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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- If Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mike Bibby
continue to shoot the way they did Wednesday night, the Vancouver
Grizzlies might never lose again to the Utah Jazz.
|  | | Karl Malone, left, delivers a hard foul on Shareef Abdur-Rahim. |
Abdur-Rahim scored 30 points and Bibby added 28 as the Grizzlies
snapped a six-game losing streak with their first-ever victory over
the Jazz, 116-99.
"We knew we could play better than we've been playing," Bibby
said as teammates screamed and slapped hands in the locker room.
"I think everybody's just sick and tired of getting burned and we
came out and played hard."
The Grizzlies entered the game 0-17 against Utah, making the
Jazz the only Midwest Division foe they had never beaten in the
franchise's five-year history.
"You look at teams you haven't beaten in this league and you
want to say you've beaten them at least once," said Vancouver
center Bryant Reeves.
Vancouver caught the Jazz at the right time, two nights after
Utah beat the Los Angeles Lakers in double-overtime and one night
before a two-game road trip to Portland and Minnesota.
"We don't overlook teams. I just don't think we approached it
the right way," said Jazz center Olden Polynice. "Anybody we would have played with that kind of approach, we would have lost.
It just happened to be Vancouver."
Utah's 16-5 home record made the win all the more impressive. It
was the most points the Jazz had allowed at home since Phoenix
scored 122 in April, 1997, but Utah won that game.
Abdur-Rahim shot 13-of-23 and Bibby was 11-of-15, adding 11
assists.
"This is the first night we really got it going on the same
night," Abdur-Rahim said. "With a team like the Jazz, we knew we
had to get it going early and keep it going all night long."
When Abdur-Rahim and Bibby weren't nailing jumpers, Michael
Dickerson was sinking the Jazz's hopes from the 3-point line.
Dickerson finished with 18 points and went 4-of-6 from 3-point
range.
The game was tied 26-26 at the end of the first quarter before
Abdur-Rahim led a second-quarter charge.
His breakaway dunk with 1:50 remaining in the half energized the
Grizzlies and helped Vancouver to a 55-43 lead at the break.
Vancouver continued to pour it on in the second half and finished
at 57 percent (45-of-79) from the field.
Before Wednesday's loss, the Jazz had won three straight and 11
of 13.
"It's important to play well and we seemed very nonchalant
about trying to get the job done," said Utah coach Jerry Sloan.
"Hopefully, we'll come to play tomorrow. If we don't, we'll get
beat by 40."
Karl Malone battled foul trouble and was held to three points in the first half and finished with 13. Against the Grizzlies last
week in Vancouver, he scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a
94-89 win.
Bryon Russell led the Jazz with 16 points, while Howard Eisley
scored 12, Quincy Lewis had 11 and Armen Gilliam added 10. Polynice
scored 10 points, all in the first quarter.
Bibby hit two jumpers and Dickerson added a driving layup as the Grizzlies used a 6-0 burst early in the third quarter to take a 71-54 lead. Vancouver led by as many as 25 three times, the first on a jumper by Abdur-Rahim with 8:46 left in the game for a 101-76 lead.
"We got off to a decent start and they got their confidence and
we thought we could break that at some point," said Utah guard
Jeff Hornacek. "We never did. I think we were a little
helter-skelter defensively, maybe scrambling a little too much."
Malone, Russell and John Stockton, who had 11 assists, spent much of the fourth quarter on the bench and the Delta Center was
half empty and silent by the four-minute mark.
Game notes
Utah forward Adam Keefe stayed home with the flu. Jazz officials didn't know if he would make the team's road trip to
Portland and Minnesota, which begins Thursday. ... Malone needs 24
points to reach 30,000 for his career. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and
Wilt Chamberlain have reached the milestone. ... Despite his 30
points, Abdur-Rahim's three-game double-double streak came to an
end. He had one assist and six rebounds.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Vancouver Clubhouse
Utah Clubhouse
RECAPS
Phoenix 93
Philadelphia 87
Toronto 120
Washington 105
Orlando 111
Boston 89
Milwaukee 112
Sacramento 104
Vancouver 116
Utah 99
Seattle 95
New Jersey 92
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