Much ado is being made over the poor shooting performances of the Jazz's guards in Saturday's Game 3 of their Western Conference playoff series with Seattle, especially that of the trio of John Stockton, Howard Eisley and Jacque Vaughn.
Stockton shot 1-for-8 from the field in the Jazz's 89-78 loss, the lone basket being an uncontested layup as the clock wound down.Eisley was a woeful 0-for-7, making him 9-for-23 (.391) in the first three games. During the regular season, he shot .418 from the floor -- his lowest percentage in five seasons.
Vaughn missed both of his attempts, making the three a combined 1-for-17.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, however, is defending his men.
"I'll think we'll get rid of him," he cracked when asked about Stockton, the future Hall-of-Famer. "He's played so poorly. I think we'll trade him."
Reminded of the other two, he took the same sarcastic stand.
"Well," Sloan said, "we're going to trade all of them."
In all seriousness, Sloan knows he needs better shooting than that if the Jazz is to win Game 4 to end the best-of-five series. He thinks they know it, too.
"They seemed a little bit sluggish out there, for whatever reason," Sloan said Monday. "(But) they know themselves better than I do."
BIDING TIME: Jazz forward Karl Malone seemed none too thrilled to have sat on the Jazz bench for several minutes at the end of Game 3's opening half. In fact, he knows precisely how long it was that he played spectator. Said Malone: "Let's leave it at this; it's all I'm gonna say: I think the guys did a great job of keeping us in there in the ballgame when I didn't play -- in the last six minutes and 37 seconds of the first half."
ENOUGH ALREADY: Sloan continues to mockingly bemoan the lengthy time between games in this first-round series. Asked Monday if he was anxious for his club to play again, the Jazz coach sarcastically said, "No, I'd rather take another two weeks off. I think it would be more fun. We wouldn't have to worry about anything but just laying around and mowing the grass and do those sort of things."
RECORD PLAYER: Malone continues to re-write the NBA's playoffs record book. With his third of 12 field goals in Game 3, he passed Larry Bird (1,458) for fifth place all-time in postseason field goals made. Earlier, in the series, during Game 2, Malone passed John Havlicek (1,451) for sixth place. The Mailman now has 1,469. He needs 24 more to pass Hakeem Olajuwon and moved into fourth place behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2,356), Michael Jordan (2,188) and Jerry West (1,622).
FLIP SIDE: Speaking of Bird, Stockton has passed him for fourth place on the list of all-time playoff steals. Bird has 296. Stockton has seven through the first three games of the series, giving him 303. Only three others -- Jordan, Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen -- have more then 300.
MISCELLANEOUS: The Jazz are not counting on having reserve forward Adam Keefe for Game 4. Keefe has missed all three games of series so far due to a strained right hamstring . . . A sweep of the Los Angeles Clippers in 1997 marks the only time the Jazz have won the first two games of an opening-round, best-of-five playoff series and not seen the series go all give five games . . . When Malone became one of just 15 players to score 50 or more points in an NBA playoff game by hitting the half-century mark in Game 1, he also became the oldest to achieve that feat. Malone is 36. Next-closest: Jordan was 34 when he scored 55 against Washington on April 27, 1997.
You can reach Buckley by e-mail at tbuckley@desnews.com