It seems safe to view tonight's NBA playoff game in Sacramento as the end of an era. Then again, Monday night should have been the end -- yet, true to form, Karl Malone and John Stockton refused to work on anyone's timetable other than their own.

After the first two games of their first-round Western Conference playoff series, the Utah Jazz had the look of a team plunging headlong toward being swept. The expiration date was Monday, Game 4. As usual, they didn't cooperate,
winning Game 3. Greg Ostertag had the big numbers, and previously comatose teammates Calbert Cheaney and Matt Harpring finally awoke, so they got most of the credit.

The Sacramento Kings believe their training for the second round of the playoffs is nearly complete.

Sacramento can advance to the Western Conference semifinals for the third straight season with a victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 5 tonight. If the Kings finish off their third playoff series in five seasons against the Jazz, they'll feel well-prepared to face the tougher tasks ahead.

Scot Pollard had the same number of field-goal attempts during Monday's fourth game as he did throughout April 19th's playoff opener against the Utah Jazz -- zero.

The Kings won both, but Pollard made a much bigger impression Monday as the Kings took a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series with the Jazz. Sacramento can clinch the series and move into the second-round with a win in today's 8 p.m contest at ARCO Arena.

The strange thing is that it could end here, of all places. In a perfect world, John Stockton is on the floor of the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, running that last bruising cut off that last welt-inducing screen, getting down along the right baseline, going up for the classic Stockton jumper in those classic Stockton basketball shorts, the ones that went out of style about the time Bill Clinton blew a saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show."

The core of Kings' merry men has been here and done it -- and the group also has failed to do it.

Ending a series is considered the most difficult postseason phase to execute, but it's what lies ahead tonight at Arco Arena for the Kings against the Utah Jazz.

As Peja Stojakovic continues to prove, the only way to stop him is with the "hope and pray" defense.

You hope he misses, and you pray he doesn't get on a roll.

A collection of quotes from the Jazz and Kings camps, looking back at Game 4 and ahead to Game 5...

Throughout the Jazz's first-round playoff series with Sacramento, Utah coach Jerry Sloan has questioned if his club can concentrate on its task at hand.
     
"We need everybody focused on what we're trying to do," he said between Games 2 and 3 of the best-of-seven series. "We haven't had a total focus to get the job done."

Sacramento Kings coach Rick Adelman says the series is far from over, while his players think it will be tough for any team to beat them three straight times.
     
Who's right is anybody's guess, but logic says the Kings are in good shape, holding a 3-1 series lead over the Utah Jazz heading into Game 5 tonight at Arco Arena.

Forty minutes after the final horn had sounded Monday night, Karl Malone emerged from the training room. The delay provided plenty of time to think of what he would say.
     
Naturally, one of the first questions was about the Jazz's chances of beating Sacramento in their playoff series.
     
"Nothing is impossible," Malone said carefully. "Sure, it's a big task, but we still have another game to play."