Playing at Altitude, Jazz Has an Attitude

In black shoes and scowls, the Clippers left some pretty good scuff marks on a championship celebration here Thursday.

Which is more than can be said for the whiny intramural brats who beat them.

The Utah Jazz, which defeated the Clippers, 106-86, in the opener of their first-round playoff series, is good.

Probably as good as the players and their deafening fans think they are.

The Jazz may even be good enough to dump hundreds of party balloons on the court before a playoff game, which actually happened here Thursday.

But at the onset of a trip toward what they feel will be an NBA title, the Jazz was also an embarrassment.

The outmanned Clippers hustled to the basket. The Jazz hustled to the referees.

The overmatched Clippers connected on 30-footers and alley-oop dunks. The Jazz connected with their fists and elbows.

One second-quarter sequence spoke volumes about a team that--on this night anyway--didn’t have enough class to wear Michael Jordan’s after-shave.

With 6:12 remaining in the half and the Jazz leading by 10, Bo Outlaw fell on top of John Stockton in front of the Clipper bench.

Stockton wouldn’t let Outlaw get up.

Outlaw tried to shove him away.

Stockton threw a punch.

Said Outlaw: “I was trying to get up, and he was trying to get up over me. You saw what happened.”

Said Stockton: “[The Clippers] aren’t going to lay down for anybody, we know that.”

Outlaw broke free, took three steps toward the basket, took a pass from Rodney Rogers, and dunked.

The crowd hooted. Stockton ran weeping to the officials.

Now Outlaw was really in trouble.

Sure enough, moments later, Karl Malone used his elbow to wipe the floor with Outlaw just before Malone made a layup.

Outlaw lay on the ground and covered his head.

Rogers jumped in Malone’s face and screamed at him.

Malone screamed back and threateningly pointed, just as he was being called for a technical foul for shoving Outlaw.

Who, incidentally, was also called for a foul on the play.

“You know me, I’ve never been involved in, you know, confrontations,” Outlaw said. “The Jazz, they do a lot of . . . like, little things.”

So went a crazy night at the decidedly tame Delta Center, where the cheerleaders wear what appear to be white support hose and dance to songs that haven’t been heard since the movie “Fame.”

The fans constantly whine the way their players do--with every single call, on every single possession--but they are harmless.

Unless, that is, you define intimidation as a guy in a denim shirt shouting, “He walked, he walked!”

That the players also constantly whine is not so harmless. It makes a good team look like a scared one.

At times Thursday, it was hard to tell the hunter from the hunted.

“A team works six months and 82 games to get something [home-court advantage], and we can take it away in 48 minutes,” Clipper Coach Bill Fitch said before the game. “Sometimes, that can get to a team.”

It certainly got to the Jazz, which finished the regular season with the second-best record in the NBA and only three losses in 41 home games.

Not that the Clippers could take advantage of it.

Not shooting 41.5%--the Jazz shot 53%.

Not while making only 22% of their three-point shots--the Jazz made 50%.

Darrick Martin was brilliant early, scoring the Clippers’ first eight points on two three-point baskets and a two-point jumper.

As late as the final two minutes of the first half, the Clippers actually tied the Jazz, 48-48, after a layup by Eric Piatkowski.

But what happened next was typical of what could happen in the rest of this five-game--and that’s being optimistic--series.

Malone moved outside to avoid the Clippers’ inside pressure and hit a 20-footer.

Jeff Hornacek was fouled by lunging Brett Barry and made both free throws.

Bryon Russell, fouled twice in the final minute, made two more free throws to give the Jazz a 54-48 halftime lead.

Martin missed his first shot of the second half. Game over.

Fitch managed a smile. “I told them, ‘We got Utah where we want them.’ ”

Probably not.

At halftime Thursday, an announcer bragged that there were only 1,751 days until the 2002 Winter Olympics arrive here.

That’s all?