Jazz Hits All the Wrong Notes in 84-81 Loss

This bore no resemblance to the Utah Jazz we’ve seen for the past three playoffs.

The Jazz couldn’t run the pick-and-roll, couldn’t get many good shots, and perhaps most incredibly of all, didn’t get the benefit of the doubt from the officials.

The Portland Trail Blazers evened the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals at one game apiece with an 84-81 victory at the Delta Center on Thursday night.

It was a testament to Utah’s resiliency that the Jazz had a last-second chance to tie the score on a night of 39% shooting. But when John Stockton drove the lane and there appeared to be contact with Portland guard Jim Jackson as he went airborne, the referees’ whistles stayed silent, the ball bounced out of the basket and the Trail Blazers got the rebound. Greg Anthony was fouled with less than a second remaining and tacked on one free throw for the final score.

“It looked to me that [Stockton] got bumped,” Utah Coach Jerry Sloan said.

“There was contact, but it wasn’t enough contact for a foul,” Jackson said. “It’s a matter of referees letting the players determine the outcome of the game.”

To the Trail Blazers, this game looked like the best way to answer the critics who always wait for them to melt down.

“We didn’t lose our composure,” Anthony said. “We stayed with it, came down and did what we wanted to do in the fourth quarter.”

Isaiah Rider led the Trail Blazers with 27 points. Brian Grant had 23 points and nine rebounds.

The Trail Blazers felt good about their chances coming into this one. After all, a simple 16-point fourth quarter, instead of, oh, The Worst Playoff Scoring Quarter On Record, would have given them the victory in Game 1.

Portland’s solution coming off that five-point fourth quarter was to take the Jazz down with them. Thursday night the teams combined to score 25 points in the first quarter. It was an NBA playoff record low for an opening quarter and only two points away from the futility record for any quarter set by the Jazz and Houston Rockets in the third quarter on May 29, 1994.

The combined score of 63 points at halftime was another playoff low.

The Trail Blazers led, 32-31, if that could be considered an achievement.

What they had a right to be proud of was their defense.

It’s not often you see Utah force passes and take bad shots, but Portland took the Jazz out of their game.

The Trail Blazers guarded the pick-and-roll to perfection, jumping and switching to cut off the first two options, then rotating when the ball went to the far side.

Utah got nothing from Howard Eisley, normally one of the most reliable backup point guards in the league. He had no points, no assists and three turnovers in 15 minutes.

For most of the game, the Trail Blazers couldn’t capitalize because they couldn’t score. Whether it was Arvydas Sabonis blowing an easy shot inside or Anthony missing everything on a three-point attempt, the Trail Blazers clanged again and again.

Portland shot 28% in the first half. That couldn’t continue forever, not for a team that finished fifth in the league in scoring.

It finally started to happen for Portland in the third quarter. The Trail Blazers scored on nine straight possessions--including a run of 15 unanswered points--to wipe out a seven-point deficit.

The Jazz fought back after Portland took a 73-64 lead in the fourth, but Rider carried the Trail Blazers by scoring seven consecutive points. They needed them all, because three-pointers by Stockton and Hornacek brought the Jazz to within one. When Greg Anthony made only one of two free throws to make the score 83-81, the Jazz still had a chance to send the game into overtime after rebounding the missed free throw with 9.2 seconds remaining.

They got the ball in Stockton’s hands, which was the right place. They just didn’t get the usual result.