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ELIMINATED! 
Calvin Booth scores the winning basket in Game 5.
The Utah Jazz were dumped from the playoff picture Thursday night when they lost Game 5 to Dallas. The truth is, they gave the game away. Dallas trailed until there was only 9.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Jazz failed to close out on their own court and that is no one's fault bu their own. Utah led by 15 at the half and looked as if they had the game in hand. Dallas was shooting the ball poorly in the first half. The Jazz controlled the tempo for the first three quarters and the first four minutes of the final period, and it seemed the veteran Utah squad had nothing to worry about, other than a strained back to Malone, which he injured Tuesday night in Game 4. However, Dallas went on a 15-2 run midway through the fourth. Nash hit two 3-pointers in the run, the second pulling the Mavericks within one point with 6:17 remaining. He tied it at 79-79 with a 3-pointer with 4:03 to play.
It was back and forth in the dramatic final minutes. Then the Mavericks ran an isolation play for Finley, who seemed ready to work his 6-foot-7 advantage over the smaller and slower John Stockton. But Finley saw Booth open underneath and flipped it inside. Calvin Booth put in an easy layup over Donyell Marshall and Karl Malone. The Jazz called a timeout and set up a final play. Bryon Russell inbounded to Stockton, who drove and kicked it over to Russell on the right wing. He missed a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds to go, but Stockton corralled the rebound and passed to Karl Malone.
Unfortunately for Utah, the Mailman didn't deliver this time. He missed an open jumper from the top of the key. When the horn went off, the Mavericks flooded the floor in celebration. The Jazz have been tempting fate the past few years by letting lesser opponents take them to five games in the opening round. Utah is the only team to lose two series after leading 2-0; the other was in 1987. The only team Utah has ever swept in the 1st Round was the LA Clippers in 1997. Time keeps on ticking
Stockton and Malone aren't getting any younger.
The immediate future for the aging Jazz seems as empty as the cleaned-out lockers after their first-round playoff loss to the Mavericks. "It's hard to believe we're packing up and going home," said John Starks. Utah executives tried hard to assemble a team capable of giving John Stockton and Karl Malone another shot at the NBA Finals. In the end, the age question that has nagged Utah for several years only echoed louder. "The energy level comes off players as they get older," said coach Jerry Sloan. "That's a given, but it doesn't mean they can't be a tremendous factor if they play with intelligence and understand what they've got to do." The Jazz will come back and try even harder to win...next year.
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