Lakers 91, Jazz 84
The Utah Jazz are smart enough, and undeniably old enough, to know what they have to do to win.Doing it is quite another matter, and it showed Tuesday night at the Delta Center.
Because for all the wisdom, and experience, and been-there, done-that veterans who were out on the floor for the Jazz, including a revamped starting lineup that averaged nearly 35 years in age, none of it was sufficient to overcome a not-so-younger Los Angeles Lakers team that did just enough of everything the Jazz did not.
Play some solid defense. Hit the open 3. Know when to foul, and when not.
L.A. did more of all of the above than the Jazz did in Phil Jackson's debut as coach of the Lakers, which was enough to leave the Jazz looking for answers after a 91-84 Lakers victory in the 1999-2000 NBA regular-season opener for both teams.
"There's no shortage of things we have to work on," said veteran Jazz point guard John Stockton, who finished with 15 points but shot just 6-of-13 from the field.
It starts with starting.
"I didn't think we ever really got into the groove," forward Pete Chilcutt said, "until the fourth quarter."
The Jazz did get their game together in the final stanza, and even went up twice by 2, first at 71-69 when Karl Malone scored on a driving layup with seven minutes left in the final period, and again at 74-72 when Stockton hit a 17-foot running jumper with 5:18 to go.
But Shaquille O'Neal answered with a basket from down low, and -- get this -- made his free throw to complete a 3-point play, putting the Lakers ahead to stay. Another 17-footer by Stockton cut the Laker lead to 3 at 87-84 with 32.9 seconds remaining, and the Jazz had a chance to tie after Shaq -- go figure -- missed two from the line after being fouled by Greg Ostertag.
Stockton got the ball off to Pete Chilcutt -- a strong-shooting big man brought in specifically for his outside range -- for a 3-point try with 12.9 seconds left, but the shot rimmed out.
"If it turned out to be open," Chilcutt said of the shot he took. "That was one of the things we were looking for there."
But perhaps it was fitting that it didn't go in, because if it had, and the Jazz went on to win, it would have only been by dumb luck.
"They did everything down the stretch to win," Malone said.
"We tried to get lucky at the end," Stockton added, "and it didn't happen."
The Jazz were forced into playing from behind following an opening quarter in which they hit just 8-of-20 from the field and committed four turnovers, leaving them down 25-18. It didn't help that 34-year-old vet Olden Polynice, named to start in favor of younger incumbent Greg Ostertag, picked up two quick fouls at the start, forcing coach Jerry Sloan to substitute earlier than he probably intended.
"We caused ourselves too many problems," said Sloan, adding he thought his club was "very sluggish a lot of times defensively."
The combination was killer.
"It was definitely an ugly game from our standpoint," said Chilcutt, who hit 2-of-6. "It just seemed like some of the time we were trying to force plays, and there were a lot of turnovers. . . . We were running the offense, I thought, a lot better in the preseason games than we did tonight."
Polynice faulted himself for not doing his part and playing only 17 minutes because "I picked up silly fouls.
"Whether they were fouls or not," Polynice said, "they were called."
Funny thing is, Sloan also criticized the Jazz for not being aggressive enough.
"It looked like we were playing like we were afraid to foul," he said with reference to new NBA rules that include a crackdown on handchecking high in the defensive zone and a newly created permission to double down on the strong side. "I'd rather go ahead and foul a guy, rather than just back out and give him the easy play. Let's put him at the free-throw line and make him beat us.
"We were a little bit too soft," added Sloan, who also started Adam Keefe and brought Bryon Russell off the bench. "We have to be a little bit more physical. Obviously, playing against O'Neal is really difficult. You know, you're not going to have great numbers against him a lot of times anyway, but you have to continue to work at it."
O'Neal finished with 23 points, second only to teammate Glen Rice's game-high 28 points.
The Jazz got 23 from Jeff Hornacek, who hit 8-of-13 with one 3-pointer and 6-of-6 from the line. But the only other Jazz player besides Stockton to score in double figures was Malone, who finished with 14 and made just 4-of-10 from the field. Ostertag (7 points) and Polynice (4) combined for just 11, not nearly enough from the center spot.
"In order for us to be successful," said Ostertag, who had seven rebounds to go with Polynice's six, "we should be around 16, 20 rebounds, and at least 15 points, between us."
As for Malone, Sloan suggested the new rules didn't do him any favors: "It's difficult with the way it is . . . In order to compensate, you have to hit shots outside."
The Jazz did not, at least not enough. The Lakers did.
"Those 3-point shots killed us," said Sloan, who watched Los Angeles hit 8-of-13 from 3-point range, including 4-of-6 in the fourth quarter, when Rice had two and Derek Fisher two more. "You would think we know we needed to stay at home, especially on Rice."
The Jazz probably knew. They just didn't do it.
"Eventually, things will work themselves out," Polynice promised.
"It's a long season," Ostertag added, "and we still have a lot of work to do."
That much everyone seems to agree on.
Except for Malone, a wise one who, with one down and 81 to go, is already hearing the clock tick.
"We have a lot of work to do," Malone said, "and a short time to do it."
NOTES: Olden Polynice is still learning his way around the Delta Center. Greg Ostertag knows it well, having played here since 1995, and having started all 48 of the games he played for the Jazz last season.
Ostertag's streak came to an end Tuesday night, when Polynice got the start instead in the Jazz's season-opening 91-84 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on the Delta Center.
As much as it seemed a kick for Ostertag, who is playing with a six-year contract worth $40-million, the decision by coach Jerry Sloan was also a bit of a boost for a preseason job well-done.
"I came into it with the attitude that it didn't matter," said Polynice, who has complained about not starting with previous teams in the past, but who seemed to put that all aside after signing with the Jazz as a free agent in the offseason.
"But, at the same time," Polynice added, "every athlete wants to be rewarded for hard work."
That is not to suggest Ostertag, who reported to camp with a renewed commitment to his game, did not work in the preseason. It's just that it seems Polynice may be a bit of a better fit for now with veterans Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, who all seem to like the way Polynice plays.
"They played well with Greg," Sloan said of the trio, "but I think, at times, he (Ostertag) felt a little bit left out."
As it turned out, that wasn't the case Tuesday night.
Polynice, who almost took the wrong turn trying to walk out of the Delta Center on Tuesday morning, got into early foul trouble against the Lakers, and Ostertag wound up playing 29 minutes off the bench.
NO BIG DEAL: The Jazz's other lineup change had Adam Keefe returning to his old small-forward starting spot, which was occupied all of last season by Bryon Russell.
"It's not really that important," Keefe, who started 75 of 80 games in 1997-98, said when asked about starting again.
Tuesday night, Keefe's words rang true: Russell came off the bench to play 34 minutes, and Keefe wound up playing 14.
MISC.: Rookie Scott Padgett was the only Jazz player who did not play Tuesday. . . . Jazz rookie Quincy Lewis went 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to score 3 points in his NBA debut. . . . Lakers big man Travis Knight, the 7-footer out of Alta High School, pulled down two rebounds and missed his only shot in just one minute of play. Knight logged just two minutes in the preseason, due to a sprained right ankle. . . . All but two Jazz players, Lewis and Jacque Vaughn, played 14 minutes or more. Lewis was in for four, and Vaughn for just one.