Basketball is the "second religion, after Roman Catholic," of the people of Lithuania, the country that has contributed 7-foot-3 man-mountain Arvydas Sabonis to the Portland Trail Blazer roster for the past four seasons.
"Basketball is like soccer in Brazil. The people know everything about NBA players, their heights and everything," said Lithuanian journalist Gintautas Alksninis, who was in the Delta Center this week covering Sabonis and the Jazz-Blazer playoff series.Alksninis is the bureau chief based in Washington, D.C., for Lietuvos Rytas, the Lithuanian national daily and TV news magazine. During these playoffs, he said he talks with Sabonis two or three times a day to relay home news about the man he calls the "European player of the century" to a small country of 3.7 million people that is proud to have won back-to-back bronze medals in the past two Olympiads. "It is a basketball-crazy country," Alksninis said.
Even though it might sound like heresy, Alksninis halfway harbors a personal hope that the Utah Jazz knock Sabonis and the Blazers out of the playoffs.
"I was rooting for the Utah Jazz in the last NBA Finals," he said. "But now, I am in a position that I wish Blazers success, but at the same time, I want them to lose because then we can have Sabonis helping our national team in European championship next month. Sabonis is our main center."
The top five teams in the European championships in France next month qualify for the Sydney Olympics.
Having gotten to know Sabonis over the past few years, Alksninis said the 292-pound 34-year-old Lithuanian icon is "very shy for the beginning. As you get to him, closer, he is very interesting, very friendly and funny and has a good sense of humor. He talks in sound bytes, which is what you need."
Alksninis has observed that Sabonis will sometimes hide behind language when someone new tries to ask him a question. "Sometimes he is just backing off from those reporters saying, 'I don't speak English,' and next time you hear he is speaking English," Alksninis said.
STARTING SLOW: On the heels of that Portland five-point fourth quarter in Game 1 on Tuesday came a bizarre we-won't-score-if-you-won't first half to Game 2. The teams set NBA Playoff records for the fewest combined points for two clubs in a first quarter (25 total, 14 Portland, 11 Utah), one less than the old mark that had lived since 1988. Utah's shooting percentage in the quarter was 23.5, Portland's 22.7.
The two teams also had the NBA Playoff mark for fewest points for both teams in a first half (63 total, Portland 32, Utah 31), breaking a mark (66) tied by Utah and Chicago on June 12, 1998, first set by Charlotte/Chicago on May 6, 1998.
STOCKTON'S MISFIRES: John Stockton is mired in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career.
Since his last-second Game 4 heroics in Sacramento, the future Hall-of-Famer has shot a paltry 8-for-31, or slightly better than 25 percent from the field. He's also missed numerous layups, including Thursday night's potential game-tying one.
Entering this season, Stockton owned a .520 career field goal percentage and shot nearly 49 percent during the lockout-shortened 1999 campaign.
COACH OF THE YEAR: Following Game 2, members of the Blazers' media relations staff circulated a notice about a press conference to be held Friday in Portland for "a major announcement."
It is widely speculated that at the press conference the NBA will announce that the Blazers' Mike Dunleavy is the league's Coach of the Year.
Dunleavy, in his second season in Portland, guided his team to a 35-15 record. The previous year, the Blazers posted a 46-36 mark.
WHY BOTHER?: Just two days after Jazz owner Larry Miller apologized to Blazers guard Greg Anthony for calling him a "cheap-shot artist" for knocking down John Stockton during a game last month at the Delta Center, Anthony struck again.
In the second quarter, Anthony tripped Jeff Hornacek and drew a flagrant foul call in the process.
SIGN LANGUAGE: Some of the best from the Delta Center faithful on Thursday:
FACE IT GRANT, YOU WOULD PAY $10,000 FOR THIS BODY. The night's winner, accompanied by a Deseret News poster picture of Malone stripping off his bloodied jersey in the regular-season Joe Kleine busted-lip incident.
HEY B. GRANT, TAKE YOUR MOP HOME. WE'RE SWEEPING.
$20,000 JAZZ FANS X 50 CENTS APIECE = KARL'S FINE.
KARL, MOP THE FLOOR WITH GRANT. The sign held by a man wearing a mop on his head mimmicking Brian Grant's locks.
KARL CAN ELBOW ME ANY TIME. Accompanied by another D-News Malone poster.
ELBOWS HAPPEN.
IF I WIN THIS CONTEST, I'LL HELP PAY KARL'S FINE.
EASY RIDER: Portland's Isaiah Rider sunk four crucial free throws in the waning moments of Game 2 and says he was unfazed by the rambunctious Delta Center crowd that was screaming and waving sword-like balloons behind the basket.
"I live for those moments," Rider said. "I want to shoot free throws under pressure, If it wasn't such a big game, I would have been smilin' at the crowd. I just didn't want to showboat."
NOT-SO-HAPPY TRAILS FOR JAZZ: While Utah is 10-12 all-time against the Blazers in the playoffs, the Jazz are only 1-9 at Portland.
Thursday marked the Blazers' first playoff victory in the Delta Center after six defeats. The Jazz's lone postseason victory in Portland came in the first round of the 1988 playoffs.