HOUSTON — The storyline should be Steve Francis' game-winning 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds to go.
It might have been John Stockton dishing his 15,000th career assist, which went to Bryon Russell for a key trey with about 30 seconds remaining.
Or, if things had gone right for the Jazz, it could even have been the way they were down by nine in the fourth quarter, and by as many as 14 in the first half, before clawing back.
Instead, it is how a late-game technical called by referee Dan Crawford on Karl Malone had the Jazz in a tizzy following their 95-92 loss to the Houston Rockets on Sunday afternoon at the Compaq Center.
"It seems like everything was against us tonight," Russell said. "Kelvin Cato took Karl's head off — there wasn't no call on that. So what are we supposed to do? I don't know how to play against eight people."
Setting up the tech: With 1:08 to go and the game tied at 87, Malone missed a layup, credited as a block to Houston's Kelvin Cato. Rockets teammate Cuttino Mobley grabbed the loose ball, leading to Kenny Thomas' running jumper on the other end. The 34-28 Jazz came right back, with Stockton, already far-and-away the NBA's all-time assists leader, penetrating deep before kicking the ball out to Russell for No. 15,000, a left-side 3 that made it 90-89 Utah with 34.8 seconds left.
Going into an ensuing timeout, Malone complained to Crawford.
"If (the ball) was my (bleeping) head," Malone said later, "it's a blocked shot."
Crawford, who would not comment on what the refs deemed a judgment call, responded by hitting Malone with a tech that sent Mobley to the line for a free throw that tied it at 90.
The reason, according to Malone: "He (Crawford) said I walked over there and told him he was a cheater."
Said Russell: "I don't think Karl said anything out-of-context. 'He took my head off; make the call.' Then (Crawford) tried to say Karl said he was cheating, but Karl never said that."
It's a claim Malone also vehemently denies: "I didn't even say he was cheating.
"I said, 'You've got to call that.' Cato didn't even go at the ball. He went to keep me from scoring-and-one. It was obvious, right there," Malone added. "The thing I'm saying is this right here, and it's all I'm gonna say: As an athlete, you want to have the outcome of the ballgame. That's what you were trained for; that's what you work for. And that's all you expect. That's all. No more, no less."
Those from Utah didn't feel they experienced that Sunday.
"To me, the turning point was the technical," Russell said. "I mean . . . I don't understand it.
"I mean, if he's gonna call the game, call it both ways. Don't just be one-sided," Russell added. "What'd they shoot, 22 free throws? We shot 11. (Actually, 14.) And we shot more inside shots then they did? I mean, c'mon. And we've got people that can score with the ball in the paint. But they don't get fouled? We've got a man (Malone) on our team that's scored over 30-some-thousand points, but he don't get fouled?"
Livid Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, also upset about a no-call at the end of the first half, did not criticize Malone for getting the technical at such a critical time: "I'd rather have somebody that cares than walks away."
That said, it did turn the tide.
Cato scored on a layup right after Mobley's freebie, putting Houston up 92-90. Stockton answered with a layup of his own, but that gave the 23-39 Rockets the ball back with 5.8 seconds to go. Francis took it from there, hitting his 3 as time was about to expire.
"It felt good to knock down a shot like that, knowing the game was on the line," Francis said.
"He pulled up and made the shot," Sloan said. "That's what great players do."
From Utah's perspective, though, it was a shot largely overshadowed by what else happened. Same for the assist by Jazz point guard Stockton, who later said he had "no thoughts" on how his 15,000th took a back seat to one tech.
Others, however, did.
"I think it's an unbelievable accomplishment for Stock and what he (does), and what he tries to do to help everybody get better," said Malone, the NBA's No. 2 all-time scorer and a man on the receiving end of countless Stockton assists. "And, yeah, it's unfortunate — but that don't take anything away from his 15,000th. It really doesn't."
Or does it?
NOTES: Both teams used only eight players. Shooting guards John Starks and DeShawn Stevenson and big men Greg Ostertag and John Amaechi did not play for the Jazz. Sloan used usual reserve point guard Rusty LaRue at the 2-spot over backup Starks, saying "(LaRue) was not taking quick shots and was staying in our offense." . . . LaRue responded with 14 points, one shy of his season-high . . . Malone had a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, marking his 24th double-double of the season . . . Houston snapped a two-game losing streak, and Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich moved past Billy Cunningham and alone into 25th place on the NBA's all-time wins list with 455.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com