Jazz 95, Kings 86Sacramento was on their floor. Seattle was on their minds.
The Jazz on Wednesday night disposed of one Pacific Division opponent while pondering another, ending their regular season by beating the Kings 95-86 at the Delta Center -- but thinking the whole time about an opening-round Western Conference playoff series with the Sonics.
"This part of the season is over with," guard John Stockton said after the Midwest Division-champion Jazz finished 55-27. "Everybody is looking forward to the next part."
That, the Jazz learned while playing Wednesday, will start Saturday, when the series between Utah, the No. 2 seed in the West, and Seattle, the No. 7 seed, gets under way at the Delta Center.
Game 1 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Saturday, with Game 2 set for 8:30 Monday night at the Delta Center. The best-of-five series then moves to Seattle and takes a hiatus of sorts, with Game 3 not played until 3:30 p.m. on April 29; Game 4, if necessary, on May 3 in Seattle; and Game 5, also if necessary, on May 5 back at the Delta Center.
Before totally turning their attention to that postseason schedule, though, the Jazz had to deal with this exercise in necessity, the game against Sacramento.
If the Kings had beaten the Sonics on Tuesday night, Wednesday's game between Sacramento and Utah would have been a sneak preview of a repeat playoff series: The Kings and Jazz squared off in the first round last season, with Utah winning in five games.
Instead Seattle beat host Sacramento in overtime on Tuesday, giving the No. 7 seed to the Sonics and the No. 8 seed and a first-round series against the NBA-leading Los Angeles Lakers to the Kings.
It also rendered Wednesday's regular-season finale most meaningless.
The Jazz, like it did in an overtime loss at Denver on Tuesday after clinching the division crown on Sunday at Phoenix, rested their stars. Stockton played 21 minutes and Karl Malone 23, both well below their average playing time.
The Kings essentially did the same, putting Chris Webber on the injured list to rest a strained right calf and Nick Anderson on the injured list to rest a score left knee -- opening the way for big minutes to the likes of Bill Wennington and Ryan Robertson, a rookie out of Kansas who was making his NBA debut after spending the entire season on the injured list himself.
Despite his limited playing time Malone nevertheless posted 18 points, tying retiring Jeff Hornacek, who appeared in only the first and third quarters of his final regular-season game at the Delta Center, for game-high scoring honors.
The rest was left to reserves like Armen Gilliam and Adam Keefe, who both matched Malone for team-high rebounding honors with eight each, Greg Ostertag, who had 10 points to go with his seven boards, and Jacque Vaughn, who had five assists and eight points.
The subs pulled it out for the Jazz in the fourth, outscoring the Kings 21-11 to break open what had been a one-point game (75-74 Sacramento) after three quarters.
That ended a seventh consecutive season of .500 or better for the Jazz, who of course went to the NBA Finals in 1996-97 and '97-98, were bounced by Portland in the second round last season, then underwent an offseason marked by change: front-office head Scott Layton left for the New York Knicks, swingman Shandon Anderson bolted as a free agent for Houston and Olden Polynice was signed to replace Greg Foster (who is now with Seattle) as one of the Jazz's two centers.
The resignation of general manager Tim Howells and retirement of team president Frank Layden in December just continued the trend of changeover, but none of that has seemed to disturb the Jazz as they head to the playoffs for a 17th consecutive season.
"These guys have done a tremendous job, I think," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We know that we're short in our guard line, size-wise. This team overcame a great deal of deficiencies.
"You look at all the things that happened -- we got a new director of player personnel (vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor), and all of the other changes in the organization. We hated to see those people change, but we still tried to fight back through all of that stuff."
And now the Jazz must fight through Seattle, which split its two games with Utah this season.
"This team goes to Sacramento and beats them in their building," Sloan said of the Sonics.
"We're going to have to have a heck of an effort," he added, "to beat this team. . . . We have our work cut out for us."
And they've already started thinking about it.
NOTES: Jazz rookie Scott Padgett, playing on his 24th birthday, scored four points in 18 minutes. . . . Darrick Martin came off the bench to score a team-high 16 points for the Kings. . . . Sacramento guard Jon Barry was ejected in the third quarter, when he picked up his second technical of the game.
You can reach Tim Buckley by e-mail at tbuckley@desnews.com