When the wait to make the playoffs had almost — but nooooooot quite — ended, there was little if any celebrating by the Jazz, after Saturday night's win over Memphis. No big surprise there. Is there ever a place for celebrating in Jerry Sloan's world? He could find something wrong with a tax refund.
Actually, the amazing story was this: Sloan seemed happy enough.
It was Andrei Kirilenko doing the down-talking. Asked after the 118-108 win if they planned to celebrate once they earn a playoff spot, Kirilenko shrugged.
"I mean, what kind of celebration?" he said. "In this season we're playing very well and we have high expectations. We want to move as high as we can and we have a great opportunity this year."
Sloan couldn't have said it better himself.
So with the Clippers leading Washington (and eventually winning) when the Jazz game ended, his team was close to wrapping up a Western Conference playoff spot. Very close. But not there yet. Close enough that even the ever-wary Sloan relaxed enough to admit that simply earning the eighth spot in the playoffs — which is a virtual certainty — would be good news.
"It means a tremendous amount," said Sloan. "It really does, when all is said and done, because this team has been out of the playoffs the last three years and you want to get them back in."
So go ahead and cue the loud music, inflate the balloons and invite the local celebrities. The Jazz will be there in the post-season.
Count on it. For 19 seasons that wasn't a surprise, it was an assumption.
Now it's a gift.
"It feels good," said Jazz center Mehmet Okur. "It's been a long time."
It's true that making the playoffs has been easy to predict; it's been a foregone conclusion since sometime in December. But getting there is something special because of this: The current Jazz no longer have to live with the accusation that the franchise went to weeds after John Stockton and Karl Malone left.
For a club that made the playoffs for nearly two decades, returning is important news. Used to be that playing in May was as ordinary as brushing your teeth. Not any more.
In the immediate post-Stockton-Malone era, the Jazz became a rag-tag bunch of role players, ranging from loopy center Greg Ostertag to resentful guard Carlos Arroyo to injury-ravaged Carlos Boozer. The one reliable player the Jazz had was Kirilenko. Strange how things change. Now he is in a new role, not as the leading scorer, or even the team leader, but as a full service department store. He'll get you what you need. Some nights it's assists, other nights it's steals and blocks. Only occasionally are his points drastically important.
On the New Age Jazz, there are plenty of people to score. In Saturday's win, A.K. turned in a nice 12-point, four-block, two-steal game.
Even when the Jazz shot out to a 12-1 start this season - best in the league — many NBA experts seemed skeptical. And though the Jazz did cool down, they never really faded as they built their division lead over Denver to double digits.
But once it became clear the Jazz would not only clinch a playoff spot, but win the division, the losses began to mount.
There was the four-game skid last week, not to mention the listless loss to the Clippers on Friday.
Suddenly, the Jazz were no longer cute, they were maddening.
A night later, though, they had righted themselves, leading the Grizzlies by as many as 24 points. Were they overjoyed to be, for all intents and purposes, in the playoffs? Not really. Still, it was nothing to scoff at. Jazz G.M. Kevin O'Connor and Sloan took what was once referred to in this column as a collection of spare parts, made some moves, and fashioned it into the league's fourth-best team — a team with a better record than anyone in the Eastern Conference.
With the success has come expectations - something the Jazz have rarely had to deal with since the glory days. Now losing is a genuine surprise to them. And now the focus has turned to winning the division and holding off Houston for the home court advantage in the first round.
If that happens, don't expect them to be dancing in the streets, though.
As A.K. himself said, what celebration?
E-mail: rock@desnews.com