Spurs Put Jazz Against Wall

The West hasn't been won yet, although the San Antonio Spurs took another giant step Sunday toward doing just that.

With chants of "M-V-P" raining down on Tim Duncan from the largest crowd in the NBA this season, the Spurs played an inspired fourth quarter and defeated Utah 84-78 to prevent the Jazz from clinching the conference.

Now, it's the Spurs who can secure homecourt advantage throughout the postseason by winning their final two games at Portland on Tuesday and at Golden State on Wednesday.

Duncan had 26 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots, outplaying Karl Malone down the stretch and showing rare flashes of emotion.

An emphatic dunk by Duncan off a missed shot with 9:06 left elicited a scream from the 7-footer and gave San Antonio its first lead since the first quarter, 67-65. After that, the Spurs never let Utah regain the momentum.

"I'm not dead to the world out there," said the usually stoic Duncan. "I'm trying to play hard, and when things happen that are great for us I get excited about it."

Mario Elie added 15 points, Sean Elliott had 14 and Avery Johnson 12 for the Spurs (35-13), who won the season series from the Jazz 2-1 and thus will have the tiebreaker edge if the teams finish with the same record.

Malone had 24 points and 14 rebounds for Utah (36-13), which has one game remaining at home against the Los Angeles Clippers.

It was just the fourth time this season that Utah lost a game it led entering the fourth quarter.

"The last couple of years Utah has been strong, but things have changed this year," Elie said. "I'm proud of this team. We finally have mental toughness. There's no panic when we get behind. That's what we need in thplayoffs."

San Antonio outscored the Jazz 25-15 in the final period. The Spurs also were helped by a wide disparity in free throws, going to the line 46 times and making 33 compared to Utah's 17-for-22.

"You always have a problem with that, but what are you going to do about it," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said.

"Free throw this, free throw that," Malone said. "Everybody in the world knows how many free throws they shot. They just won the ballgame."

The critical stretch came early in the fourth quarter as Duncan had two dunks and a jumper and Johnson scored four points in an 11-2 run that gave the Spurs a 70-65 lead.

A jumper by Jaren Jackson and another jam by Duncan this one driving around Greg Ostertag upped the lead to seven, and Utah couldn't get back within three until Malone converted a layup with 23 seconds left to make it 81-78.

Elliott then converted two free throws, Duncan rebounded a miss by John Stockton and the crowd of 35,122 erupted.

It completed quite a weekend for the Spurs, who also defeated the Pacific Division champion Trail Blazers on Saturday.

"It was a great feeling, I can't lie," Duncan said of the MVP chants. "I got a little tingly there, but I wanted to finish the game."

"It felt great at the time, and it's even better now because we finished that game strong."

After getting off to a slow start in the first quarter, the Jazz moved ahead early in the second quarter behind the play of 38-year-old Thurl Bailey, who scored nine points in the first half

two shy of his season-high.

A steal by Malone and a fastbreak layup by Jeff Hornacek off a pass from Stockton gave Utah a 34-22 lead, but San Antonio pulled within 39-34 by halftime after David Robinson scored his only basket of the half on a tip-in at the buzzer.

Utah maintained a comfortable lead through the early part of the third period with the help of a questionable call by the officials. Robinson appeared to cleanly block Ostertag's dunk attempt, but a foul was called and San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich picked up a technical for arguing. The Jazz made two of the three free throws for a 47-40 lead and the referees then made what appeared to be three make-up calls to help San Antonio pull within a point, but Utah still held a 63-59 lead entering the fourth.

Notes: Utah has knocked San Antonio out of the playoffs in the Spurs' last two postseason appearances, 1996 and 1998. ... The victory was San Antonio's 13th straight at home and its 29th in the last 34 games overall. ... The NBA's previous largest crowd was 33,788 for a Lakers-Spurs game at the Alamodome on Feb. 8. ... Hornacek's next game will be his 1,000th. ... Two reporters had their computers stolen from the Alamodome press room.

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