Utah’s Sloan Booted Again, and It’s the Kick Jazz Needs

If Jerry Sloan keeps getting ejected, the Utah Jazz may never lose again.

Sloan was ejected for the second consecutive game Thursday night, but shortly after referee Ronnie Nunn tossed him, Sloan’s team snapped out of a funk and eventually held on to defeat the Golden State Warriors, 92-85, at Salt Lake City.

“It gets to be expensive, but I imagine Jerry will gladly pay those fines for a win,” said Utah assistant Phil Johnson, who took over for Sloan with 9:19 left in the first half.

Johnson also guided the Jazz to a victory over the Lakers on Tuesday after Sloan’s departure. The Jazz trailed, 29-21, and was playing listlessly when Sloan left Thursday, but Utah immediately went on a 16-6 run.

Karl Malone scored 25 of his season-high 38 points in the second half, was 18 for 19 from the free-throw line and grabbed 12 rebounds.

“When Jerry doesn’t like things, he lets you know,” Malone said. “We’d rather have him on the bench, but maybe that was what we needed.”

Seattle 87, Portland 86--Vin Baker, returning after missing 10 games because of a thumb injury, scored 15 points as the SuperSonics defeated the Trail Blazers at Seattle.

Gary Payton had 20 points and Detlef Schrempf added 17 to help the SuperSonics defeat the Trail Blazers for the seventh consecutive time in Seattle, including twice this season.

With Portland down by one, Rasheed Wallace stripped Schrempf of the ball with 16.1 seconds left, but kicked the ball out of bounds with 1.5 seconds to go. Seattle’s John Crotty lost the ball out of bounds with two-tenths of a second left, but the Trail Blazers, who have a league-best record of 27-7, couldn’t get off a final shot.

San Antonio 92, Houston 83--Sean Elliott scored 19 points as the Spurs won their sixth consecutive game and ended the Rockets’ nine-game home winning streak.

Hakeem Olajuwon had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Rockets, who made a late run after trailing by 19 points midway through the third period.

Houston closed to 88-81 with 1:17 left before former Rocket Mario Elie made four free throws in a row in the final minute to clinch the victory.

Orlando 73, Cleveland 69--Penny Hardaway scored 23 points, Matt Harpring added 14 and 12 rebounds and the Magic overcame a horrible shooting night for its fifth consecutive victory--a sloppy, bloody one at Cleveland.

Harpring and teammate Isaac Austin both had to get stitches during the game, which had several wild sequences in which players dived recklessly to the floor or into the crowd for balls.

Boston 101, Toronto 89--Kenny Anderson scored 23 points and Antoine Walker had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Celtics won at Toronto.

Boston won its second in a row after ending a four-game losing streak. Toronto has lost two in a row at home after a team-record nine-game home winning streak.