Blazers Burn Jazz

Just as they did in last season's playoffs, rage and rebounding carried the Portland Trail Blazers past the Utah Jazz.

Greg Anthony hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, and the Blazers pulled away from the Jazz to win 85-75 Thursday night in a game filled to the brim with hard fouls and emotion.

"It was a hotly contested game all the way," Portland coach Mike Dunleavy said. "The big difference tonight was the guys came in the game and controlled the glass and everybody who played contributed to the win."

"I've been waiting for a chance to show everybody that I'm still capable of playing big minutes and helping the team win," said O'Neal, who signed a four-year, $24 million deal last summer despite a career scoring average of 3.9.

Brian Grant added 12 rebounds and defended Karl Malone well. Late in the game, Grant wrestled a rebound away from Malone, laid the ball in and scowled furiously at Malone's back. The players had tussled during the playoffs last season, when Malone opened up a gash over Grant's eye in Game 5 of their semifinals series. The Blazers went on to win in six games.

Utah tried to forget Wednesday night's embarrassing 17-point home loss to Vancouver, but turned in an even worse performance instead. The Jazz shot a season-low 32 percent, with Bryon Russell going just 1-for-16 nd scoring four points.

Malone had a season-low 12 points, leaving him 12 short of joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score 30,000.

Utah's 75 points were the fewest the franchise has ever scored against the Blazers in 110 games over the past 25 years. Utah's previous low came in a 94-77 loss on Dec. 5, 1997.

"Portland was like a blanket on us all night," said Utah coach Jerry Sloan, who was ejected with 2:26 remaining for arguing with the officials. "Portland's defense wasn't going to let us catch up. They outrebounded us; they went after the ball much better."

"We got beat by a better team."

A layup by Malone pulled the Jazz to 69-65 with 9:23 to go, but Bonzi Wells hit a short jumper and Anthony nailed a 3-pointer to make it 74-65. Anthony's next 3-pointer rattled in after several bounces and sealed the game at 79-67 with 6:26 left.

"They rely heavily on getting uncontested shots because they have some guys that can stroke it," Anthony said. "And we seemed to always have a hand in their face whenever they took a shot."

Sloan was tossed shortly after Portland's Rasheed Wallace and Utah's Armen Gilliam were assessed technical fouls for shoving. Wallace, who received a technical earlier in the game, also was ejected.

Anthony's 3-pointer put the Blazers ahead 36-34, but Utah scored the last four points of the half to tie it at 42. Wallace was hit with a technical, from the bench. After a free throw, Stockton hit a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left in the period.

Wallace has a league-high 18 technicals this season and has been thrown out of three of the Blazers' last seven games.

Anthony has made six of his last seven from 3-point range.

Notes