It was a relaxed atmosphere at the Utah Jazz practice Saturday morning in the Forum. Players were all smiles. They seemed as loose as they've been all year as they held court with the horde of media members afterward - and why not? They're on their way back to the NBA Finals.
They just need to take care of a bit of unfinished business, probably today or Tuesday, and then wait for the Bulls-Pacers winner to emerge, probably the Bulls.Of course, the Jazz, in a manner befitting a Jerry Sloan-coached team, were saying the right things and not talking about the Finals just yet. You know, the "one game at a time" spiel. They spoke of how the Los Angeles Lakers, down 0-3 in the best-of-7 Western Conference finals, are still a team that could come back and make things interesting if the Jazz aren't careful. They pointed to how the Lakers beat Seattle four games in a row as proof of how dangerous their opponent at 1:30 p.m. today can be. They spewed "backs against the wall" cliches and such.
"I don't think we should feel good about ourselves," said Karl Malone. "We need to come out with the same kind of intensity that we've had."
Now, whether the Jazz really believe what they were saying is another matter. Seeing as no team in NBA 51-year history has ever come back to win a series after losing the first three games, it's a pretty safe bet that the Jazz will advance. The only real question remaining is whether or not the Jazz can sweep.
"We don't want to have the attitude that we'll beat them when we get back home," said Karl Malone. "It's nice to have that luxury, but we want to win it now."
Added Antoine Carr, "There's no doubt about it, we want to close this thing. We've got the Lakers down, now we want to take them out."
Should the Jazz win today to complete a sweep, it would be a first. They have never swept a best-of-7 series. The last time the Jazz were ahead 3-0, as a matter of fact, it turned out to be a long series. Utah beat Denver three straight to open their 1994 conference semifinals, but then lost three in a row. The Jazz finally put the Nuggets away in the seventh game.
"We've still got work to do," said John Stockton.
Sloan, for his part, could still run off a list of things his team hadn't been doing as well as he would like. But even he couldn't find fault with the position his team is in after three games.
"I don't think anybody could have expected this," said the Jazz coach. "(The Lakers) were favored to beat us. You'd be crazy to think we'd be in this position."
While Malone was peppered with questions from media members about the Bulls, he tried to avoid getting ahead of himself.
"We have a series ourselves to take care of before we start thinking solely about those guys," said Malone.
The Lakers met the media prior to their Saturday practice without the bravado they had just a week before when they were the hottest team in the league and the favorite to beat the Jazz. They seemed a bit shell-shocked and befuddled.
"(Utah's defensive scheme) has thrown us off and we still haven't quite figured it out yet," admitted guard Nick Van Exel.
"Right now Utah has us playing their style of basketball and we don't play that style very well," said Lakers forward Rick Fox.
Still, Lakers coach Del Harris is holding out hope.
"You've got to think that sometime a team will come back from three down," said Harris.
"Why not us? Why not now?"
The Jazz have allowed Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal to score 70 points in the past two games, but have kept the other L.A. all-stars in check. Eddie Jones, Van Exel and Kobe Bryant - who all joined O'Neal and Malone on the Western Conference all-star team - were a combined 10-for-26 on Friday night (27.7 percent).
O'Neal will need some help from teammates or summer will start this afternoon for the Lakers.
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Additional Information
The series
The West
Conference finals
Game 1 Jazz 112
Lakers 77
Karl Malone leads Jazz with 29 points
Game 2 Jazz 99
Lakers 95
John Stockton breaks out with 22 points
Game 3 Jazz 109
Tonight Lakers 98
Chris Morris scores 15 off the bench
Game 4 UTAH at
May 24 Los Angeles
TV TIME: NBC, 1:30 p.m.
If necessary
Game 5 Los Angeles
May 26 at UTAH
TV TIME: NBC, 7:00 p.m.
If necessary
Game 6 UTAH at
May 29 Los Angeles
TV TIME: To be announced
If necessary
Game 7 Los Angeles
May 31 at UTAH
TV TIME: To be announced