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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- In an atypical home game in which the Utah Jazz never held more than a two-point lead, John Stockton,
typically, made a great pass.
Stockton found Armen Gilliam wide open under the basket for the
winning score with 2.2 seconds to play Monday night to give the
Jazz a 96-94 come-from behind victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
"We ran an old-fashioned play, looking for whatever came up,
and everybody left Armen underneath," said Stockton, whose 10th
assist gave the Jazz their third straight win.
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Rider: Go ahead, release me
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Isaiah Rider is prepared for the
possibility of a trade -- or his outright release.
After scoring 22 points and nearly leading the Hawks to a win in
Utah on Monday night, Rider responded to rumors that Atlanta may be ready to release him if they can't find a taker in a trade.
"That's cool," said Rider, who is averaging 21.4 points per
game for the 20-30 Hawks in his first season in Atlanta since being traded from the Portland Trail Blazers last summer. "It's all
about having fun and playing basketball and getting paid. If they
... do that, then I'll just get paid and be at it next year.
Somebody wants the talent."
Rider is in the last year of his contract, and the Hawks have
been unhappy with his attitude, his missed team flights and
practices and other aspects of his personality.
Rider led the Hawks with 22 points on 10-of-22 shooting and four
assists against the Jazz. He scored five of his points in a
two-minute span that gave the Hawks a 94-88 lead with 2:27 to play, a lead they relinguished before losing in the final seconds.
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Stockton also scored 10 points as the Jazz handed the Hawks a heartbreakong loss in a game Atlanta led most of the way.
"I was really glad to see it. It's rare that we get someone so wide open on that play," Stockton said.
Said Gilliam: "Karl (Malone) said he was going high, so I was going to the basket. John made a heck of a pass."
Utah got the ball with 18.2 seconds left and the score tied
after an offensive foul call on Bimbo Coles. Stockton dribbled the
ball high, came off Malone's screen on the right side and found a
wide-open Gilliam, who had just been inserted into the game.
Atlanta lobbed the ball to Dikembe Mutombo on the ensuing play,
but Utah had a foul to give and Olden Polynice committed it before
Mutombo could shoot. With one second left, Jim Jackson missed a
3-point attempt.
Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens questioned the quickness of the call on Mutombo, which trimmed their last chance from 2.2 seconds to one second.
"Dikembe never got a chance to get out of the lane," said
Wilkens, whose team dropped its fifth game in its last eight. "It
was so quick, they called it so quick."
Isaiah Rider disputed the push-off foul on Coles which gave the Jazz
the ball with 18.2 seconds left and the score tied.
"That foul was ludicrous," said Rider, who scored 22 points,
including five in the final five minutes. "You don't call a foul
like that and decide the game with 20 seconds left."
Malone led all scorers with 25 points, including eight in the
fourth quarter. Jeff Hornacek added 17, including 13 in the third
quarter when the Jazz trimmed Atlanta's four-point lead to one.
Rider led the Hawks with 22 points, including five in the final
five minutes to give Atlanta a lead of as much as 94-88 with 2
minutes left. Jackson added 15 points, and Mutombo put in 12 points
and grabbed 16 rebounds.
Malone scored six of the Jazz's next eight points before
Gilliam's game-winner.
"We have to be happy with the result," said Malone, who also
grabbed nine rebounds and scored his six late points after picking
up his fifth foul. "We didn't lose our composure down the stretch,
and we had some good defensive stops."
The Hawks held an 89-81 advantage after a hook shot by Mutombo
with 6:41 to play. That capped an 11-4 run for the Hawks, led by
Jackson with five points and Alan Henderson with four.
Malone scored on a tip-in, and Hornacek hit a 3-pointer to pull
the Jazz to 89-86 with 4:31 to play. Rider answered with one of two
free throws and a 17-foot jumper to put the Hawks up 92-86 with
3:29 left, before Malone began his spurt to help the Jazz catch
up.
Game notes
Mutombo tops the league with 14.6 rebounds per game and is
second to Shaquille O'Neal in field-goal percentage at 55.1. He
also is second in the league in blocked shots per game at 3.37,
behind Alonzo Mourning. ... The win Monday made Jerry Sloan the
11th winningest coach in NBA history with 708, moving him in front
of John MacLeod (707-657). Sloan also moved in third place all-time
for consecutive games coached with the same franchise (904),
passing former Indiana Pacers' coach Bob Leonard. ... The Jazz,
ranked 28th in the league in rebounding (40.5 per game), have
outboarded opponents by an average of eight per game in their last
five games (42-34). Utah is 4-1 in that stretch. ... Atlanta's
record of 20-30 is their worst start through 49 games since the
1980-81 season, when they were 19-31 at the same point
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Atlanta Clubhouse
Utah Clubhouse
RECAPS
New York 87
LA Clippers 76
Indiana 94
Dallas 93
Cleveland 109
Vancouver 108
Detroit 95
Miami 87
Phoenix 98
San Antonio 89
Denver 123
Sacramento 117
Utah 96
Atlanta 94
Portland 105
Boston 92
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