Nobody knew what to expect. Despite all the predictions, nobody knew exactly what would happen before this NBA Finals rematch between the Bulls and Utah Jazz began here Wednesday night.
Sure enough, it went to overtime after the Bulls rallied from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to forge a tie that was preserved when John Stockton’s jumper from the deep corner bounced long. Then Stockton fed Karl Malone for a layup to open the extra period and followed with a three-point play after a Scottie Pippen turnover, giving the Jazz a five-point lead that the Bulls were too weary to overcome.
They got back within two, but Luc Longley lost the ball under the basket, and with the shot clock running down, Stockton flipped in a runner over Steve Kerr. Utah won 88-85 for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. They return to the Delta Center for Game 2 on Friday night.
Michael Jordan led all scorers with 33 points. Malone was the leading rebounder with 14.
This could well be the best–and possibly last–chance for the Jazz, with Stockton 36 years old and Malone 34. If the Jazz was just happy to be here last year, it won’t settle for anything less than taking it all this year.
Bulls coach Phil Jackson, meanwhile, talked as if this might be it for his team, which needed to give all it had to beat Indiana in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Sunday.
“We knew that we lost some sentiment in the last series,” Jackson acknowledged. “I don’t know whether people are tired of champions or they’re leery of what happened in that last series. The situation seemed to spell a little bit that we were vulnerable and not invincible as we have been in the past–which is very possible. That’s why we play these series.”
When Bryon Russell hit a jumper with just 32 seconds gone in the fourth quarter, Utah was up 69-61. But the Jazz played like a team coming off a long layoff, failing to score on its next eight possessions. And the Bulls, looking like a tired team, couldn’t take advantage, getting as close as 69-65 on a Scott Burrell jumper with 8:36 left in the game. They also couldn’t take advantage of a bad night by Malone, who finished with 21 points but shot just 9 of 25.
But when Pippen connected on a three-pointer with 2:34 left, the Bulls found themselves in a 75-75 tie. The Bulls were just 1 of 12 from three-point range up until that basket.
The Bulls then fizzled, however. Dennis Rodman blocked a Malone jumper with 2:12 left, giving the Bulls a chance to go ahead, but Pippen rushed a three-pointer and Malone answered for a 77-75 lead. When a Jordan jumper rimmed in and out, Malone got the rebound and scored on the next possession for a 79-75 lead with 55.7 seconds left.
Two free throws by Pippen and Luc Longley’s short jumper with just over 7 seconds left tied it, and Stockton’s miss at the buzzer forced overtime.
If the Bulls were tired, they tried to fight it off. They got as close as three points at the start of the third quarter on a Pippen layup and stayed within 10 points the entire period despite bouts of sloppy basketball.
Any questions about a 10-day layoff affecting the Jazz were answered right away. Utah looked out of sync, with several miscues in the opening quarter.
At one point, Jeff Hornacek broke the wrong way on a pass from Stockton for a turnover. On another occasion, Hornacek fired a pass over the head of Malone. And with time running down on the shot clock on one possession, Malone was called for an offensive foul for hammering Longley while rushing to the basket.
The Jazz ended up shooting just 35 percent in the first quarter. The Bulls, who played 48 hours earlier, shot just 37 percent from the field but they had other worries. Rodman was expected to start after Toni Kukoc started all but one of the seven games against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals.
But Rodman came up lame with a severely sprained right thumb, allegedly suffered in Game 7 against Indiana. Kukoc started, missing his first four shots. And when Longley picked up his second foul with a little more than 4 minutes left in the period while trying to set a pick, Jackson motioned for a sub.
But Rodman, sporting a new camouflage hairdo, was nowhere to be found. In came Dickey Simpkins.
Malone was just 2 of 7 from the field in the opening quarter, but his layup at the end of the period pulled the Jazz into a 17-17 tie.
But Jordan scored 15 of his 20 first-half points in the second quarter, including nine of the Buls’ last 11 points. When Jordan completed a three-point play with :51.3 left in the half, the Bulls were down by just a point, 41-40.
Utah had a 45-40 lead at the break, scoring 28 of its points in the paint and 12 off the fast break. Still, it never led by more than eight points in the half.
“You know what?” said Malone. “It’s still going to be decided on the court, with no excuses and no holding back.”
