Lionel Hollins needed just three tries to do something that Brian Winters couldn't do in six tries, that Stu Jackson couldn't do in two tries, that Brian Hill couldn't do in seven tries.
Wednesday night, Hollins coached the Vancouver Grizzlies to a win over the Utah Jazz, 116-99 at the Delta Center.NBA coaches and players like to remind us at every opportunity that a win is a win, that beating the Jazz is the same as beating the Clippers. But make no mistake about it, the Grizzlies, even the new Grizzlies, were well-aware of their franchise's futility against Utah and delighted they'd been part of changing that.
"We've been close a lot of times, so it's nice to win one and get the oh-fer off our backs," Hollins acknowledged.
"You want to be able to say you have at least one win against everybody," said Grizzlies center Bryant Reeves, the only player to be around for the whole 0-17 streak. "It was even more (enjoyable) being here in Utah."
Even forward Othella Harrington, who just joined the Grizzlies this season, admitted enjoying this win a little more than usual.
"Yeah, it definitely means something, just to get the monkey off our backs," he said. "It makes us feel good."
The Grizzlies came into the Delta Center having had far too few opportunities to feel good lately. They'd lost their last six games, including a defeat at the hands of the Jazz in Vancouver last week. That's why the fact they were able to shuck their collective mental block and beat Utah was somewhat surprising.
And the way they beat the Jazz was a total shock. Their 116 points was the most scored against Utah in a regulation-length game since April 15, 1997. Vancouver clearly was the more active team, beating the Jazz to loose balls, outrebounding them and even out-executing them.
If the Jazz had played like this against the Lakers on Monday, they'd have lost by 60.
The Grizzlies know they benefited from catching the Jazz between an intense double-overtime win over the Lakers and a matchup with West rival Portland, but that didn't diminish their enjoyment.
"We caught them on an off-night," Reeves said. "But it doesn't matter if we caught them on an off-night or not. We'll take it any way we can get it."
Hollins even said he wouldn't mind if his players did a little celebrating.
"You always want to celebrate," he said. "You just don't want to get too high because it's just one game."
What had Hollins even more excited than the fact that his team had ended its futility record, or even that it won, was that it had played well. Players even responded to his halftime warnings that the Jazz would come out and try to make a run at the start of the third quarter, as they'd done successfully last week.
Still, Hollins wasn't willing to count the Jazz out until late in the game.
"When I finally relaxed was when it got down to 3:30 and they took (Karl) Malone and those guys out," he said. "You can never take anything for granted, especially against a great team like the Jazz."