the Jazz came single file into the locker room, barely uttering a word. Nary a whoop of joy, not even a high-five. Ever seen a college student headed to a chemistry final? That sort of concerned, all-business look? Then you've seen the Jazz after a playoff win.
Someone arriving on the scene might have surmised the Jazz had lost Monday night to the Sonics, rather than won in a rout. So what else is new? You were expecting John Stockton to execute a triple-lutz? Blow kisses to the crowd? How about a victory lap around the arena?
The Jazz lead their first-round playoff series with Seattle 2-0, which means you can stick a fork in the Sonics. You can see it in the way Vin Baker went out of his way to score a grand total of 10 points. And in the way the Sonics allowed the Jazz to roll through one stretch in which they scored on 23 of 27 possessions.
You could especially see it in the scoreboard, which at one point showed the Jazz with a 34-point lead.
Fact is, the Jazz are going to Seattle merely to do the cleanup work. They're putting the buff on the shine, taking out the trash. The Sonics, who have struggled with turmoil throughout the year, are ill-equipped to take the series much further.
The way things looked on Monday, they aren't equipped to order lunch, much less overcome a 2-0 deficit.
"So much for that Game 2 mess, huh?" said Sonics forward Greg Foster. "Let's just call it a good old-fashioned (expletive)-kicking.
It's as simple as that. We weren't tough enough. We haven't shown that we've been tough enough throughout the year."
This, of course, has the Jazz in full denial. They're in their take-nothing-for-granted mode. Get cocky? THESE guys?
"Our guys have been through it, but we've never won anything," cautioned Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "When you run around and try to get overconfident when you've never won anything, that would be really bad on our part. I don't know why you would do that. The only way you can be confident is if you've won a world championship. Until that time, I don't think you have anything to be overconfident about."
All right. So here are the Jazz, hats in hand, looking at the ground and shuffling their feet. Rub it in? Declare unconditional victory? Not these guys. Give them a Mercedes and they'd worry that the tank wasn't full. Hand them a rout and they'll complain about early turnovers — which Sloan actually managed to do.
When someone mentioned how "easy" the game was, Olden Polynice got a concerned look and said, "I wouldn't say easy."
It wasn't exactly a climb up the North Face of Everest, either.
"They're going to come at us. They're going to try and make it a five-game series," said Polynice earnestly. "They're going to go home and definitely put it on the line. For them it's do or die. One loss and they're done for the year, and I don't think they're going to go down like that."
Here's a news flash, O.P.: They're already done for the year.
If the Jazz aren't calling the series over, History will. The Jazz are 9-1 all-time in series in which they won the first two games. Their only failure was in 1987, when Golden State overcame a 2-0 series lead in the first round. But that was long ago and far away, when the Jazz were young and unschooled in the ways of the playoffs. And Don Nelson was still in touch with his faculties.
Only five times in history have teams come back from 2-0 deficits to win a first-round series. The first was in 1956, when Fort Wayne came back on St. Louis. The most recent was when Denver did so in 1994 against Seattle.
Nevertheless, the Jazz aren't taking chances. They've been in too many playoff games — 17 straight years — to even think about their nearly insurmountable lead. They'll go the rest of this week claiming it's still an "iffy" proposition.
"I think our team is smarter than that," said Jacque Vaughn. "Everyone says we're old. Hopefully wisdom comes with age. I hope we understand that and approach things same as tonight."
They won't even need to do that, if Seattle approaches things the same way it did.
You can reach Brad Rock by e-mail at rock@desnews.com