A much-needed break seemingly could not have come at a lousier time for the Jazz, who won their fourth straight game Saturday night, but do not play again until Friday night.
     
"It's not great," backup point guard John Crotty said of the lengthy time off. "I'm not going to sit here and say, 'We need it,' because we really don't."
     
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, however, doesn't seem bothered by the unfortunate timing.
     
"I can't worry about that," said Sloan, whose 16-15 club is coming off stretches of three games in four nights and seven in 12.
     
"These guys are happy to get away from me," Sloan added, "and probably vice versa."
     
It's true, agreed Jazz star Karl Malone, who scored 20 points and pulled down a season-high 17 rebounds in Utah's 89-81 victory over Philadelphia on Saturday night at the sold-out Delta Center.

One day after watching his team play from the horizontal position in the 76ers locker room, Larry Brown was back on the bench last night. He might have rather stayed in the locker room.

Playing for the fourth time in five days, the Sixers lost to the Utah Jazz, 89-81, dropping their record to 12-18. With Brown, without Brown, it does not seem to matter. Something is amiss with the Sixers, and not even their coach seems able to fix it.

Last night's loss was exacerbated by a 56-second stretch in the third quarter in which Derrick Coleman was ejected, followed by Jazz forward Donyell Marshall, and finally Corie Blount, who had come into the game in relief of Coleman.

The scrum started with 6 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the third and the Jazz up, 54-45. Fighting for a loose ball on the offensive end, Coleman wrapped his arm around Karl Malone's neck. Malone pulled away, and then the two exchanged words, with Coleman throwing a punch that hit Malone below the shoulder. After some discussion, referee Tom Washington told Brown that Coleman was tossed. He could be suspended by the NBA for Wednesday's game for throwing the punch.

The Jazz are ready for the first of three extended breaks they will get over the next two months.

With no games scheduled until Friday night, they get five days off to rest up, ring in the New Year and, in Bryon Russell"s case, celebrate a birthday on New Year"s eve.

Coach Jerry Sloan plans to give his team a 3 1/2 day break, with no practice scheduled until Wednesday evening.

The layoff could hurt the momentum of a team riding a four-game winning streak and above .500 for the first time all season, but Karl Malone insists they are ready for some time off.

""I welcome five days off," Malone said. ""It could be 10 right now. I need a break from it, and I"m sure they need a break from me as well."

The Jazz provided plenty of fireworks Saturday night as they closed out the 2001 portion of their schedule - and offered a promising forecast for 2002.

Utah"s bench once again bailed out the starters after a slow start and the whole team withstood a barrage of technical fouls in an 89-81 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Delta Center.

The victory was Utah"s fourth in a row, boosting the Jazz above .500 for the first time all season with a 16-15 record.

Karl Malone led the Jazz with 20 points and 17 rebounds, and John Crotty led another stellar performance by Utah"s reserves with a season-high 17 points.

""It was a good win for our team," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. ""Again our guys off the bench came in and gave us really a nice lift and gave us a chance to win the ballgame.

""It has gotten to be a habit, certainly something that is really important to our team."

Sloan offered his biggest praise to center Greg Ostertag, who delivered his fourth consecutive strong performance.

Ostertag even sprained his ankle in the second quarter and returned to play nine more minutes in the second half, finishing with eight point, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in 29 minutes.

To Jerry Sloan, the 800th win of his NBA coaching career was not a big deal.
   
To Larry Brown, it might be a big, big deal.
   
Karl Malone scored 20 points and grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds, and John Crotty added a season-high 17 points as the Jazz won their fourth straight game, an 89-81 victory over the unhappy Philadelphia 76ers at the Delta Center on Saturday.
   
The win moved Sloan into a tie with Brown for ninth place on the NBA's all-time list.
   
Sloan's record improved to 800-463. Among the 10 winningest coaches, only Pat Riley (.648) and Red Auerbach (.662) own a better won-loss ratio than Sloan (.634).

It's a shame the Jazz must soon ring in a new year, because they sure did end this one with a bang.
     
