Overconfidence Is No Problem Even After Rout

The coach kept pointing out all the things his team had done wrong.

The team’s superstar kept saying he wanted to put aside any thoughts of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals and concentrate on Game 2 tonight.

Other players kept saying that it wasn’t over yet.

Were these the Lakers, eager to put behind them the worst playoff loss in their storied history?

Nope, this was Coach Jerry Sloan, forward Karl Malone and other members of the Utah Jazz, determined to keep their feet on the ground and their heads out of the clouds after demolishing the Lakers, 112-77, Saturday.

“We didn’t win [Saturday],” Sloan told the gathered media Sunday, presumably delivering the same message he gave to his players. “There was really no win. You don’t win in this series until you win four games. And unless you win four games, you are a loser.”

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Much has been made of the edge in experience enjoyed by the Jazz in this series. No one on the Lakers has yet celebrated his 30th birthday, while three members of the Jazz’s starting unit alone--Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek--and two others on the bench--Chris Morris and Antoine Carr--have reached that milestone with center Greg Foster to follow later this year.

Four members of the Jazz have played in the league 11 or more years while Elden Campbell is the senior Laker with seven years on an NBA roster.

But anyone trying to bring that difference up to Malone should expect to be scoffed at.

“I don’t buy that,” he said, his manner turning gruff when the subject was broached by a reporter. “I don’t buy any of that experience stuff. It’s overrated.

“I heard it 10 years ago when we were playing the Lakers in the playoffs and we were young and they were old. I was stubborn enough not to buy it then, and I’m not going to buy it now that I’m an old man.”

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Shandon Anderson, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound second-year forward out of Georgia, raised some eyebrows Saturday when he came in off the bench to pull down 11 rebounds in 25 minutes against the Lakers.

But none of those eyebrows belonged to the Jazz, who know what Anderson can do.

“His play is based mostly on hustle,” Carr said. “If there’s a loose ball, Shandon grabs it.”