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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) – It isn't easy to stay with one team long
enough to coach 1,000 regular-season games. Karl Malone and John
Stockton have allowed Jerry Sloan to survive and flourish with the
Utah Jazz – and they did it again Sunday night.
Malone had 34 points and Stockton added 13 points and 10 assists
as Sloan reached his milestone with a 111-96 victory over the same
team he beat in his first game as Jazz coach – the Los Angeles
Clippers.
|  | | Karl Malone led the Jazz with 34 points as they beat the Clippers for a ninth straight time. |
"I've been real lucky. They haven't run me off," Sloan said.
"Our owners have kept us in there, and that makes a big
difference. Somebody told me that there have been 136 coaching
changes since I started in Utah, but I don't know how you can
succeed when you're changing coaches all the time."
Sloan, who signed a three-year, $12 million contract extension
in January, became the sixth man to coach 1,000 regular-season NBA
games with the same team.
He joined an elite fraternity that includes former Washington
coach Gene Shue – who was the losing coach for the Clippers in
Sloan's Jazz head coaching debut – Boston's Red Auerbach, Phoenix's
John MacLeod, Golden State's Al Attles, and Red Holzman of the New
York Knicks.
"It's been a day-to-day thing," he said. "It wasn't something
I looked at and said, `This is going to be a long-time venture.' I
just took whatever came. And that's what I've tried to tell our
players. Nobody gives a darn about what happened to you
yesterday."
After an 11-year playing career, Sloan coached his first 215
games with the Chicago Bulls. He went six seasons between head
coaching jobs, working as a scout and an assistant with the Jazz
before replacing Frank Layden on Dec. 9, 1988.
"I didn't think I was going to make it through our first road
trip," recalled Sloan, who has compiled a 682-318 regular-season
record with Utah. "After we played down here, we had to go back
east and really had a tough time. So when we got back home, I
thought it would be tough to keep the job. But I guess I got
lucky."
The only coaches in NBA history with better career winning
percentages than Sloan's .639 mark are Miami's Pat Riley (.692) and
Auerbach (.661).
Sloan, who turns 59 on Mar. 28, has guided the Jazz to the NBA
finals twice (1997 and 1998), won five division titles and reached
the 50-win plateau nine times. Five more victories in Utah's final
17 games will make it 10.
Utah closed within a half-game of idle San Antonio for the best
record in the Western Conference following their ninth straight
victory over the Clippers and their 18th win in 23 games overall.
Donyell Marshall scored 11 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter
for the Jazz.
Corey Maggette, who has started each of the Clippers' last five
games at small forward during Lamar Odom's five-game suspension for
violating the NBA's anti-drug policy, scored 20 points before
spraining his left ankle. Odom returns Tuesday night when the
Clippers play host to Philadelphia.
The Jazz used 18 points by Malone and consecutive 3-pointers by
Bryon Russell and Marshall in the final 29 seconds of the first
half to build a 59-45 lead. Marshall's was a buzzer-beater.
"They're a heck of a basketball team," Clippers coach Alvin
Gentry said. "I don't think anybody's come in here and shot the
ball against us like that this year. We just didn't have an answer
for them. I've never seen them shoot the ball that well."
Olden Polynice's layup with 5:53 left in the third quarter gave
Utah a 77-58 lead, its biggest to that point. The Clippers got
within 14 on a 3-pointer by rookie Keyon Dooling with 1:13 left in
the third, but the Jazz broke it open with a 15-6 run that gave
them a 101-78 cushion with 6:22 remaining. Marshall helped fuel the
rally with nine points.
Game notes
Stockton and Malone aren't the only ones to have played in
Sloan's first and 1,000th games as Jazz coach. Teammate Danny
Manning was a Clippers rookie in 1988-89. ... Among current NBA
coaches, the closest to reaching the 1,000-game mark with the same
team is Houston's Rudy Tomjanovich with 720. ... The Hollywood
community was well represented in the sellout crowd of 19,292,
which included front-row observers Farrah Fawcett, Connie Stevens
and Fran Drescher ("The Nanny"), along with Clippers regulars
Penny Marshall and Marcia Strassman ("Welcome Back Kotter"). ...
It was the wrong night to argue with referee Phil Robinson, who
assessed technical fouls 21 seconds apart to Malone and Clippers
center Michael Olowokandi in the third quarter. ... Malone, second
on the NBA's career scoring list, made all eight free throws and
will break Moses Malone's league record of 8,531 free throws with
18 more.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Utah Clubhouse
LA Clippers Clubhouse
RECAPS
LA Lakers 95
Orlando 90
Indiana 101
Sacramento 95
Minnesota 91
Cleveland 76
Milwaukee 100
Detroit 96
Seattle 104
Golden State 99
Utah 111
LA Clippers 96
Denver 98
New Jersey 84
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