We should have known. We really should have known. This was about old times, not old players.

While the NBA universe was preparing to put down the Utah Jazz for a final time - and a loss Saturday night essentially would have been the end of this best-of-seven series and probably an era - Stockton and Malone, and, yes, the always embattled Greg Ostertag, offered a bruising reminder of postseasons past.

They invited the younger, more talented Kings into the Delta Center, politely shook hands before tipoff, then knocked them down a few notches.