ESPNET SportsZone: Jazz buzz: Utah disgusted with Game 2

Jazz buzz: Utah disgusted with Game 2

By Phil Green
ESPNET SportsZone

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CHICAGO -- Who would have thought a Michael Jordan buzzer-beater could ever seem so painless?

The Utah Jazz was not a happy-looking bunch Wednesday.

Not that the Utah Jazz enjoyed losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals that way, but the players were definitely in better spirits on Sunday than they were after Wednesday's Game 2 fiasco.

Don't be fooled by the relatively close 97-85 final score. Utah certainly wasn't.

"We didn't have any effort," center Greg Ostertag said. "We didn't have offense. We didn't do anything tonight. We played really soft. We weren't aggressive. We didn't bump anybody. We really didn't do anything."

"Basically they just dominated us," Jeff Hornacek said. "They outhustled us, outrebounded us, out did everything us. We lost the game, lost it big."

Utah actually had a chance to win on Sunday. But from the outset Wednesday, the Jazz had no shot. Utah never led. The Jazz never got closer than two points, 31-29, midway through the second quarter. From that point on it was over, thanks to a 14-1 Bulls run.

Q&A WITH THE JAZZ

Question from Mike Crane of Springville, Utah: Is Karl Malone's hand too injured to take the ball to the basket, or is he relying on his fadeaway jumper because he is being defended by taller players?
Answer from Malone: "I don't have any excuses. ... As far as I'm concerned, I'm just not getting it done."

"I thought we were intimidated right from the beginning of the game," coach Jerry Sloan said. "If you allow yourself to be intimidated, (it) destroys your will to win."

Utah's 11 second-quarter points tied a Finals record and the team's 31-point half was the second-lowest first-half output in Finals history. During that first half, where the game was decided, the Jazz shot just 31.4 percent from the floor and allowed the Bulls to hit 45.7 percent of their shots.

The dejected Jazz players feel like they need a completely fresh start to turn things around for Friday's Game 3.

"After that effort, it's back to the basics," Adam Keefe said. "We need to go and figure out how to run our offense, how to set screens, how to run the floor."

While things should get better with a return to the Delta Center, where the Jazz posted a 38-3 mark during the regular season, Utah doesn't even seem sure of that anymore.

Malone, Stockton shot chart

Karl Malone (32) and John Stockton (12) were a combined 4 for 17 in the first half. Click here for complete shot charts of Game 2.

"We should be very worried," Shandon Anderson said. "Everybody's talking about, 'You're going home to Salt Lake. It's very hard to beat you guys at Salt Lake.' But it's the Bulls, they're probably a better road team than home team. If we lose this third game, it's going to be very critical for us."

But if Utah plans to make a run at the Bulls, it will be critical for the team to somehow keep its confidence.

"You can never think it's over," Hornacek said. "We have to regroup, come out from the start, bang a little harder and not let them do whatever they want. At home, we've got to do a better job of getting them out of their offense."

Based on Wednesday's performance, getting the Bulls out of their offense will be just half the battle, because Utah still needs to figure out its own offensive game.

Utah also was buzzing about:

Family. Anderson's father died Wednesday after a long illness. Anderson received the news about four hours before the game. He played at his mother's wishes.

"She told me to just come out and play," he said. "That's what my father would want me to do. That's what I did."

Q&A WITH THE JAZZ

From Jonathan Singer of Palo Alto, Calif.: Why was Utah so tentative at the outset of the game?
Answer from Jeff Hornacek: "We might have been too tentative about taking a quick shot because we're trying to get it into Karl (Malone) and play off that. When Karl throws it out of there, we want to try to get him to re-post and get it back into to him. So that may have something to do with us being a little slow to pull the trigger. But who knows? We'll see what the coaches say."

Rather than returing to Utah with the team, Anderson returned to home to Atlanta following the game. He's doesn't expect to be back with the team for Friday's game.

Malone's hand. Malone hit the floor hard after connecting for a first-quarter transition hoop over Scottie Pippen. It seemed Malone might have reinjured the right hand that has bothered him since the Western Conference finals.

All along, however, the team has said Malone is fine. There was no exception to that following Wednesday's game.

"He's still on the floor," Sloan said. "He didn't come off the floor, so evidentally he's OK."

Triple-doubles. To most people in attendance, it seemed apparent the Bulls spent much of the fourth quarter trying to get a triple-double for Michael Jordan, who finished one assist shy.

However, most of the Jazz players didn't even notice.

"It didn't look like he was passing just to get that," Hornacek said. "He was being pretty aggressive driving the ball. Maybe he was expecting guys to come out to him and then he was going to dish it off.

"If I'm up 12 or 15, with Michael Jordan on my team, I'm going to isolate him too."