Utah Jazz beat Chicago Bulls to level series

STOCKTON to Malone, one of the longest-running, most successful duo acts in, US sports, came through again as the Utah Jazz beat the defending champions Chicago Bulls 78-73 on Sunday to even the NBA Finals at two games apiece.

John Stockton, the league's all-time assists leader, got under the basket to rebound a miss by Michael Jordan and fired the ball in a perfect length-of-the-court pass to Karl Malone. The NBA's Most Valuable Player laid the ball in to put the Jazz ahead to stay at 74-73 with 45 seconds left in the game.

"You watch it and you watch it, there's a lot of distance it had to travel," Stockton said of the pass to Malone. "And once it hit his hand, it felt pretty good."

The gritty little point guard also hit a big three-pointer and four successive free throws and had a key steal in Utah's 9-0 closing run.

Malone had barrelled down to get behind the startled Jordan who still almost got his fingertips on the ball.

"I saw the pass," said Jordan. "I was really off stride and I couldn't get to it. We just didn't rotate back defensively."

After a Steve Kerr miss and another little-man rebound under the basket for Utah, this time by Jeff Hornacek, Malone was fouled with 18 seconds to go.

With memories of his two missed foul shots in Game One on everyone's mind in the screaming Delta Centre, Malone hit the first free throw, bringing chants of "MVP, MVP" from the crowd. He caught a little rim on the first one, and then after a timeout swished the second for a three-point Utah lead.

Chicago's Scottie Pippen, who had jinxed Malone in Game One by saying: "The Mailman doesn't deliver on Sunday," tried it again a week later, but Hornacek got between them this time.

"He still talked to me the whole time I was shooting," said Malone, who led all scorers with 23 points, along with 10 rebounds, six assists and a blocked shot.

I guess he delivers on Sundays here," said Pippen.

Stockton was next high with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 2-of-3 from three-point distance, and added game-highs of 12 assists and four steals along with three rebounds.

Jordan finally came alive with 12 points in the fourth quarter to lead Chicago with 22 points on 1-for-27 shooting. Scottie Pippen scored 16, just two in the fourth.

Game five is tomorrow in Utah before the best-of-seven series moves back to Chicago.

The Jazz ran their home record to a perfect 10-0 in the playoffs and a league-best 48-3 for the entire season. The Bulls are now just 4-3 on the road for the playoffs.

After a 10-1 Chicago run put the Jazz behind 71-66 with 2:23 to go, Stockton hit a long three-pointer.

And after a Jordan basket. he hit four straight free throws the first two after stealing the ball from Jordan and being fouled by him on the shot at the end of the breakaway to cut Chicago's lead to 73-72.

After Malone's lay-in and free throws made it 76-73, Jordan had a three-point attempt go halfway down and come back out, Malone got the rebound and Bryon Russell capped the victory with a slam dunk.

The fourth quarter had started tied at 56. Chicago's largest lead of the game was seven points, in the second quarter, and Utah's best margin was five, in the first and at the end of the game.

Chicago scored only 16 points in the first and third quarters and just 17 in the fourth. Utah had just 14 points in the second period.

Dennis Rodman, the NBA's six-time rebounding champion, has pretty much disappeared in the finals for the Bulls. He got no points on four shots and, worse, just six rebounds.

The Bulls had hoped to wake Rodman up by putting him on Malone, and Pippen conceded: "Defensively I thought he did a pretty good job on Malone."

Bryon Russell, the best Jazz defender, guarded Jordan most of the game. including for his miss at the end.

The 151 combined points were the second-fewest in a finals game since the 24-second shot clock was instituted in 1954-55, and the fewest since that season ended.

"We think about one game at a time," said Malone. "Now we think about Wednesday.

"I anticipate us coming out and still winning the championship," said Jordan. "I look forward to being crowned champions in Chicago it's got to be in Chicago."