Malone Sends Message Mvp Trophy Presentation Brief As Jazz Get Down To Business In Opener

They threw an MVP party for Karl Malone, and the man of the night didn’t seem to want any part of it. He picked up his trophy as quickly as he could, refused to say any words to the crowd and then played - at least for him - a mediocre game.

But the rest of the Jazz, who Malone had thanked so much for helping him win the award, showed why they earned his praise as Utah opened the Western Conference finals with a 101-86 romp over the Houston Rockets on Monday night.

“I didn’t want to draw any more attention to the MVP than had already been on me,” Malone said. “They wanted me to say something, and I said absolutely not. I wanted to do this quick so I could stay focused on the basketball game.”

The pregame ceremony lasted just more than a minute. Malone shook commissioner David Stern’s hand, held the trophy up, spun around and sprinted back to the Jazz bench.

“I don’t want the fans to think I snubbed them,” Malone said. “But I didn’t want to get caught up in it because this game was big for us. Me talking could have gotten the other team revved up to play, so I made it short and sweet, I turned to every direction of the crowd so they could see it, and then I was out of there.”

Jeff Hornacek scored 19 points, John Stockton had 16 points and 13 assists and the rest of the team made strong contributions to back Malone’s 21-point, 13-rebound effort. Malone also had five turnovers and shot just 6 for 16 from the field, but the occasional sloppiness didn’t matter to his adoring crowd.

The Jazz fans gave Malone a standing ovation when Stern presented him with the trophy, then did it again - along with a chant of “M-V-P” - when Malone went to the bench with 2:48 remaining and Utah leading 97-80.

Game 2 in the best-of-7 series is Wednesday night.

Hakeem Olajuwon led Houston with 30 points, but he didn’t score in the fourth period. Clyde Drexler scored 13, Charles Barkley had 12 and Mario Elie 10 for Houston, which was playing just two days after finishing off Seattle in a seven-game series.

“We looked like a tired team, but I thought we would have applied ourselves more,” Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “I’m very disappointed that we didn’t make this closer.”

Utah, on the other hand, hadn’t played in a week. And once the Jazz shook off the rust after 12 minutes or so, the Rockets could never come all the way back.

Rookie Shandon Anderson scored 11 points off the bench and third-string center Greg Foster scored all nine of his points in the second period to help Utah take command.

The Jazz, who have won their last 20 home games, outshot Houston 44 percent to 38 percent and finished with only 15 turnovers after committing eight in the first quarter.

“There was some rust, but there was energy too. So it all balanced out,” Hornacek said. “You look at the stats and see that Karl had a bad game - at least for him - and it’s good because we won and we know he will be back stronger.”

Houston shot just 38 percent, including a 3-for-10 effort from Barkley and a 2-for-9 evening for Matt Maloney.

Jazz 101, Rockets 86

Houston - Elie 2-9 5-5 10, Barkley 3-10 6-6 12, Olajuwon 9-14 12-17 30, Drexler 5-13 0-0 13, Maloney 2-9 1-2 6, Willis 1-4 1-2 3, Threatt 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 3-6 0-0 7, Harrington 1-2 0-2 2, Bullard 1-1 0-0 3, Livingston 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 27-71 25-34 86.

Utah - Russell 3-10 0-0 6, Malone 6-16 9-11 21, Ostertag 4-7 0-0 8, Hornacek 6-12 6-7 19, Stockton 5-13 4-5 16, Eisley 2-7 0-0 4, Foster 3-5 2-2 9, Anderson 5-7 0-0 11, Carr 2-5 1-2 5, Morris 1-1 0-0 2, Howard 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 37-84 22-27 101.

Houston 23 17 25 21 - 86

Utah 20 29 30 22 - 101

3-Point goals-Houston 7-24 (Drexler 3-8, Bullard 1-1, Johnson 1-2, Elie 1-4, Maloney 1-7, Barkley 0-2), Utah 5-14 (Stockton 2-2, Anderson 1-1, Foster 1-2, Hornacek 1-3, Eisley 0-2, Russell 0-4). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Houston 49 (Olajuwon 13), Utah 56 (Malone 13). Assists-Houston 17 (Olajuwon 5), Utah 24 (Stockton 13). Total fouls-Houston 21, Utah 30. Technicals-Houston coach Tomjanovich, Maloney, Elie, Houston illegal defense. A-19,911 (19,911).