Blowout in Windy City

From the city that brought you the Valentine’s Day Massacre and other great routs (see: Mrs. O’Leary’s cow v. wood structures) comes Bulls 96, Jazz 54, historic in its own right and nearly as tough on the victims.

What took the place of a game Sunday night before 23,844 at the United Center gave Chicago a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals and plenty of rest, Michael Jordan having sat out the fourth quarter after scoring a game-high 24 points, this coming, of course, while most of Utah’s players sat out all four quarters. The existing reign of the defending champions had become a downpour.

Never in finals history had a team won by a larger margin, the 42 easily topping the Washington Bullets’ 35-point victory over the Seattle SuperSonics on June 4, 1978.

Never in a league about to conclude its 51st year had a team scored fewer points in any game at any stage of the regular season or playoffs, with the previous low of 55 by Indiana Pacers against the San Antonio Spurs on March 29, 1998.

Oh, yeah. And never had so many been able to accomplish so little.

“If you’re not embarrassed by this,” Utah’s Greg Foster lamented later, “you need to just give them the trophy now.”

Added Jeff Hornacek: “We got off, what?, 14-11, and then I don’t think we scored for the rest of the game, did we?”

Coach Jerry Sloan, meanwhile, noted he was “somewhat embarrassed for NBA basketball,” perhaps stopping short of total embarrassment because at least the Jazz hung in until late in the second quarter. Then again, when his team went down, they went down big.

The 10-2 run by the Bulls in the final 2:03 of the half, including their four points in the final 6.7 seconds, was the last the Jazz saw of a game. That made it 49-31 at intermission, before Chicago pushed the lead to 28 points late in the third quarter, 70-42.

It got as bad as 42 on two occasions late in the fourth, 94-52 and a minute left and the final margin, but didn’t necessarily get as ugly as it could have because Jazz players kept their cool amid the appearance of the score being run up at their expense. That, or they didn’t have any kind of fight in them on this night.

“No,” Foster said, discounting any theory that the Bulls were going for embarrassment as well as victory. “You don’t think we would have done the same thing?”

And so the second-highest scoring quarter for either team was Chicago getting 24, to the Jazz’s nine, in the fourth as Scottie Pippen stayed in until it was 84-51 with 5:22 remaining and the Bulls kept firing three-pointers. Utah’s reserves--Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek spent the final period on the bench--were forced to take it.

It’s just that all the big names were not going to take it quietly.

“I don’t think anyone in this business feels sorry for you,” Karl Malone said after going from making 14 of 41 shots the first two games to making eight of 11 Sunday. “But you watch a game and endings of game like this and you should be ready to play the next game. And we’re not going to be talking about running the scores up and all that, but, like I said, it’s just one of those things that if you’re not ready to play [Wednesday] after all the things that went on out there, you shouldn’t be in this profession.”

Said Sloan: “If you’re a competitor, I think it would be real easy [to get ready for Game 4]. They were shooting three-pointers at the end. You see how they can bury you, and if that didn’t get you ready to play, I don’t know what would. I would think it would be very easy to play the next game. But I’m not sure my team will do that. I’m only speaking for myself.”

The follow-up question from a reporter came not long after:

“Coach, was there any implication of a lack of class of running up the score?”

“I don’t think I want to be set up for that question,” Sloan replied.

He did. Really.

“I don’t believe that Jerry Sloan would say that,” Bull Coach Phil Jackson responded later. “Michael didn’t play the fourth quarter, Scottie kind of guided that crew, we had four guys off the bench playing. That wasn’t the case and I’m sure Jerry didn’t mention that. I know he’s much more of a pro than to say that.”

In the end, the Jazz had officially fallen hard, from a seven-game winning streak to back-to-back losses in the harshest of ways, on Friday while committing 20 turnovers and having a fourth-quarter lead become a defeat for the first time in 60 such opportunities and on Sunday with a staggering 26 miscues to tie a franchise postseason mark.

Proud players and coaches had been left to sift through the rubble. The Bulls, meanwhile, were suddenly being faced with their own concerns, though hardly as gloomy. In the words of Scott Burrell, the reserve swingman:

“Save some for Wednesday.”

NBA FINALS

CHICAGO vs. UTAH

Best of seven; Bulls lead, 2-1

* GAME 1

Utah 88, Chicago 85 (OT)

* GAME 2

Chicago 93, Utah 88

* GAME 3

Chicago 96, Utah 54

* GAME 4

Wednesday at Chicago, 6 p.m.

* GAME 5

Friday at Chicago, 6 p.m.

* GAME 6*

Sunday at Utah, 4:30 p.m.

* GAME 7*

June 17 at Utah, 6 p.m.

* If necessary