You talking game 6 in ‘98? I never thought we would. The entire time I thought we’d choke it away somehow. And we did.
Over the last few weeks, I've had time to revisit a lot of Jazz playoff games due to a lack of actual sports and not being able to do anything.
It's quite clear the Jazz just aren't destined to ever win a NBA title - at least, not those 90s Jazz. It's crazy insane how much went right for them over the years, just to have everything blow up in their face. Some of it was bad draws - other moments came down to just ******** the bed when it counted the most.
In 1988, when Utah took the Lakers to the brink, and positioned themselves as the future of the NBA, they defeated the Blazers 3-1 in the first-round series. It was a fairly dominant overall series, with Utah winning three-straight to close it out at the Salt Palace (4/5 game - Portland had home court). Portland was another up-and-coming team, now with Clyde Drexler manning the ship. 1988 was the first time the team had won 50+ games since the year after they won the NBA title back in '77. This was a good gauge match-up. What I mean by that is you had two upstart teams playing one another for potentially a chance to take the leap to being REALLY good.
Utah beat the Blazers. Nearly upset the Lakers and then...
In 1989, the Jazz finished a strong regular season, grabbed the second seed, won 50+ games for the first time in franchise history...and got swept by the Warriors in the first-round.
A year later, Utah won even more games, but because of a quirk in the seeding, their inability to win the Midwest dropped them to fourth and a first-round series versus the Suns. It was a series the Jazz would lose in five.
Meanwhile, Portland had just wrapped up a stellar season, winning 59 games, and ran through the west to the NBA Finals before losing to the Pistons 4-1.
The Jazz finally found their postseason footing again in 1991, beating the Suns ... but then they lost to ... Portland. In just a few short years, the Blazers had eclipsed the Jazz. Portland would go on to lose to the Lakers in the WCF.
The Jazz finally made the WCF in 1992 ... only to run into Portland, who they'd lose to 4-2.
The good news is that was pretty much it for Portland. And this is kind of where a story starts to unfold for the Jazz. One nemesis would retreat - only to be replaced by another.
After a lackluster 1993 season, that saw the Jazz just completely do nothing, Utah bounced back strongly in 1994, making the WCF only to face the Houston Rockets, who beat 'em pretty good. Portland wouldn't get out of the first round again until 1999 (where they returned as a Jazz nemesis) but now it was the Rockets screwing everything up.
But this kind of goes back to my overall point about the Jazz doing nothing with luck. In 1994, Utah was not going to make the WCF. Not with how the season finished. But then Denver beat Seattle, knocking the Sonics, who had the best record in the NBA, out of the playoffs. A similar situation happened to the Jazz a decade later in 2007. To Utah's credit, they didn't completely suck *** against Denver, though they absolutely tried, blowing a 3-0 series lead and having to win in seven, but they got absolutely trashed by the Rockets in the WCF.
A year later, and it's Houston again. But this is the real season where luck hurt the Jazz. Utah actually had the second-best record in the WC, and had won 60 games, but because the stupid Spurs (another team that was *** for most the 90s in the playoffs) won the Midwest Division, the Jazz were dropped to the third seed and opened against the Rockets. This was ****. Total ****. Even though the Jazz was better than their seed, so was Houston. And Utah just wasn't going to beat the Rockets. Not in a five-game series. Make that a seven and I think Utah advances. Alas, they choked in game five at home and blew their best opportunity to win the NBA title. Yes, I say their best - even better than any of the two NBA Finals runs.
Why? Because the only two teams standing in their way were the Suns, who Utah matched up well with, and the Spurs, who the Jazz so thoroughly dominated whenever the two met in the playoffs during the 90s.
Utah wins that game five and they win the NBA Championship. This I know.
But that's the luck blowing up in their face. They didn't luck out with seeding but they sure lucked out not having the potential to play the Bulls in the NBA Finals, as MJ had returned but was not at peak-MJ, so, the Bulls weren't the Bulls and got bounced in the semifinals. The Magic won the East that year. Utah would've swept 'em, or won in five at the worst.
And who knows, maybe finally getting it done, not choking away a series, as they had done a few times before, gives them that toughness they need to go into Chicago in 1997 to beat the Bulls. Or maybe it gives 'em the toughness to win game seven a year later against the Sonics. ****, the Jazz could have built themselves into a dynasty had they not just choked the goddamn game against Houston in 1995.
But that became an ever present theme of the Stockton-Malone led Jazz. Utah choked game five of the first round. Bounced out of the playoffs in a year the NBA title is literally up for grabs. A year later, in the WCF, they fall to 1-3 against the Sonics, and even when they rally, they still can't close the deal in game seven on the road. They then choke away game one of the NBA Finals at the line, with Malone missing two free throws that would have put the Jazz up with only seconds left. 1998 was an even worse choke job, as the Jazz blew a 1-0 lead, and home court.
To be honest, had Stockton's three rimmed out against Houston, and that game goes to overtime, I suspect the Jazz would've choked that one away, too, and likely would have lost game seven because that's just in their DNA. Or was.
