SALT MINES

What papers in the Salt Lake City area are saying about the series:

DOUG ROBINSON, THE DESERET NEWS

Let’s see if we have this straight. Del Harris, the Laker coach, has unleashed a 315-pound monster on the NBA, a guy so big and powerful that he should be required to have back-up lights and a warning beeper when he backs into the paint and Harris is worried about Karl Malone kicking somebody?

Shaquille O’Neal, who has little guards pasted to the bottom of his sneakers and a collection of deviated septums on his elbows, was declared a natural disaster area in Seattle. He was once tracked by L.A. radar as a storm system. Shaq, a guy so immense that he had to be nicknamed after a small house, took the Jazz’s biggest player and knocked the goo out of him with the same slap he uses to apply after-shave.

And Harris is worried about a flying foot? “It’s getting blatant,” said Harris. “. . . Somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Here we go again. Strap yourselves in for another acrimonious playoff series. Another series of airing public complaints about the opposition. Nobody said it had to make sense.

This week it’s Harris critiquing Malone’s Jackie Chan act. Last week it was George Karl ripping Shaq for his elbows and traveling, and David Robinson griping about Malone’s kick. Last year it was Houston telling anyone who would listen about the Jazz’s moving screens.