Jazz Takes Game to a New Height : NBA playoffs: Utah beats Rockets, 95-86, to cut West series deficit to 2-1.

Far from their muggy home Friday night, the Houston Rockets saw their enemy up close and personal.

As usual, it was them.

Their most valuable player turned human and their guards turned cold. By halftime, they had already said enough to the officials to draw four technical fouls. Their deportment improved but their game didn’t, and they fell, 95-86, to the Utah Jazz, which now trails in the Western finals, 2-1.

The Rockets’ four-man guard corps made 10 of 38 shots.

Hakeem Olajuwon, coming off 31- and 41-point games, started zero for eight.

“He missed some shots,” said Jazz center Felton Spencer, the sacrificial lamb assigned to guard him. “I was starting to think he wouldn’t miss any.”

What, him discouraged?

“Olajuwon scores on everybody,” said Spencer, cheerily. “Here I am, a lowly no-name guy who isn’t supposed to have a prayer against him.”

The Jazz’s big-name guy, Karl Malone, had a sore ankle and a bad case of flu, but the other lowly no-name guys stepped up. Forward David Benoit made six of his eight shots and scored 14 points, and reserve Jay Humphries was six for 10 and scored 15 points in 27 minutes.

The Jazz led, 25-20, after one quarter; 52-40 at the half and led by as many as 18 points early in the fourth quarter.

The Rockets made only a token rally after that, never getting closer than nine points.

“I thought our intensity level coming out wasn’t what it should have been for the situation we were in,” said Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich. “And it set the tone for the game.

“There were just little things the fans wouldn’t recognize--running our plays, being alert, getting the hammer on those guys.

“(When) they came out, their intensity level was way higher than ours. This was a game they had to have, but we discussed that at practice. We didn’t want to lose this game because of energy. We all say the right things--we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, but we really didn’t execute them.”

The Rockets won Game 1 easily, leading by 22 points before halftime, and took a squeaker in Game 2.

Malone twisted an ankle in Game 2, then for good measure got flu on the off-day.

“He called me up and told me he was sick,” said Utah Coach Jerry Sloan, “and he very seldom calls me. I told him to do what he had to do, but he wanted to play. So he came and gave us 45 minutes.”

Said Malone: “It’s playoff time now, and we have a rule in our locker room that any time you suit up, that means you’re ready to play.”

Malone went two for 10 in the first half but kept firing and finished with Mailman numbers: 22 points, 16 rebounds, five assists.

An upbeat Olajuwon discounted the Jazz’s defensive effort on him. He bumped into two Jazz players every time he made a move Friday, but said that was to be expected.

“It was the same kind of defense,” said Olajuwon, “but when you get tired, you don’t have the energy to fight back, to fight for position. That was because of the altitude and I know that.”

Salt Lake City is 4,200 feet above sea level. The bad news for the Rockets is that Game 4 will be here, too, and Malone has two days to sip chicken soup first.