JAZZ GETS BULL-IED; UTAH'S 54 POINTS SET NBA RECORD IN NIGHT OF FUTILITY : CHICAGO 96, UTAH 54.

Byline: Chris Sheridan Associated Press 

Nothing had ever been uglier than this. Over 4-1/2 decades spanning thousands and thousands of games, no team had ever been as offensively inept as the Utah Jazz were Sunday in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

In a blowout so thorough and lopsided it made history, the Jazz broke the record for fewest points in a game since the inception of the shot clock as it was humbled 96-54 by the Chicago Bulls.

``It's an awesome score to look at. It's overwhelming in that respect,'' Bulls coach Phil Jackson said.

It was mind-boggling, a wretched, sickly effort that shattered plenty of records.

In the Finals, no team had ever lost by this many points (42), no team had ever made so few field goals (21) and no team had ever scored so few points in a second half (23). But the one number that stood out was the 54 points. It's a number that will stick to the Jazz forever, a shameful figure that will bring grief to Utah for decades to come.

``Damn, that's all I can say. Wow,'' said Greg Foster of the Jazz. ``We played scared and overanxious.''

``It had to happen sometime to someone. It's too bad it happened to us,'' Greg Ostertag said.

Utah's anemic scoring broke the NBA record of 55 points set earlier this season by the Indiana Pacers and was 17 fewer than the Finals record of 71 by Syracuse in 1955 and Houston in 1981. The 24-second shot clock was first used in the 1954-55 season, eight years after the league began.

The Jazz scored only 14 points in the first and third quarters, 17 in the second and nine in the fourth, mainly because of Chicago's smothering defense and Utah's shattered confidence as the debacle got worse. It was so bad that the Bulls were actually doubled over laughing as the fourth quarter wound down.

``Everybody had a good time out there,'' Michael Jordan said. ``We came out and played hard. We put the effort and intensity in and as a result we could relax a little in the fourth quarter.''

The victory gave Chicago a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4 set for Wednesday night. That will give the Jazz two full off days to ponder their plight and try to figure out how they could become so hideous so quickly. And this time, they can't blame Karl Malone.

After shooting 14 for 41 over the first two games of the series, Malone made his first six shots and finished 8 for 11 for 22 points.

But the rest of the team shot a combined 13 for 59, with Howard Eisley (0 for 6), Bryon Russell, Greg Ostertag (1 for 7 each) and Jacque Vaughn (0 for 6) among the biggest offenders.

``We just didn't come ready to play,'' Malone said. ``We just got an old-fashioned butt-kicking. If this one don't wake us up, nothing will.''

The Jazz also gave a new meaning to the term sloppy, finding every way imaginable to turn the ball over. Utah, which had 13 turnovers in Game 1 and 20 in Game 2, had 26 turnovers this time - including seven by Malone and five by John Stockton - which led to 22 Chicago points.

``I'm somewhat embarrassed for NBA basketball, for our guys to come out and have no fight at all,'' Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. ``They got all the loose balls and all the rebounds.''

The Bulls got bigger-than-usual contributions from Ron Harper and Scott Burrell and 24 points out of Jordan. Toni Kukoc added 16 points, Scottie Pippen and Burrell had 10 each and every player on the team scored at least two.

``I don't put too much significance into it,'' Jackson said. ``But we don't get our hopes up for this being any kind of steady thing for the rest of the series.''

Malone sat out the entire fourth, just like Jordan, and watched Chicago go ahead by as many as 42 - the final margin - as the Bulls topped the old record margin of 35 by the Washington Bullets against Seattle in 1978. Chicago also surpassed its own team record of a 33-point margin of victory in the Finals, set in Game 1 against Portland in 1992.

The Bulls broke this one open with two first-half runs, a 12-0 spurt bridging the first and second quarters and a 12-2 run to close the first half that gave Chicago a 49-31 halftime lead.

So complete was Utah's breakdown that the Jazz allowed the Bulls to make two steals in the final six seconds of the second quarter.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Cover--Color) BULLWHIPPED

Chicago wins laugher, holding Utah to record-low 54 points.

(2--Color) Scottie Pippen of the Bulls signals to a teammate in the second half of the rout that left the Jazz humiliated. ``An awesome score to look at,'' said Bulls coach Phil Jackson.

Beth A. Keiser/Associated Press

BOX: GAME 3: A CLOSER LOOK