Mailman stamps out Bulls

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Chris Morris, who had his best game in more than a month, sat by his locker in a terry-cloth robe answering questions with a vacant, almost sleepy expression. It looked like he thought he was still playing in New Jersey.

Q&A WITH THE JAZZ

Question from Ken Buck of Farmington, Conn.: This was the first Finals in Utah. How much did the crowd motivate you? Answer from Jeff Hornacek: "The noise level and the intensity of the crowd has been great all year, and it gave us a big lift tonight."

Antoine Carr, the team's unofficial mouthpiece in the playoffs, calmly stood by with his sunglasses on. Greg Ostertag, Utah's normally gregarious center, even ducked out the room and successfully dodged whatever media attention was waiting for him.

This hardly seemed like this was the winner's locker room. After all, hadn't the Jazz just knocked off the mighty Chicago Bulls?

Was it because the Utah players are a reflection of the reserved community which supports them? Nope. Outside the Delta Center, Jazz fans were dancing in the streets with Rick James' music blaring.

The real reason for the low-keyed postgame "celebration?" The Jazz players had nothing to celebrate yet.

"This is one game," guard John Stockton said. "We didn't come into this saying, 'Just win one game.'

John Stockton, left, did a better job handling the defensive pressure from Ron Harper.

"They are a great team and I don't want to take anything away from that, but I don't think anybody on our team is going to be happy with just one win. So we need to come and play Sunday a whole level or two above what we played tonight."

Power forward Karl Malone said it's vital that Utah doesn't read too much into Game 3.

"Down 0-2, people didn't want to talk to you," Malone explained. "People wanted to kick you in the rear end. Now all of a sudden you won a game and they want to pat you on the back.

"I don't want to talk to anybody when I leave this room, and I don't want anybody patting me on the back or nothing. I appreciate the compliment, but like I said, one day ago they wanted to ring your neck.

"So we just want to stay the same way we did tonight and try and get the job done, and take it one game at a time."

In the Eastern Conference finals, many believed the Miami Heat's main goal was accomplished when it avoided a series sweep by the Bulls. Utah clearly has higher aspirations.

"We won a game," forward Adam Keefe said. "One game. We still have a lot of work to do."