Jazz Survive Battle With Rowdy Knicks

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John Stockton had several stitches next to his eye, Karl Malone had an ice pack on his hamstring, and Chris Morris and Jerry Sloan were sore at each other.

Such was the aftermath of the Utah Jazz’s 110-99 victory Tuesday night over the visiting New York Knicks in a physical game that featured nine technical fouls, a flagrant foul, several cheap shots and a coach ejecting his own player.

“The Knicks play a game where they try to get away with pushing and shoving and playing physical, and most teams won’t respond to it,” Utah’s Jeff Hornacek said. “But we knew our team wasn’t going to back down, and I think they didn’t anticipate us fighting back like that.”

The Jazz fought back the hardest in the final 3 minutes after blowing an 18-point lead and allowing the Knicks to tie the game at 94.

Malone scored 33 points, including four in a row late in the fourth quarter after he was whistled for the game’s ninth technical.

Hornacek added 21 and Stockton 18 for the Jazz. Utah had 17 steals, including five by Stockton.

Stockton suffered a cut next to his left eye late in the fourth quarter but returned for the final 90 seconds. He said the cut came on an inadvertent elbow, but he wasn’t so accepting of a flagrant foul by Charlie Ward with 7.4 seconds left on a breakaway layup.

When it happened, Stockton turned to Ward like he was about to charge after him. Instead, he regained his composure, went to the line and sank both shots, making him 11 for 11 in the period.

“I think that play spoke for itself, so I’m not going to get into it any more than that,” Stockton said.

After Morris was burned on several consecutive plays by rookie John Wallace, Sloan motioned three times for Morris to leave the bench, and when the player refused Sloan sent two Delta Center security guards to escort Morris to the locker room.

Rockets win, but lose Price

Hakeem Olajuwon scored eight straight points for Houston in the final 4:08 as the Rockets overcame the loss of guard Brent Price to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 100-96.

The Rockets took a 60-43 halftime lead but lost Price for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.