Utah closed 2001 with a 89-81 victory over Philadelphia on Saturday night, winning its fourth game in a row ? including three since after the Christmas holiday.

The Jazz did it in front of a crowd, too, playing before 19,911 at the Delta Center, which was sold out for the first time this season.
     
And the best part about the victory for Utah was that it was no fluke.
     
"I just think we're getting better," said veteran backup point guard John Crotty, one of several bench players who boosted the 16-15 Jazz over the .500 mark for the first time this season. "You see improvement game in and game out."
   
Jerry Sloan, who credited Utah's subs for their role in his 800th career coaching victory, could not agree more.
     
"It was a good win for our team," said Sloan, who logged his first 94 regular-season wins with the Chicago Bulls, and all the rest in Utah. "Again, our guys off the bench came in and gave us a really nice lift, and gave us a chance to win the ballgame.

In a season that has already produced numerous puzzling performances (see: Jazz), none is more puzzling than that of the Philadelphia 76ers.
   
The defending Eastern Conference champs, who tip off against Utah tonight at the Delta Center, are 12-16, in sixth place in the Atlantic Division and trying to find some consistency.
   
Philly opened the season 0-5, but everyone chalked that up to the absence of league MVP Allen Iverson, who missed those games after an operation. That theory seemed to hold water when Iverson and the Sixers promptly ripped off seven straight wins.
     
But since then they've gone 5-11, including a seven-game losing streak, and no one seems to know why.
     
One problem has been what coach Larry Brown has described, while not using this precise term, as selfishness. In widely reported comments, Brown said the team was less in need of a shooter than someone who will pass to a shooter.

Perhaps it"s no coincidence that about the time Bryon Russell returned from an injury the Jazz bench started to click.

Russell"s ability to play three positions and his willingness to either start or come off the bench not only gives coach Jerry Sloan plenty of flexibility, it helps get more mileage out of the other players out on the court.

""Bryon is the kind of guy that does what you ask him to do for the team," Sloan said. ""You can"t get enough of those people on your team."

Russell needed a couple games to get back in the swing of things after a 16-game layoff caused by an avulsion fracture from the pelvis, but a night after scoring a game-high 19 points against Boston, Russell scored 18 more at Portland in a performance the seemed to rally all of his teammates.

Scott Padgett and John Amaechi?
 
The unlikeliest of catalysts in an unlikely comeback.
 
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan?
 
Maybe there is something to his seasonlong insistence that every player must contribute for the Jazz to be a playoff-caliber team.
 
Padgett and Amaechi helped the Jazz overcome a 23-4 deficit and defeat the Trail Blazers 99-87 in Portland on Thursday.
 
Neither Padgett nor Amaechi had left the bench in the previous three games, but both were prime-time players for the Jazz, who play Philadelphia tonight at the Delta Center (7 p.m., KJZZ).
 
Padgett finished with eight points and five rebounds as the Jazz (15-15) reached .500 for the first time this season.
 
Amaechi finished with a rebound, an assist and a steal in six minutes. That's hardly overwhelming, but he came through with Karl Malone and Greg Ostertag on the bench in foul trouble and the Jazz leading by one point midway through the third quarter.

Big night for the Jazz: They overcome a 19-point first-quarter deficit and some serious first-team lethargy to beat the Trail Blazers, and in the process they finally reach a .500 plateau that a month ago looked a long way off.

How quickly things change, both in a season and a game.
   
A couple weeks ago the Jazz might have lost this game, as they did in previous blowout defeats at the hands of the Raptors, Hawks, Suns, Spurs and even these same Blazers.
   
But this team may have turned a corner, as evidenced by a 99-87 victory Thursday over Portland at the Rose Garden.
     
"First we wanted to win a couple games in a row, then we wanted to get to .500," said Utah's Karl Malone. "Now, who knows? Anything can happen."
     
You might not think a 15-15 record would be momentous for a team with the Jazz's tradition, but keep in mind this team has struggled mightily the past two months. They are not above taking pleasure in even a relatively minor moment.