Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, to help the team become more profitable. The team was rumored to be moving as a result of Battistone's cash shortage as well as the fact they were playing in the league's smallest market. However, fortunes on the court improved, with a healthy Dantley, Jeff Wilkins, and rookie Bailey at the forward positions, Eaton and Rich Kelley jointly manning the post, Green and Griffith at the guards, and Drew adding 17 points per game off the bench. They went 45–37 and won the Midwest Division, the first winning season and division championship in team history. The Jazz advanced to the playoffs, defeating the Denver Nuggets 3–2 in the first round, and moving on to play the Phoenix Suns in the second round. Despite having home court advantage in the best-of-seven series, the Jazz lost to the more experienced Suns, 4–2. 1984–2003: The Malone and Stockton era Jazz fans were not happy when the team picked an unknown guard in the first round of the 1984 NBA draft, John Stockton. The Jazz fans on hand for the draft party booed the selection. The 1984–85 season saw the emergence of Mark Eaton as a defensive force. Eaton averaged 5.6 blocks per game (still an NBA single-season record) along with 9.7 points and 11.3 rebounds, and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. On the downside, John Drew played only 19 games all season, which deprived the team of their high-scoring sixth man. However, the Jazz returned to the playoffs, facing the Houston Rockets and their All-Star centers, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. The Jazz prevailed in the series, 3–2, and advanced to the second round, losing the series to the high-scoring Denver Nuggets, 4–1. The team's perennial financial woes and instability were somewhat stabilized during April 1985, when auto dealer Larry H. Miller bought 50 percent of the team from Battistone for $8 million. Battistone had been seeking to move the team. In the 1985 NBA draft, the team added Louisiana Tech power forward Karl Malone, who made an immediate impact in the , averaging 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. However, starter Darrell Griffith missed the season with a stress fracture, and the Jazz hovered around .500 most of the year. Adrian Dantley missed the postseason, and the Jazz lost in the first round to the Dallas Mavericks, 3–1. During the