's playoff had not lost his memory. There was more avenging going on than in a Charles Bronson movie.
"Do you think Phoenix noticed that we came to play?" said the Jazz's Darrell Griffith, who had 10 points.
The game wasn't yet four minutes old when the Jazz had an 11-4 lead and every starter _ Malone, John Stockton, Thurl Bailey, Bobby Hansen and Mark Eaton _ had already scored. Talk about a balanced team. Talk about a team possessed.
It went on like that. Players coming off the bench responded immediately. Leckner with his eight, Griffith with 10, Blue Edwards with 11, Delaney Rudd with four points in six minutes.
Malone had 21 points and was just one of the guys.
"It was nice," said the Mailman. "When everybody starts scoring like that, I'm not looking at three or four bodies all night long."
Or at a loss, either. Forty-eight minutes and it was over. The Jazz's playoff slump. They are back among the living. They may not have won anything yet, but they haven't lost anything, either.