Trail Blazers Shut Down Jazz

The Utah Jazz was exhausted. Then Karl Malone was tired of hearing about Scottie Pippen.

Pippen scored nine of his 20 points over the final nine minutes as the Portland Trail Blazers pulled away for an easy 94-75 victory Sunday in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.

“It took us three quarters before we could really get a good feel for this team, but in the fourth quarter, our defense took over,” said Pippen, who averaged 6.8 points in four regular-season games against the Jazz.

Pippen may once again keep Malone from getting a championship ring. Pippen and Michael Jordan helped the Chicago Bulls beat the Jazz in the NBA finals in 1997 and 1998.

When asked whether these kinds of games were the reason Pippen was acquired by the Trail Blazers from Houston, Malone snapped: “I don’t want to hear that,” followed by an expletive. “I don’t care about that. End of interview. I’m done here.”

The Jazz was playing on less than two days’ rest after struggling past Seattle in Game 5 of their first-round series Friday night. The Trail Blazers had four days off, and Utah’s exhaustion showed.

The Jazz missed nine of its first 10 shots in the fourth quarter and shot 33%--slightly worse than the 37% it shot for the game. But Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan dismissed that the lack of rest had anything to do with his team’s dismal performance.

“Our guys didn’t come to play,” he said. “I’ll tell you right now, we didn’t come to play, and this series will be over real quick if they’re going to accept that.

“They had 24 hours to sleep. That’s their own fault if they can’t get the rest and get ready to play. We had too many days off last week. Now we get a little rest. Who cares? I don’t care, because they get paid to play, and they’re supposed to.”

The Trail Blazers led, 65-61, to start the fourth quarter, but Pippen’s aggressiveness helped put the game away.

His short turnaround jumper extended the lead to 71-63 with 8:36 left. Pippen made a three-point shot to make it 80-67, and Greg Anthony sealed it with two free throws, a layup and three-point shot. for an 87-71 lead with 3:48 left.

“This is just one game. We don’t want to read too much into it,” Pippen said. “We have to do the job that we have do in this series, and that is defend the home court in all games.”

Utah has lost its last 12 playoff games in Portland dating to the 1991 conference finals.

Malone scored 22 points despite straining a ligament in his left knee on a freak play late in the second quarter. Malone was sitting on the bench when teammate Armen Gilliam dived for a rebound and crashed into Malone’s chair. Malone came out limping slightly in the third quarter, but played the rest of the way.

Damon Stoudamire added 14 points, 10 in the first quarter, as six Trail Blazers scored in double figures.

“Our guys came out with the right intensity, the right defensive mind-set, and we got off early,” Portland Coach Mike Dunleavy said.