From the Salt Mines

What papers in the Salt Lake City area are saying about the series:

GORDON MONSON, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Questions worth asking . . .

In a free-throw shooting contest, could the Lakers beat any high school varsity team, boys or girls, or junior varsity team, boys or girls, in the state of Utah?

Why does the white-haired and wire-rimmed Del Harris, a guy who appears nothing short of professional, say stuff that makes people think his IQ is lower than Shaq’s jersey number?

If the Lakers are getting jobbed by the officials so badly, as the Lakers claim, why have they shot 118 free throws--including 38 Friday night--and the Jazz only 97?

Does the bubbly, showy, see-and-more-importantly-be-seen crowd at the Forum proudly stand, first and foremost, as a monument to enhanced Laker devotion or to the shallow vanities of painted empty-headedness and the remarkable modern advances in plastic surgery?

LOREN JORGENSEN, DESERET NEWS

They run faster, jump higher and dunk with more authority. But summer for the Los Angeles Lakers will start within a couple of days.

The Western Conference finals aren’t officially over.

But everyone knows the series is done.

MICHAEL C. LEWIS, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Coach Jerry Sloan is going to say a lot of things about the NBA Western Conference finals not being over yet, that a team has to win four games--not just three--before anybody can take any credit for anything.

Don’t listen to him. This thing is over.