Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Suns Report: Phoenix dominates Jazz in Delta Center
From: f67700241@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (Greg Franklin)
Date: 13 Nov 92 03:25:10 MST
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
Nntp-Posting-User: f67700241

11/12/92
Phoenix Suns (1-1) at Utah Jazz (2-1)
FINAL: Suns 102, Jazz 91

SETTING:

The Delta Center in Salt Lake City hosted this game.  I remember seeing 
the old Salt Palace from the outside, and didn't think it was a thing of 
beauty (although I was thrilled, in my innocence, just to know that an 
actual NBA team played in there).  I have heard that the Delta Center 
inspired some of the features in Phoenix's new America West Arena.

STARTERS:

Phx: Ceballos, Barkley, West, Majerle, Knight
Uta: Ty Corbin, Karl Malone, Mike Brown, Jeff Malone, Stockton

KEY BENCH PLAYERS:

Phx: Chambers, Miller, Ainge
Uta: Benoit, Ike Austin, Jay Humphries

QUARTER-BY-QUARTER:

1st Quarter: I caught Ceballos, the reigning NBA Slam Dunk King(tm), 
doing a monster jam to tie it early at 2-2, then I napped for the rest 
of the 1st quarter due to weariness.  Later I found out that CC scored 
14 points to propel the Suns ahead comfortably at the end of the 1st 
quarter.

2nd Quarter: 59-49 Suns.  The Jazz surged to within 4, but Barkley hit a 
J and warded off the threat.  With less than 7 minutes to go, Knight was 
clocked hard on a foul and limped around a bit.  The diagnosis: bruised 
right wrist and tailbone.  Ceballos reported a loose front tooth.  Frank 
Johnson subbed for Knight and immediately sank 3 quick jumpers.  Barkley 
pulled a Mailman by sitting his fat butt at the side of the lane, 
waiting for the Jazz to double-team him with the ball, then powering in 
towards the bucket.  (I say this because I've watched Malone pull this 
crap so often against the Suns in past years.  It's nice to have your 
own Dream Teamer for this kind of dirty work.)  FOUL TROUBLE: West (you 
knew this would happen).

Halftime Impressions: Suns had the upper hand.  No Jazz seemed to be 
running wild on the Suns; Stockton and the Malones were kept to low stat 
totals (Stock 9 assists, K. Malone 1 FT).  CC ended the half with 16 
points; Barkley had 15.  Phoenix was ahead in both FG% and rebounds, 
unheard of for a team playing against Utah's defense.

3rd Quarter: 80-69 Suns.  For Utah, Ike Austin and Benoit started Half 
#2 in place of Brown and Corbin.  Knight came out to play and he and 
Barkley scored 6 points between them to put the Jazz on their heels 
(Sloan called an emergency TO).  Phoenix was in position to put this 
game out of reach.  But Utah put Ty Corbin in (my 2nd favorite former 
Sun, next to Larry Nance) for J. Malone, and coincidentally (ahem) the 
Jazz started hustling and made another run to get back into it.  FOUL 
TROUBLE: West.  TECHNICAL FOUL: Barkley, assessed by Joe Crawford (you 
knew this would happen.  Luckily Corbin missed the T).

4th Quarter: Suns played extremely sloppy at the start, giving up a lot 
of TOs and offensive boards, but the Jazz couldn't hit their shots!  
Mailman played center for much of the quarter.  Supposedly this has been 
Sloan's most trusted setup in crunch time, but I think it allowed Mark 
West or Barkley to gang up on David Benoit.  The game kept going on in 
this manner until suddenly there were less than 3 minutes left on the 
clock, and then I figured the Suns were home-free.  It was a free-throw 
shooting contest from then on.  102-91 was the final.  TECHNICAL FOUL: 
Miller (pissed at being run over by Mailman with no call).

AFTERMATH:

Jeff Malone and Jay Humphries (a former Sun) were cold all game, as was 
the Jazz entire outside game.  The Suns' Majerle, Ainge, and Chambers 
(who didn't show his ugly mug all second half, to my great satisfaction) 
again had problems with their shooting.  Knight did get ~12 points for 
the game.  Ceballos logged 34 minutes and collected 24 points.  Barkley 
did his usual, and was able to hold the Mailman under control.

The Suns played defense with much more spirit than I've seen all year, 
especially in the first half. Westphal, for his part, seemed to know his 
personnel (putting Rambis in when West got into foul trouble, thus 
sharing the defensive burden with Miller), and kept the Suns in the lead 
on the road from wire to wire.  That speaks well for his coaching 
abilities.

As for Jerry Sloan, he just doesn't seem to have the personnel to 
compete for the NBA championship.  Eaton will not be enough to bring the 
Jazz to the promised land.  As I said before, Portland is the only team 
in the Western Conference I fear.

OTHER STRANGE OCCURRENCES and FACTOIDS:

The Suns are marketing something called a Sports Fantasy Cassette Tape, 
where apparently your voice gets dubbed in to a simulated game of the 
Suns vs. the NBA.  This sounds fun: "Barkley whips the ball to Meeks, 
Meeks to Lor, Lor gets past Jordan and goes up for a WHAM-BAM-SLAM!"

Rambis hit *3* 18-foot jumpers in limited PT.  Of course, he won't be a 
star until he learns how to hit his free throws.

Ike Austin was a good player at Arizona State, but he had an older 
brother Alex at ASU who was better.  Unfortunately, Alex would have been 
a small forward in the NBA, where more than enough talented players are 
available.  But Ike, being a big center-type guy, has managed to hang on 
an NBA roster for over a year now without being drafted.  I'm pretty 
impressed, and happy that the Austin family will get at least 1 NBA 
paycheck from their kids.

Karl Malone missed 2 EASY layups.

Knight should play in Minnesota versus the Wolves, but will still be
aching.  This sounds pretty ominous.

QUESTIONS I WANT ANSWERS TO:

Does anyone in the NBA wear a mouthguard?

Will Mike Brown ever retire?  Hell, will Charles Jones (Washington)?  
These guys just seem to keep going and going....

SUNS SCORECARD:

         Saturday, 11/ 7 LA Clippers  at PHOENIX      (6:30 pm)  W 111-105
          Tuesday, 11/10 PHOENIX      at Portland     (7:30 pm)  L  89-100
         Thursday, 11/12 PHOENIX      at Utah         (6:00 pm)  W 102- 91
         Saturday, 11/14 PHOENIX      at Minnesota    (5:00 pm)
           Monday, 11/16 Seattle      at PHOENIX      (6:30 pm)
        Wednesday, 11/18 Sacramento   at PHOENIX      (6:30 pm)
         Saturday, 11/21 PHOENIX      at LA Clippers  (7:30 pm)
           Sunday, 11/22 Chicago      at PHOENIX      (6:00 pm)
        Wednesday, 11/25 Portland     at PHOENIX      (6:30 pm)
           Friday, 11/27 Golden State at PHOENIX      (6:30 pm)
         Saturday, 11/28 PHOENIX      at Golden State (7:30 pm)
-- 
Greg "Mockingbird" Franklin      Interviewer: "Sir, how do you spell relief?"
f67700241@ccit.arizona.edu               Dan: "R-O-L-A-I-D-S-E."

"[George Bush is] the most ruthless white man in the history of the planet."
	-- Richard Ben Cramer, author of _What It Takes_
"The President scores much better than Bill Clinton."
	-- Dan, comparing Bush's record of marital infidelity to Clinton's
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