Jazz are growing weary of biding time

After two days of vigorous workouts, Jerry Sloan - anxious to go look at some old tractors in Idaho he may want to buy now that it looks like a new contract extension is in the works - gave the Utah Jazz a break on Friday.

Practice consisted primarily of stretching and a few shooting drills and lasted just a half-hour, barely enough time for the players to work up a good sweat."It was nice - real nice," said Greg Foster in describing Friday's practice, holding the word "real" a couple of extra seconds for emphasis.

"It gave us a chance to get our legs back under us a little bit, but we know we'll go hard at it again tomorrow," said Foster.

That was the plan all along. Sloan, while saying that it is impossible to simulate game situations while the Jazz are in the midst of a 10-day layoff, is doing the best he can. He had the players scrimmage hard on Wednesday and Thursday and will again this morning at the Delta Center in an attempt to simulate a three-games-in-four-days stretch.

Frankly, midway through their break from game action, the Jazz are getting tired of playing each other. They want an opponent.

Yet, thanks to Indiana's three-point win over the Chicago Bulls on Friday night, the Jazz are still waiting.

The long layoff "is a pain," said Bryon Russell on Friday, "but there's nothing we can do about it."

"You have to tone some things down because you don't want to beat your teammates up," said Shandon Anderson of the scrimmages in practice. "You don't want to set illegal picks or bowl over your teammates because someone might get hurt. I can't wait to finally start playing somebody else soon."

With the Bulls and the Pacers knotted at three games each, the Jazz won't know who their opponent is until after Game 7 on Sunday night at the United Center. The Bulls are gunning for their sixth finals in eight years while the Pacers have never been to the NBA Finals.

Game 1 of the Finals is set for Wednesday night in the Delta Center. It will either be a rematch of last year's championship or the match-up that NBC is dreading. The Bulls have won the NBA title every year in which Michael Jordan has started the season playing basketball since 1990.

While most of the Jazz have been saying that it didn't matter to them if they played the Bulls or the Pacers, Foster would prefer the Bulls.