Malone Spill Gives Delta Faithful Pause

Delta Center crowds are known to be among the loudest in the league, and they didn’t disappoint Saturday as they celebrated Utah’s spirited rout of the Lakers, 112-77.

But the sight of their brightest star, Jazz forward Karl Malone, stretched out on the floor in obvious agony brought a funereal quiet to the place.

With a little less than four minutes to play in the second quarter, Malone went down. Few saw him trip over a teammate as he was running downcourt.

But it wasn’t difficult to read the collective minds of the crowd. Not Malone. Not now. Not with the Lakers down in Game 1 and the prospect of another trip to the NBA finals looking better all the time for Utah.

What was John Stockton, Malone’s teammate on the Jazz for 13 years, thinking as Malone lay there?

“Get up,” Stockton said.

Sure enough, after a few tense minutes, Malone arose.

“I got kind of tripped up, but I’m fine,” he said.

Apparently so. After scoring 10 points in the first half, Malone went on to score 19 in the second.

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Was Greg Foster at it again?

Didn’t he learn from the regular season when he created an uproar by running his finger across his throat--a gesture directed toward the Lakers--during a big win over them. There were complaints that it might be a gang sign, that it conjured up images of serious violence in a league trying to change its image, that it was generally in poor taste.

So what in the world was Foster doing Saturday, putting a finger to his lips in the third quarter? Was this another threatening sign?

Just the opposite.

“I was trying to show that I’m going to be quiet,” he said, “that I’m not making waves, that I’m going to be a nice guy.

“I was berated the last time. People think I’m a psycho, a nut.”

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With the 6-foot-11 250-pound Foster guarding him, Laker center Shaquille O’Neal had an off day, making only six of 16 from the field and finishing with 19 points.

But Foster wasn’t about to gloat. Certainly not in public. He knows all too well that a rematch is coming up in Game 2 on Monday.

“Nobody did anything special,” Foster said. “He just missed shots he normally makes.”

But when the subject came around to the mild shoves O’Neal gave Foster at one point Saturday, the Utah center was humble no longer.

“He pushed me in the back,” Foster said, “but he has to know people are not always going to take it. He can try to step on people, but you’ve got to stand up for yourself.”

So much for keeping that finger on his lip.