Malone Is No Starry-Eyed Forum Visitor

The Utah Jazz can beat the Lakers in the friendly environment of the Delta Center, with pregame fireworks firing up the fans, with the ear-pounding decibel level of the cheers pumping up the Jazz players, with the many banners and signs insulting the opposition.

Utah was victorious over the Lakers in Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.

But now, on Friday and Sunday, the Jazz must try to win in the Great Western Forum, where the six championship banners hanging on one wall and the celebrity-studded crowd all around can be used by the current Lakers to get their own adrenaline flowing.

Is it intimidating for a visiting team to play on the Lakers’ home court?

“You seen one arena, you seen them all,” said Utah forward Karl Malone. “It’s just different colors.

“But they’ve won championships there. They’ve seen it all. So you don’t go out there to impress them. You just go out there to play. I don’t go to look at the stars courtside.”

Not even Jack Nicholson?

“I don’t talk to him,” Malone said. “I just go to see his movies.”

Malone was asked if he has ever tried to talk to the Oscar-winning star.

“He don’t talk to you,” Malone said. “He just does his . . . .” (Malone, at that point, crunched up his face trying to imitate the smug look Nicholson often flashes to the world.)

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Jazz forward Antoine Carr says his team, playing in a smaller market, doesn’t receive the respect it deserves.

“We don’t get a lot of credit,” Carr said. “It’s like Utah itself. We live here. We like it here. It’s a nice place. Other people don’t think so? Fine, stay out of here.”

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At 36, completing his 14th NBA season, John Stockton is still a premier guard in the league and still able to help lead his team to victory, as he did in Game 2 when he scored 22 points and effectively ran the Jazz offense.

His coach, Jerry Sloan, thinks it all starts with conditioning, but stressed that you can’t start a conditioning program when you first feel the aches and pains that go with the final years of a career.

“He [Stockton] has stayed in shape his whole career,” Sloan said. “He has never gone in and out of his rhythm because he has always been in shape.

“But the fact that we should even have to talk about that is a sad commentary on this business. Guys should stay in shape. That’s what they get paid for. But not all of them do.”

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The Jazz will practice at home this morning and then fly to Los Angeles late this afternoon.