JAZZ BOMB WARRIORS - NOW IT'S ON TO THE REAL THING

By Kurt Kragthorpe, Sports Writer

Published: Sunday, April 23 1989 12:00 a.m. MDT

Summary

Just because the schedule said so, the Jazz and Golden State played Game 82 of the season Saturday night in the Salt Palace. Frank Layden's jersey went up in the rafters, rookie Eric Leckner scored a career-high 21 points and the Jazz won a game that hardly resembled anything we'll see when they play the Warriors in the NBA playoffs this week.
``This was like an exhibition game,'' Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan said after a 111-95 victory.

The Jazz also needed a win to finish with the best homecourt record (34-7) in franchise history.

So the season that started with an Opening Night loss to Seattle and just kept going finally ended Saturday. In between, the Jazz changed coaches, signed their Big Three players to new contracts, had Malone surface as the All-Star Game MVP, lost Hansen for 36 games with various injuries, won their first Midwest Division title in five years and reached 50 victories for the first time in franchise history.

Now, for the real thing.

"It's going to be a completely different game on Thursday," said Hansen.

That's a fairly safe guess.

JAZZ NOTES: All 11 players besides Malone worked at least eight minutes and everybody scored . . . Mark Eaton had 13 rebounds in only 26 minutes . . . Chris Mullin had 14 points in 17 minutes for the Warriors.

*****

(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

Stockton's assists

With 10 assists Saturday against Golden State, the Jazz's John Stockton now owns the highest and third-highest season totals in NBA history. The all-time season leaders:

Assists Player Team Year

1128 John Stockton Utah 1988

1123 Isiah Thomas Detroit 1985

1118 John Stockton Utah 1989

1099 Kevin Porter Detroit 1979

991 Kevin Johnson Phoenix 1989

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