In the end, it was skill and finesse, not brawn, that prevailed in the Delta Center Tuesday night, and that was probably the biggest surprise of all. Until then, the game between Utah and Miami had all the beauty and finesse of a prison riot, but then John Stockton dashed into the lane without getting tackled and threw a clean pass to Bryon Russell, who stroked the game-winning, 3-point shot.
Score: Utah Jazz 84, Miami Muggers 81.That wasn't a basketball game Tuesday night; it was a gang fight. It was hoop du jour -- with a fat lip. It was the way the game will always be played -- if the NHL ever takes over the league. James Naismith was rolling in his grave.
You know the game is brutal when the fan in Row 16, wearing sweats and a baseball cap, was wincing at the action. "I haven't been to a lot of basketball games," he said, "but I was surprised at how physical it was."
But what does Bill Romanowski know about rough play?
The all-Pro linebacker for the world champion Denver Broncos was in town to visit Jazz chiropractor Craig Buhler. He's mean, hard-hitting and a sure tackler -- which means he's perfectly qualified to play for Pat Riley. After receiving treatment from Buhler at Stockton's home earlier in the day, Romanowski attended the game and picked up a few tips for the gridiron.
"I have a whole new respect for pro basketball players," he told Buhler during the game. "It's astounding the amount of abuse they take."
"He was blown away by how physical it was and by what the refs didn't call," said Buhler.
Romanowski should have felt right at home. There were parts of the game -- namely, all the parts between the opening tipoff and the final minute -- that it would have been a stretch to call basketball. You'd have to think of another name for this game. Football, for instance.
The Heat almost pulled out a victory when Tim Hardaway ran a power sweep around the right end, and pulling guard Alonzo Mourning threw a beautiful running block on Stockton, leaving Hardaway free to drain a 3-point shot that gave the Heat an 81-79 lead with 59 seconds left. The fans screamed for a moving-screen violation. Jerry Sloan leaped in protest and tweaked his surgically repaired knee. Stockton shouted and gestured. The refs looked the other way.
"The refs let 'em play tonight," said Greg Foster. Actually, they let them beat the drool out of each other, which made for a sloppy game. But this is to be expected when the Miami Muggers are in town. It is not for nothing that they are built like bodybuilders. They are infamous for their physical style of play.
"We expected the game to be like this," said Foster.
"The slower the game, the more physical it gets," said Sloan. "If you're walking, guys bang each other more. Sometimes it's like mud wrestling out there."
Wrestling, football, hockey, whatever. The floor was littered with bodies. Karl Malone's, for instance. Malone dived on top of Mourning to recover a fumble. P.J. Brown slammed Malone to the floor and smiled. Stockton got creamed by a couple of picks. They were all so busy beating each other up that they forgot how to do the other little things, such as scoring and dribbling.
Malone shot a hook shot that never drew iron. Blue Edwards threw a pass into the stands. Terry Porter shot an airball from the corner. Tim Hardaway dribbled a crossover dribble right out of bounds. The Jazz shot 38 percent from the field -- and won. It was basketball on 14 cups of coffee, a whir of slapping, grabbing, pushing and back-and-forth, mad-cap scrambles for loose balls and errant passes. It was "basketball" at its best and worst. A close, hard-fought game, with absolutely no style or artistic merit.
And these are the two best teams in the NBA.
Sloppy games are the norm in the NBA this season. Blame it on referees and the NBA, which play fast and loose with the rules, and players, who have lost the game's fundamentals (please, see traveling, dribbling from the bottom of the ball, contact, moving picks, etc.) But also blame it on the lockout and the four-games-a-week schedule, which allows little or no time for practice.
"You're going to have more turnovers this year; games are going to be sloppier," says Sloan. "There's no time to practice. They didn't schedule the 50 games with coaches in mind. It's just get this thing played. I'd love to have practiced yesterday, but there's no way you can do that and expect the players to have their legs today. I gave them the day off. We're not talking about 21-year-olds."
For once, even Sloan allowed himself a rare smile following Tuesday's win. After a four-game road trip, after two overtime losses, his tired, old team beat the rough-and-tumble Heat, rallying from 10 points down. "We hunted and searched a little, but we found a way," he said.