Jazz Expects Malone to Play

Karl Malone did not participate in Utah’s light practice Monday, but the feeling among the Jazz and anyone who has watched his 15-year career was that he will be ready to play in tonight’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers after suffering a knee injury during the series opener Sunday.

Malone suffered a sprained left knee while on the bench in the second quarter of Utah’s 94-75 loss. When teammate Armen Gilliam chased down a loose ball near the Jazz bench, Malone, trying to get out of the way, caught his foot beneath his chair and twisted the knee.

He went to the locker room for an examination, but returned to play for most of the second half.

A Jazz spokesman said Malone remained in his room, receiving treatment, as a precautionary measure.

The sight of the Jazz in practice jerseys without Malone was almost as unusual as the injury itself.

He has missed only three games because of injury in his career, and has never missed a playoff game.

“We only have 12 guys anyway,” guard Jeff Hornacek said. “So when one guy’s missing, it’s always like, ‘Holy cow.’ It seems like we’re missing all kind of guys. We’ll go through some things, but we’ll update Karl on that when we practice [Tuesday] morning.”

Utah Coach Jerry Sloan has adopted an “If he plays, he plays, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t” stance, but he knows his all-star forward better than that.

“He’s a tremendous competitor--to a fault, sometimes,” Sloan said. “I’ve always admired that about him. He takes his lickings and comes on back.”

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For Portland, the problem could be complacency.

“For a road team, [Game 2] is the one to get,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “This is the one, from our standpoint, that we have to be most focused on.

“We can’t relax. We can’t think anything other than the fact that this is the one that most teams will slip up. You win the first game and the second one, you have a little bit of complacency and you have a chance to fall down.”