As he does once or twice a season, Karl Malone reached another scoring milestone Wednesday.
     
And he did it despite an off-shooting night in an otherwise forgettable and messy midseason victory over the NBA's worst team, the Chicago Bulls, 90-78 at the Delta Center.

With 1:27 left in the contest, Malone was fouled by Marcus Fizer. He missed the first free throw but made the second, giving him a team-high 18 points for the night and 34,000 points for his career.
     
Utah's Andrei Kirilenko was impressed by the sheer numbers involved in Malone's accomplishment. "It's crazy," he said. "He's a very great player, and I hope he gets 40,000."
     
Malone appreciated the sentiment, but after some quick calculation said, "I probably won't. That's a lot more years than I want to play. I've got them in me, but I don't know if I want to play."
     
(So you don't have to break out the calculator, it would take Malone at least three more seasons to reach 40,000.)
     
"Milestones, I kind of like to get them over with so you can think about playing the game of basketball," Malone said. "But that's a lot of points."