WHICH CAME FIRST, STOCKTON'S INJURIES OR PAYTON'S ARRIVAL?

All those newspapers John Stockton doesn't read, Gary Payton must.

Has him a little on edge, too.

"Y'all put that stuff in the paper about me outplaying him - calm down now," Payton cautioned us the other day. "I can't be doing that every night."

Only, it seems, because the Utah Jazz and Seattle SuperSonics aren't playing every night. But every time they've met so far in the NBA's Western Conference finals, Payton has done nothing less than dominate his Jazz rival - though Utah's victory on Friday made it irrelevant for one game, at least.

Or, as Stockton himself said, "I know I didn't play well, but I'd rather have the victory than anything else."

If you've paid attention since he left Spokane 12 years ago, you'll recall that Stockton applies the same caveat on the nights he goes off for 20 points and 15 assists, too.

But everything is magnified - some would say overblown - in the playoffs. Failure, first of all - just ask the Sonics - and then one-on-one matchups. Shawn Kemp hasn't guarded Karl Malone straight up more than two or three times this series, and yet NBC won't hesitate to pair them in the same graphic during Game 4 here today. Likewise, it might be Payton picking Stockton's pocket while Detlef Schrempf or another Sonic frisks him.

That doesn't change the perception that the Jazz won't last unless their all-star point guard pulls out of it.

It's a perception even Stockton shares.

"It's just a matter of getting it done," he said. "These things happen - but hopefully, they won't continue because it puts a lot of pressure on the other guys."

From Malone's vantage point, that only seems fair.

"How many times has he made our job easier?" he asked.

In fact, after going along with the maddeningly stoic Jazz party line, Malone finally broke ranks after Friday's victory and dropped a broad hint of the heretofore unmentionable.

"After this series is over, I'll tell you what's really wrong," he said. "He's taking a lot of undeserved heat. Put it this way: My hat's off to the guy for playing when 95, 90 percent of the guys wouldn't."

The reference, of course, is to the dings and dents Stockton insists are fine: the strained hamstring and groin, and the ailing elbow.

But however badly Stockton is hurting, he has no bigger pain than Payton.

"He's a great player," Stockton said. "who's playing better than that."

And not just against the Jazz. Payton's numbers in Seattle's 11 playoff games: a 22.3 scoring average on 49.5-percent shooting (43 from 3-point range, compared to 29.6 for his career), 7.0 assists, 2.27 steals and 4 rebounds a game.

Jazz assistant coach Gordon Chiesa appreciates Payton almost as much as he does Stockton.

"Payton is a terrific one-on-one defender - you're talking about the defensive player of the year," Chiesa said. "He presents a problem for any point guard, but especially John because of his size and his active hands.

"Every passing month, he's gotten better. He understands the game better than he used to and he's an underrated shooter - very underrated."

He is also seven years younger than Stockton, and healthy in a way he wasn't in either the 1994 or 1995 playoffs. But discussions of whether the torch has been passed - as if there's room for only one smart and tough point guard in the West - are better saved for barstools.

"People are asking what's wrong with John," Chiesa acknowledged, "and the answer is, `Nothing.'

"He's a great player who has the ball almost the whole game for us. Seattle right now is spending more time trying to stop John Stockton than Karl Malone and that should tell you something."

But Stockton is giving them some help. He missed a handful of wide-open shots on Friday - he was 2 of 9 on the night - and 5 of 8 free throws. He's shooting just 33 percent in the series and 44.8 in the playoffs after leading all NBA guards at 53.8 percent during the regular season.

"Can we win without John shooting well?" Chiesa wondered. "We need him right now to make pressure plays. If the defense backs off, it would help us very much if he made the open shot."

The defense isn't going to back off. You don't play your way out of a slump against the Sonics. But if nothing else, Friday's Utah victory backed up coach Jerry Sloan's assertion that his team's offensive problems couldn't all be dumped at Stockton's locker - though certainly he'd love to have that end-of-Game-2 pass back.

"We were standing around counting nails in the floor," Malone said.

More diplomatic, as usual, was the man in question.

"We played a little different," Stockton said. "Look, you can be stubborn and try to beat the traps or you can let your teammates do it. I thought the guys, when they got the ball, did good things with it. That's the important part - not who does it, but that it gets done."

True. But it's hard to imagine the Jazz getting much of anything done without him.

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
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