Jazz Merely Bark, Because Their Bite Has No Teeth

The fatal flaw in the concept of taking what the defense gives you is cruelly obvious.

What if the defense doesn’t give you anything?

What if someone armed with a rusty cheese grater administers a vigorous massage to the delicately woven fabric of your playbook? What if your cherished pick-and-roll is rendered into the brick-and-rigamarole? What if your best play is the courtesy illegal defense?

Your second-best play the 20-second timeout?

Your third-best play - well, what if there is no such thing?

All ifs were so Wednesday night, and thus the challenge for the Utah Jazz is not so much to claw their way back from a 2-0 deficit in the NBA Finals but to muster up enough sic ‘em to hold the TV ratings in Aruba and Tahiti and Burkina Faso and wherever else the NBA is trying to help Michael Jordan sell shoes and New Age ideology these days.

There are not enough Zs among all the pro teams in Utah to adequately describe Chicago’s 97-85 victory in Game 2, which was less the anointing of a champion than it was the hint of surrender.

“We probably haven’t taken their best shot,” admitted Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “They’re such a good team defensively, but still in all I’ve always been amazed at how easy it is to intimidate people in this business. And I thought we were intimidated right from the beginning of the game. If you allow yourself to be intimidated, they’ll destroy your will and I thought we were easily effected by what they did tonight.

“I still think you can foul people, rather than just giving in to them - regardless of who they are.”

Second.

A good foul could be just what this series needs, some Monday Night Raw kind of thing. Do unto Michael Jordan, if you will, before Dennis Rodman does unto you.

It’s what Jerry Sloan would do were he still playing and perhaps that wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Jazz - pull the old coach’s jersey down from the United Center rafters and send him out there to do some of the dirty work some of his players just weren’t willing to do Wednesday night.

“We played soft - you can’t argue with him,” said Karl Malone.

Why not? Argue! Foul! Get cranky!

At this point, we are merely a game ahead of schedule. A year ago, Seattle waited until Game 3 in their own terrarium to fold before the draw. Of course, good things happened after that - but those Sonics at least had one player the Bulls had no answer for, and the Jazz haven’t invented that beast yet.

Malone is missing layups and free throws with numbing regularity. John Stockton might have to bank his next pass off the ceiling to get an uncontested assist. If you’re looking for Greg Ostertag and Bryon Russell, check the carton of 2% you’re emptying over the bran flakes.

“I’m stinking it up right now,” said Malone. “My teammates feed off and play off the things I do, and when I don’t bring a lot of energy to it, it seems like as a team we don’t.

“To me, this was embarrassing.”

Well, yes.

The Jazz won 64 games in the regular season - and though it was a long time ago, one of those were against the Bulls. So there must be some hope.

“We know we’re a good team,” said Stockton, who had his first ordinary game in a spell - 4 of 12 shooting, 14 points, seven assists, four turnovers. “We just have to win the next one. It makes it simple.

“When you start looking ahead, things become impossible. But one at a time, anything is possible.”

Not according to history. Teams have come back from 0-2 to win the NBA Championship, but not in the 2-3-2 format. And no one has beaten the Bulls four out of five since February 1995, when Jordan still had the notion he could hit a curveball.

Still, the Jazz are headed back to Utah, where the fellows have been known to play pretty well. The Bulls seem to think the pretenders will get a few calls they haven’t been getting in Chicago - though Utah got most of them Wednesday night.

“And we’re pretty sure they’ll get some negative, motivating press,” said Jordan. “We have to be ready for a battle.”

But that battle must first be joined with will, and then with performance. The Jazz bottomed out with an 11-point second quarter Wednesday night when it couldn’t find its regular counters and options when the Bulls bottled up the pick-and-roll.

“They’re very active and quick to the ball,” said Stockton. “They beat us to cuts and showed out on screens and did all the little things that we know are important for us to do - only they did them.

“They put on a defensive clinic.”

Let Scottie Pippen talk you through it:

“We know that 70-80 percent of their game is the screen-and-roll,” he said, “and we’re trying to force John to the baseline and take some of his options away. If we can do that and hold Karl on one side, it takes away a big threat of their offense.”

At this point, it’s been all take. And not a whit of give.

You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, ext. 5509.

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