Predictably, one of the first things the Utah Jazz were asked after Thursday night's series-clinching win over the Houston Rockets was how they felt about facing the Chicago Bulls.
"First I want to savor what we've accomplished thus far," said Jazz guard John Stockton. "We're just going to lay it all out there again.""The most important thing now is to play the game and not be afraid," said league MVP Karl Malone. "We can't be satisfied with just getting there . . . we've got to believe we belong there."
"They're a great team, and a team you really respect," guard Jeff Hornacek said of the Bulls. "They don't do a lot of talking in the paper, they do it on the court."
The one exception to that, of course, is controversial Bulls forward Dennis Rodman, he of the myriad tattoos and ever-changing hair colors. Malone said he doesn't plan to let the Chicago wild man become a distraction.
"I'm not going to turn it into a sideshow thing," he said. "I'm just going to play my game."
Hornacek said the Jazz will have to play their best basketball to beat the Bulls.
"If we can eliminate turnovers and keep them from fast breaks, we'll have a chance to win," he predicted.
One thing in the Jazz's favor: The Bulls will be heavy favorites, and this Utah team has responded well to being told they can't do something.
"Somebody asked me about being underdogs going to Chicago," Malone said. "What else is new? We're always the underdogs."
Malone made some comments about people hoping for a Bulls-Rockets series, but Bryon Russell said this is the best possible matchup.
"You got the best in the West and the best in the East, the two teams with the best records in the NBA," he said. "That's the way it's supposed to be."
AW, SHUCKS: Jazz coach Jerry Sloan looked almost embarrassed by all the attention heaped on him after the victory. And true to form, he deflected that attention to his players. Asked about finally getting to the Finals, he said it really wasn't about him.
"It's been kind of a long time for these guys," he said, gesturing toward Stockton, who has played 13 seasons, and Malone, who has played 12. "And that's the important thing, that they get a chance to go."
Of Stockton, Sloan said, "Tonight was a perfect example of who he is and what he's all about."
Sloan took a little jab, as he's done on other occasions, at mercenary players who switch teams in search of a title.
"A lot of guys say, `If I go to that team, I'll win a championship,' " he said . "These guys stuck in there through the hard times. They stayed together."
SHORT STUFF: Sign seen in The Summit: "In Texas we have bigger cockroaches than Stockton. Step on him." Good advice. Poor execution.
Ostertag went down in the second quarter with a tweaked ankle.
This will mark just the second time in NBA history that the top two scorers in the regular season meet in the Finals. The first time was in 1995, when Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon and Orlando's Shaquille O'Neal squared off.
In searching for a way to describe his feeling as the buzzer sounded, Stockton said, "What's the word Charles (Barkley) used the other night?" Told the word was "surreal," Stockton said, "I don't know what that means, so I'm not saying it."
Jazz center Greg Foster said reaching the Finals has to be a relief of sorts for the team's veterans. "Now the monkey's off everybody's back," he said.
NBA Commissioner David Stern said before the game that he'd be sorry to see either Barkley or the Jazz veterans knocked out of the playoffs. "I'd love to see every Hall of Famer retire with a ring," he said.