Jazz Bull-Proof at Home

SALT LAKE CITY — Happy New Year!

Or whatever state holiday had been proclaimed for Friday. Booms and balloons filled the air at the start, streamers came down at the end, and the fireworks that came between weren’t too bad either for the 19,911 that filled the Delta Center for the first NBA finals home game in franchise history, a 104-93 victory by the Utah Jazz that cut the Chicago Bulls’ lead to 2-1.

The fans cheered lustily, as always, but that was nothing compared to the biggest noisemaker of all, Karl Malone, he of the 37 points and 10 rebounds. John Stockton had 17 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds and Greg Foster added 17 points and six rebounds to lead a strong bench showing.

Phil Jackson, the Bulls’ coach, simply added the obvious.

“Well,” he said after losing for only the third time in 16 playoff games, “energy wise, they’re a different ballclub at home.”

At the risk of again being stereotyped as a team that usually will only win big games at the Delta Center, even after closing out the Houston Rockets on the road to win the Western Conference crown, Utah looked the part again.

Altitude, nothing. Being back here, now guaranteed for two more games before the best-of-seven series returns to Chicago, if necessary, meant a different mode of transportation to the arena for Malone, as opposed to the bus that went from the hotel to the United Center. He chose one of his Harley-Davidson motorcycles. He wore jeans and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off at the shoulders.

He was bad, all right. In all the good ways.

Even his son was in on it. Malone was about to hop on the Harley “that was kind of quiet,” before Karl Jr. spoke up and said he liked one of the others. The loud one it was.

“And I took the long way here,” Malone said.

Right into the middle of what was as much a civic happening as a game, starting late in the afternoon as one TV station captured footage of the Bulls’ bus, complete with police escort, rolling along the freeway while coming in from the team hotel in Park City, about 30 minutes out of town. A couple of hours before tipoff, the courtyard outside the Delta Center was packed with fans and music, like a concert in the park.

Then the party continued inside. Percussion fireworks went off, per playoff tradition, balloons were released from the ceiling, the thunderous support from the home fans almost blew them back up, and the Jazz ran out to a nine-point lead in the first quarter as Malone had 15 points and six rebounds in 11 minutes.

This is how the locals pictured it all along, of course, or at least since they were forced to because of the way the series started, with a tough loss in Game 1 followed by a blowout that only seemed like a respectable 12-point defeat thanks to a late rally. The Jazz coming home, tapping into the magic of the 25-1 record at the Delta Center since the All-Star break, including 9-0 in the playoffs, and then making it look like an energy transfusion.

“The fans get so loud here,” Utah center Greg Ostertag said. “At times, it’s hard to hear yourself think. It’s hard to hear yourself hear.”

Except it didn’t go exactly as expected. Not that the Jazz extended the lead to 18 points in the second quarter or that Malone had 22 points at halftime on 10-of-16 shooting after scoring 23 and 20 in the two Chicago outings. An outburst from a team and a player far more talented than it showed on the road, especially Wednesday, could have been foreseen.

This could not have: Greg Foster getting 15 points before intermission, one more than Jordan. Or Chris Morris, having averaged 7.6 minutes in the playoffs, getting an expanded role as the backup small forward because Shandon Anderson returned to Atlanta after the death of his father, and then grabbing three rebounds, as many as any Bull, and making three of four shots en route to seven points. That Howard Eisley contributed four points and three assists in only five minutes was not a surprise considering he has had several shining moments of postseason in relief of John Stockton.

The Bulls, the first to admit they have been winning despite a sometimes ragged offense, one that was down to 37.5% for the series and 43.5% for the playoffs at the start of Game 3, had only 60 points by the end of the third quarter. That was worth a 17-point deficit, but it also proved to be the beginning of the comeback since they were 24 down with 4:40 remaining.

The kick carried over to the fourth, where the Bulls cut the lead to seven with 2:52 showing, then again with 31.9 seconds to play. But the Jazz went 10 of 10 from the line the final 68 seconds, and 15 of 16 during the final period.

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NBA Finals: The Series

Bulls lead best-of-seven series 2-1:

* Game 1: Chicago 84, Utah 82

* Game 2: Chicago 97, Utah 85

* Game 3: Utah 104, Chicago 93

* Sunday--at Utah 4:30 p.m.

* Wednesday--at Utah 6 p.m.

* Friday--at Chicago 6 p.m.-x

* June 15--at Chicago 4:30 p.m.-x

x-if necessary