| Friday, March 24
By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com |
|
Clearly (and as predicted here weeks ago), the race for the best record
in the West, which is synonymous with best record in the entire NBA, is
over: Lakers rule.
Just when the Trail Blazers thought perhaps their shot at stealing back
the NBA's best record by season's end was still within reach they lost
another home game, last Thursday night to the T-Wolves. By the time that
game tipped off, the Wizards already had snapped the Lakers' 19-game win
streak (OK ... so I was wrong about that one). By the time Portland's
game against Minnesota ended, the Trail Blazers knew their chances of
catching the Lakers were even more remote.
|  | | The amazing Jeff Hornacek is hoping this is the year the Jazz win it all. |
"We can continue to challenge the Lakers, but the ball is pretty much
in their court," realist Scottie Pippen said. "I don't think we're even
looking at it like, can we catch them? We just want to start to play
better and win games."
Fact: The Lakers would have to lose four of their final 14 games for
Portland to tie for best record. They have lost only once since the
All-Star break. Plus, the Blazers would have to win their remaining 16
games. Not impossible, but ...
So let us turn our attention, instead, to the all-important race for
the Midwest Division title between Utah and San Antonio.
That one is closer, but I believe it is just as over-and-done-with as
the Lakers-Blazers chase.
Meet your 1999-2000 Midwest Division champs: the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz returned to Salt Lake City Monday from a five-game road swing
with a two-and-a-half game lead over the Spurs, but it is their
performance since the All-Star break that is most convincing. Since
losing their first game after the break, they have gone 15-2, with a
nine-game win streak thrown in during a 10-game stretch that included
only two games at their Delta Center home.
Now that is impressive, and indicative of a veteran team that knows how
to play on the road.
Did I say veteran team?
How about ancient, which makes their recent surge that much more
remarkable.
John Stockton, after all, will turn 38 on Thursday. But the most famous
player ever out of Gonzaga continues to play like a kid. In fact, Jazz
coach Jerry Sloan has been increasing Stockton's workload of late,
giving him an average of 33 minutes during that five-game road trip.
Versatile Utah backup guard Howard Eisley still comes off the bench near
the end of the first quarter, but instead of checking in for Stockton,
as he had been doing, he now replaces Jeff Hornacek, the shooting guard
who will turn 37 in May.
Sloan's new rotation gives Hornacek a little more time to ice his
chronically sore left knee and keeps Stockton out on the court a little
longer, which does not seem to have slowed him at all.
Then, of course, there is seemingly ageless Karl Malone, also 36 and
also continuing to produce like someone in his prime. During Utah's last
11 games, which produced 10 wins, Malone averaged 27.7 points and 9.5
rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Spurs continue to worry about Tim Duncan. He is back in
the lineup, but his performance since suffering a strained abdominal
muscle back on Feb. 22 has been underwhelming. His scoring average
post-injury is down by nearly eight points a game. Worse, his shooting
percentage during the same stretch is way, way down, to around 40 percent,
after a 2-for-7 performance in a home loss to the Mavs last Thursday and a
3-for-14 effort in an Alamodome win over Denver on Saturday.
Nuggets power forward Antonio McDyess always has had more success than
most in defending Duncan, so his opinion is worth noting. Here is what
McDyess said of last season's NBA Finals MVP after watching him clank 11
shots on Saturday night:
"I actually thought he wasn't well. I thought he was playing hurt. If
he's supposed to be healed, he is playing tentative. He doesn't seem
like he's as aggressive as he was before the injury. I know that's not
the Tim Duncan that I usually see."
There is still a month left for Duncan to heal fully, and the Spurs had
better hope he does, and soon. But they also are going to miss Terry
Porter, who may be out quite a while with a problem with his right
knee, and Steve Kerr, another veteran with aching knees.
Of course, Utah's Hornacek continues to be a walking advertisement for
the combination of Advil and ice. His left knee is so bad he can't even
run with a normal gait, but his shooting remains otherworldly. Since the
All-Star break, Hornacek has made 26-of-37 three-point shots. In case your
calculator is broken, that is 70.3 percent, and that is unheard of, even
for the back-to-back All-Star weekend three-point champion.
He also has a
shot at breaking Calvin Murphy's all-time NBA record for single-season
free throw percentage, 95.8. Hornacek went into Tuesday night's game
against Denver having made 150-of-157 free throws, 95.5 percent, the
NBA's runaway leader in foul-line accuracy.
Hornacek has made it clear this is his last season of play. That left
knee hurts too much, and too often, to consider another season of
torture.
|
Feedback for Mike
|
|
So what are your thoughts on this column by Mike Monroe? What about some other columns you read on ESPN.com? We want your feedback, good or bad. Click here to e-mail us your thoughts.
|
Do you think his pals, Stockton and Malone, might be approaching this
year's playoffs with a little extra incentive, knowing one of the Jazz'
"big three" will be gone next season?
Wandering the West
The Mavericks now have nine assistant coaches under coach-general
manager Don Nelson: Donnie Nelson, Scott Roth and Charlie Parker are
full-time assistants, and Kiki Vandeweghe, Gary Boren and Bill Peterson
are special assistants in addition to the new defensive corps, Del
Harris, Brad Davis and Gar Heard.
Why the Grizzlies remain the Grizzlies. This recent quote from shooting
guard Doug West: "Twenty-one games to go. Golf season is around the
corner, baby." Maybe that's one of the reasons the Griz went into
their Tuesday night game against the Warriors having lost 12 in a row.
Minnesota is second only to Portland in field goal accuracy (46.8
percent), but dead last in free throw attempts (21.5 per game). Wolves
were outshot at line in loss at Phoenix, 43-15. The trouble: Too many
jump shots, not enough penetration.
Karl Malone posed recently for Penthouse magazine. He was fully clothed
for the photo that accompanied a story about him. Mrs. Mailman, Kay,
suggested something more revealing. "She said, 'Maybe they can do
something with your shirt off,' " Mailman said. "I said, 'I don't think
so.' And she said, 'Well, they should.' "
Denver's Tariq Abdul-Wahad likely is out for the season because of his
sprained left wrist, an injury suffered when he was flagrantly fouled by
Houston's Steve Francis on Feb. 24. Abdul-Wahad has tried to play with
the injury, but fell on it again last week in his first game back after
missing six in a row. Combined with a badly bruised thigh suffered by
Bryant Stith, Abdul-Wahad's injury has forced rookie James Posey into
the shooting guard spot after he had started all season at small
forward.
Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com |  |
West: There is something to stop Shaq
