Jazz Just Not Good As Bulls Utah Fails To Perform In Critical Late Moments

The Utah Jazz were never intimidated, never in awe of the Chicago Bulls. They simply weren’t good enough to wrest away the NBA championship.

In their first NBA Finals, the Jazz had numerous opportunities, losing three times during the six-game series in the final seconds.

“We said coming in we weren’t just going to show up and be in awe and I don’t think we were,” Karl Malone said. “We didn’t do things we were capable of doing, didn’t do things all the time we did this season to win 64 games.”

When they were eliminated Friday night in a 90-86 loss, the Jazz squandered a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, rookie Shandon Anderson missed two layups and Bryon Russell botched a final-second inbounds pass.

And once again Malone, the regular-season MVP, struggled at the free-throw line, missing 8 of 15 attempts “I didn’t make them. I’m disappointed, but it’s not the end of the world and I’m not going to approach it like that,” Malone said.

“I felt I came out and played hard. I didn’t have the kind of series I wanted to, but the effort was there. I don’t feel I let anybody down. If they do, to hell with them.”

The Jazz gave the Bulls the most difficult challenge they have faced in the Finals.

They lost Game 1 by two points when Malone missed two free throws and Michael Jordan hit a last-second shot. They dropped Game 5 when they couldn’t control a sickly Jordan in the fourth quarter on their home court, losing again by two points.

“Granted, they beat us, they did all the things champions do,” John Stockton said. “I think everybody leaving the locker room feels we belong in the Finals and want to be back.”

Twice in the final 5 minutes, Anderson, the only rookie on the Jazz roster, missed reverse layups.

“I have no excuses. I had three or four chances to score down the stretch and didn’t,” Anderson said. “On the first play, Scottie Pippen came from behind me (and) I tried to use the basket to protect the shot.”

On the second miss, with half a minute left, Anderson said he again felt Pippen’s presence and “I just put the shot up too hard and missed it. … This is Game 6 of the NBA Finals. You have to finish it.”

After Anderson’s second miss with half a minute to go, the Bulls called time. And when the Jazz double-teamed Jordan, he found an open Steve Kerr for a go-ahead jumper with 5 seconds left. In Game 1, the Jazz elected to not double Jordan before his game-winner.

“We had a quicker lineup in the game today than on the other situation,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “That’s why I took the chance of going double and we didn’t do a very good job of getting it done.”

Stockton doubled Jordan and then slipped trying to get back to Kerr.

Still, the Jazz had another chance to send the series to a seventh game, but Russell’s inbounds pass was tipped, Pippen then tipped it to Toni Kukoc for a clinching dunk.

“There were a lot of options,” Stockton said. “I think generally I was supposed to get the ball and it didn’t have time to develop where I could get open.”