Game 5 was close throughout and anyone's to win in the fourth quarter. The Rockets chose to double-team Malone and play man-to-man on everyone else except forward David Benoit, who was virtually ignored. That meant Benoit was wide open for three fourth-quarter 3-point attempts. If he had made any one of them, the outcome would probably have been different. Instead, he bricked them all and the best Jazz regular season to that point is all for naught.

Houston goes on to win the title once again, this time sweeping Shaquille O'Neal and the Orlando Magic in the finals.

1997 — "UH, OH" OR JAZZ HEAD TO NBA FINALS

Utah won a team-record 64 games during the 1996-97 regular season and breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs to get to the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. It's a series featuring five — count 'em — five sure-fire Hall of Famers in Stockton and Malone for the Jazz and Olajuwon, Drexler and Charles Barkley for the Rockets

Each team took care of their own home court through the first five games — with the Jazz winning games one, two and five and Houston winning the third and fourth games. The series was back to Houston for the NBC-televised Game 6.

Olajuwon had pretty much had his way against the Jazz all series, but on this day Jazz center Greg Ostertag was his equal. Ostertag actually led the Jazz in scoring and rebounding in the first half and finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds for the game. Olajuwon, who had 27 or more points in each of the previous five games, was held to just 16 points and 11 boards.

The game was tied at 100 with the clock winding down when the biggest shot in Jazz history was made. Stockton nailed a buzzer-beating, 26-foot 3-pointer capping a rally from 10 points down with three minutes to play for the Jazz. Stockton, Malone and Jeff Hornacek jumped up and down and then hugged at midcourt as a stunned silence filled the Summit despite more than 16,000 people being in the building.

As the ball left Stockton's hand, Jazz fans could distinctly hear NBC color commentator Bill Walton mutter, "Uh, oh." After the ball sailed through the net, Greg Gumbel intoned, "John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals!"

1998 — NEAR DISASTER