Mailman Has Lost Stamp on Jumper

Another day, another postal breakdown.

The Chicago Bulls thought they blew their big chance when Karl Malone shot nine for 25 in Game 1 and they let the Utah Jazz off the hook. Imagine their delight when the Mailman clanked twice.

Malone showed up without his trusty jumper again and went five for 16. Friday night the Bulls summoned up enough energy, with just a smidgen of luck--try little Steve Kerr rebounding his missed three-pointer and hitting Michael Jordan for the shot that put them ahead to stay with :47 left--to squeak past the Jazz and take back the home-court advantage Utah had worked for since November.

Something funny’s going on. It’s usually Mailman carrying teammates, not the other way around as it was again Friday when they shot 54.9%, except for him.

“You know, guys,” Malone said later in the interview room, “I wish I could make a lot of excuses, but I don’t have any. A lot depends on what I do. A lot depends on how I play and I haven’t played well the first couple games.”

Unaccustomed as our readers might have become to a player who was just embarrassed before millions, neglecting to blame the referees, his coach, his teammates, the media, the crowd or the fact the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter was aligned with Mars, it actually happened.

He’s just Mailman. Most of the times he does. This week, he hasn’t. He’s takes the blame as easily as he accepts the credit. Couldn’t you just give him a big hug?

We interrupt this moment of warmth to return to the NBA finals.

The Bulls were coming off the usual two-day circus: Dennis Rodman flies to Las Vegas after Game 1, is spotted coming out of the Hard Rock Hotel at 1:30 a.m., repairs to the Rio, then moves on to the Hilton, where he is seen playing craps at 6 a.m. with a pile of chips, estimated at $25,000 by a Las Vegas Sun reporter who is tailing him.

Rodman then flies back here for what must have been a spirited practice, six hours later. Coach Phil Jackson acts as though it’s business as usual, which, come to think of it, it is.

Rodman doesn’t start. But unlike Game 1, when Luc Longley got in early foul trouble and Jackson turned to put Dennis in, only to find out--once again--he wasn’t on the bench but back in the dressing room, Rodman was ready to go when needed.

In he went against Mailman, a mismatch, or it used to be.

In last spring’s finals, Malone averaged 24 points and shot over 60% against Rodman and a platoon of helpers. Mailman came into this series toasty, having averaged 30 points and shot 51% against the Lakers, but he must have misplaced his jumper in the Forum, because it hasn’t been seen since.

In Game 1, Malone missed his first 11 jump shots before finally making his last two, late in the fourth quarter.

Friday, he missed his first two, hit a 15-footer--in the first quarter!--but then missed his last five.

To his credit, Mailman kept stepping up and taking them when they were there. Unfortunately for him, they kept ricocheting off in every direction.

Also, unfortunately for him, he forgot about posting up deep-- where is Robert Horry when he needs him?--to try to get himself going with some easy hoops.

The Jazz still went ahead, 86-85, on Jeff Hornacek’s three-point basket with 1:46 left. The Utah bench had torched Phil Jackson’s meager reserves again. Jordan had played 21 minutes in the first half, again, and faded late, again.

But then Kerr came down on a fastbreak, put up a three, missed, saw it bounce back toward him, beat Malone to it--some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug--and hit Jordan underneath for the basket that gave the Bulls the lead.

“I thought we were in dire straits,” Jackson said. “ . . . We found a way. We’re a team that does that.”

Said Kerr, in a rare interview room appearance: “I always wondered where this place was.”

Jerry Sloan, the hard-bitten Jazz coach, said he had no problem with Malone spending his night missing perimeter jumpers (“If you’ve seen us play the last 12 or 13 years, you know he will shoot the ball out there and make one once in a while.”)

Of course, Sloan’s preferred theme after losses is, why didn’t we compete, or in other words, knock those guys on their rear ends, and he was pushing that line hard late Friday night.

Of course, Mailman put it in perspective.

“We got here for a couple of reasons,” he said. “One, Karl Malone playing well, and two, being aggressive. . . . We have other guys that step up but if I don’t play well, we don’t win this series.”

Of course, if he doesn’t locate his jumper fast, he’s going to be a stand-up guy on vacation and it’s going to be a lot quieter around here.