"We can't afford to let our guard down," Scottie Pippen said after the Blazers' thorough 103-85 defeat of the Jazz on Tuesday night. "We still realize that we have two more games to win."

It may be only a matter of time.

The Blazers dominated Utah every way in Game 2. They shot 56 percent and got points from everybody; seven players scored at least nine points. On defense, they shut down guards John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek and held Karl Malone to just 15 points, barely half his playoff average this season.

"This is the best I've seen a team play since I've been with Utah, as far as I can remember, for 15 years," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said of the Blazers, who shot 56 percent. "They just annihilated us defensively.

"It wouldn't have made a difference what we did. They had control of us the whole night."

The Blazers, who outscored Utah 29-14 in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 94-75 victory, allowed just 16 first-quarter points Tuesday night to squelch any hope of a Jazz comeback.

Greg Anthony scored seven points during a 10-0 run that put the Blazers ahead 41-22, and the lead kept growing from there. A hook shot by Jermaine O'Neal, playing his first minutes of the playoffs, made it 93-63 with 7:37 left in the game.

The lead reached 33 on Bonzi Wells' three-point play, prompting the crowd to start chanting, "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

While that might be presumptuous, everything the fans have seen so far indicates Portland will beat the Jazz for the second straight year and advance to the Western Conference finals for a showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers, who beat Phoenix by 18 in Game 1 of their series.

While Utah is just 1-14 in the playoffs in Portland, it has beaten the Blazers 10 of 13 times in Salt Lake City. Still, that didn't provide any comfort to the Jazz, who will trudge home for Thursday night's Game 3.

"I thought we had a few guys in our locker room who thought we had a chance," Sloan said. "I'm not sure we have anybody now."

After Sunday's loss, Utah needed a quick start, and it didn't come. The Jazz committed two turnovers on their first three possessions and quickly got behind 20-12. Rasheed Wallace hit a short turnaround jumper, then followed his own miss as Malone flopped on the floor for a 24-14 lead.

It only got worse for the Jazz.

The Blazers' reserves dominated the second period as Anthony and Detlef Schrempf combined for 19 points, matching the entire Jazz team's output.

Anthony schooled John Stockton at both ends of the floor during a key 10-0 run. First, Anthony hit a 17-footer, got fouled by Stockton and converted the free throw to make it 34-22.

Rasheed Wallace and the Blazers have proved to be too deep for Utah.(AP)

On the next possession, Stockton was stripped of the ball by Anthony, who then hit a short running jumper. After the Jazz let the shot clock run out, Anthony got fouled by Stockton and made both free throws.

Schrempf made a 3-pointer to cap the run and extend the lead to 41-22 with 5:08 left. Anthony later hit a 3-pointer, and Smith finished the Blazers' 32-point quarter with a long jumper for a 56-35 halftime lead.

"Because of our defense, we got easy layups and high-percentage shots, and everything started clicking," said Smith, who made six of eight shots. "It seemed like the ball just kept rolling in and going in for us."

For the second straight game, Malone got little help from his teammates. Bryon Russell had 12 points after a two-point, 1-for-5 shooting effort Sunday, but the three other starters combined for 13 points.

"We have to figure out a way to score," said Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek, who scored two points on 0-for-3 shooting. "It seemed like it was just helter-skelter out there for us. I don't know. I have no answers."

Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy was wary of the team becoming overconfident.

"We've done nothing here but hold serve," he warned. "We've done what we're supposed to do. The pressure was all on us. Now we've got to go into Utah and try to find a way to win a game there."

Notes

• Utah has led for just three minutes and 28 seconds in the series, all early in the first quarter.
• The Blazers scored 27 points off 17 Jazz turnovers. Utah got 11 points off 18 Portland turnovers.
• Blazers reserve Bonzi Wells scored 15 of his 17 points in the garbage-time fourth.
• Jazz reserve guard Howard Eisley is just 7-for-31 in Utah's last five playoff games.