Here are the final 6 of regulation and 5 minutes of OT of any play with Stockton or Malone (one of Stockton's more active games IMO):
96 Blazers Jazz G3 last 6 minutes:
-Malone hits a 22-footer iso in Sabonis' face. 70-68 w 6:13 left.
-Next trip they go to Malone, double comes (OC) leading to an open 3 – it's missed, but Carr gets an open layup on the Oreb because of the scrambling defense from the double. 70-70.
-Stockton fouls Strickland (no penalty)
-Strickland misses on Stockton (double comes) and they get a putback off it. 72-70 Por.
-Stockton and Malone PnR for a 16-footer. Swish, Malone ties at 72 (broadcaster says he is playing like MVP of league, and “he scares you to death.”)
-PnR again, Malone blocked (claimed foul). Jazz keep pos,
-Malone comes over on help on D and changes McKie's shot (airball), Jazz bound.
-Stockton PnR sets up a Hornacek J. 77-75 2:45 left Jazz lead.
-Strickland scores over Stockton from the foul line. 77-77
-Stockton PNR with Malone who swishes a 21-footer. 79-77 Jazz.
-Malone great pass (ast) to cutting Carr off PnR action for a layup. 81-79 Jazz. 1:32 left
-Strickland leaner over Stockton at other end. 81 all.
-PnR opens up Malone drive for a foul. Misses both FT's and frustrate fouls Sabonis (penalty)
-Down 83-81, Malone cans 18-footer off Stock PnR to tie it at 83 with 21.8 left.
-5 seconds left, Stock feeds Antoine Carr who misses a double teamed shot. OT
–
OT
-Stock (OC) PnR actoin sets up Benoit baseline J. Jazz up 85-84.
-Stock drive sets up open Horny 3 (miss)
-Stock (OC) PnR, Malone finally misses deep J.
-Malone iso, doubled (OC) sets up Carr who misses deep J.
-TOV by Jazz – Stock trying to slip it to Malone. No idea who they credited this to.
-Stock fouled by Strickland on leaner (looked clean block) for 2 Fts. 89-87.
-Malone fouled off PnR action on headfake. Makes both 91-89 Por 1:12 left.
-Stock drive-kick to Benoit, who hits 17-footer (91 all).
-Buck Williams Oreb and follow over Malone 93-91.
-Stock misses J over Strickland with 6 seconds left off dribble.
So you watch the game and basically marvel at how much Malone does down the stretch. And yet he only had a few key possessions in overtime. Why? It wasn't because of shrinking or shying away. Sometimes, Stock just didn't go to him. There are only a handful of possessions in an overtime, and as it were Malone played a role in 3. The last few possessions Portland pinned in on him and Stockton took the other options...the point here is that hyper-criticizing big men for lack of shot attempts down the stretch misses the mark when they don't have the ball. It happens to them all. WHich leas us to...
So that leaves Kobe, West, KG, Erving, Karl. I can't bring myself to vote Karl here with his playoff hiccups. 1990 and 1995 Game 5s against Phoenix and Houston he basically stops shoot as his team blows a 4th quarter lead in the last 5 minutes and KJ and Hakeem outplay him. 1996 he misses the 2 FTs and is the one guarding Kemp when he scores the winning plays. 1997 G1 he misses the 2 FTs while Jordan wins it. Karl's end to the Flu Game is a complete atrocity. Karl was fading away so much on his jumpshots that he actually faded away on a FT shot. + wild 23 footer near the end + not fouling with 13 seconds left (clearly he brainfarted because of his 5 fouls) leading to an open Longley dunk to seal it. Can't vote Karl here with those 5 brutal 4th quarter collapses on his resume.
How can you call 1996 a collapse when his 2 previous games to get them there were awesome? I agree that 1996 G7 is one of Karl's weaker big games overall, but he played 3 elimination games in the series and 2 were awesome.
How can you call 1997 G1 a failure because he missed 2 FTs??? I mean, if that's not arbitrarily placing all the emphasis on 1 possession I don't know what is. The sequence at the end of the flu game may have been bad, but are you suggesting other players don't have bad sequences down the stretch?
In general, my issue with these kinds of complaints that get so much consideration is one of logic, not analysis. Every player has failures. Every player has bad 4th quarters. Every player has bad key games. In this case, a small amount of what you allude to are reasons why Karl Malone isn't on Hakeem's or KAJ's peak...he was close, he put a lot together, but just never quite there.
That said, that doesn't, by default, demote his peak to some arbitrary level. It's like saying "I can't take Shaq because he can't make free throws." It's really a deviation from holistic evaluation. It's just illogical. If Malone gives you 35 points 20 rebounds and high efficiency for the first 5 minutes and lays at center court for the last 5 minutes, he still gives you a certain amount of positive value for the whole game. For goodness sakes, you are pointing to 1 or 2 possessions in a 180 possession game of reasons you can't take him!
It's not different than saying "I just can't take Kobe over *pick arbitrary line* because of his suspect decision making." As if it cancels all the good stuff he does. And btw, Kobe has a lot of these kinds of "failures" throughout his career, he just happened to play on way better teams than Karl Malone ever did.
(But I have Kobe in the Dr. J/KG cluster so... :shrug:)
