After a 17-rebound performance against New Jersey, Jazz forward Adam Keefe said it was nothing special.

"I swear I haven't given any less effort on other nights and gotten just three or four rebounds," Keefe said.Karl Malone agreed with Keefe's nothing-special assessment. After getting one offensive rebound in 25 minutes against the Nets (to Keefe's seven), Malone good-naturedly chided Keefe for getting five of his own misses - which wasn't too far from the truth.

It seems that Malone, Keefe and Felton Spencer are having an offensive-rebound competition.

Spencer realizes that Keefe and Malone have an 11-game head start, but he thinks he can catch them. Asked what his goals were for his Wednesday night return to action after a 10-month rehabilitation period, Spencer said, "I just want to get me some rebounds. I have to catch Karl and Adam in the offensive category."

Keefe now has 31 offensive boards, Malone 27. But they'd better watch out for a darkhorse in this race - Chris Morris has 23.

They're big, they're heavy, they're, uh, mature.

Before Utah played the Boston Celtics last week, the Boston Globe ran a story pointing out that the Celts have the league's smallest backcourt, while the Jazz are tied with Orlando for the tallest, at an average of 6-6 5/16 per man.

And a survey in NBA News pointed out that the Jazz are the league's tallest team overall, at an average of 6-8 1/2, after ranking 24th in that category last season.

The same survey lists the Jazz as the second-heaviest team, average 231.57 pounds, and fifth-oldest, at 29.26 average years.

John Stockton needs 70 steals to become the NBA's all-time leader in that category. He's averaging about 1.4 steals per game this season, so he should set the mark in about 50 more games - roughy mid-March.

Going into Wednesday night's game, though, Stockton wasn't even leading the Jazz in steals. He wasn't even second. Malone had 25, Jeff Hornacek 19, Stockton 16.

Malone, who is still working on a contract extension with the Jazz, says he doesn't want his new deal to hurt the team.

"It's a double-edged sword," Malone told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "You don't want to do anything to jeopardize what you're playing for, meaning, if I hopped up to say I wanted $12, $13 million a year, they're not going to be able to re-sign somebody else, and I don't want to be on a lottery team.

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"You do this, which is a job, to be set financially for life. On the flip side, you try, to the best of your ability, not to take away from the game and from the team."

Malone was asked after the Timberwolves game last week if he was tired. He said, "Maybe. I don't know. I don't use that excuse, you know that. I'm not supposed to be tired. Shoot him up and put him back out there, like a race horse. No, I didn't mean shoot him up. I don't want people to get the wrong idea." He was joking. Tired and joking.

While the Jazz were in Boston, a film crew was in Boston Garden, shooting scenes for a movie called "Celtic Pride" that takes place during a mythical NBA Finals in which the Celtics face the Jazz. The plot apparently revolves around the kidnapping of a Jazz player, rumored to be modeled after Karl Malone.

The guess here now is that the movie ends up with a Celtic championship, but in real life, the Jazz have a better chance of getting to Finals than the Celtics have of even making the playoffs.

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