Turns out, Jazz make playoffs

OAKLAND, Calif. — It's OK now to throw the confetti. Whoop. Holler. Honk that horn to your heart's content, should you be so inclined.

The Jazz have guaranteed to make a 20th consecutive NBA playoff berth, after all.

Following their 82-80 loss in Seattle on Sunday, however, they did not think that was so.

No one did. And, technically, it was not. Not yet.

Not until the Los Angeles Lakers finished their overtime victory over Phoenix later Sunday night, in fact, had the Jazz actually clinched.

But, even then, they did not know.

No one did.

No one in the media. Not a soul in the Jazz organization. No one with the NBA, and no one even, apparently, with the league's own official keeper of statistics, Elias Sports Bureau.

Or at least no one knew until Monday, when Elias computers generated an e-mail informing team public-relations representatives Utah indeed was in.

Jazz players did not even find out until a reporter filled them in just prior to practice late Tuesday afternoon in Oakland, where tonight Utah faces Golden State.

When they did, the news seemed as anti-climatic as it was belated.

"I was expecting to make the playoffs," unimpressed point guard John Stockton said.

"I never thought we wouldn't be in . . . so I never put it in my mind," teammate Matt Harpring added. "I'm just kind of p----- that we lost the last two games."

Because the Jazz did lose those two, falling in overtime on Friday to New York and by two on Sunday to the SuperSonics, they left Seattle on Monday morning thinking it would take either a Utah victory in one of its final five games or a Houston lose in one of the Rockets' last five to guarantee the playoff berth.

What the Jazz did not know is that because the Lakers won Sunday, it eliminated the possibility of a three-way tie among Utah, Los Angeles and Houston that would have left the Jazz on the outside of the NBA's Western Conference playoff picture looking in.

That done, the Jazz are in even if they lose their last five and the Rockets win their final five.

That is because Utah (currently 45-32) and Houston (40-37) would have the same overall record, the season series between them would be tied 2-2, and the conference record of both teams would be the same - but the Jazz would have one more division win than the Rockets, guaranteeing them a tie-breaker edge.