Sonics Finish What Kemp Started Beat Warriors When Outside Shots Start Falling; Kemp Gets 32 Points, 16 Rebounds, Seven Assists

Without the injured Detlef Schrempf, Seattle’s other two All-Stars have to be better than ever.

On Friday night, Shawn Kemp scored 32 points and Gary Payton had 28, both season highs, as the SuperSonics beat the Golden State Warriors 108-101.

“Kemp has really learned how to use his quickness and strength by moving without the ball and finding the open spots,” Golden State coach Rick Adelman said. “And we have trouble guarding big, strong people.”

Utah’s Karl Malone scored 51 points against Golden State last Saturday night.

“It was a pretty solid game for me, but I did get a little tired at the end,” said Kemp, who had three points on 1-for-4 shooting in the fourth quarter.

Kemp should have been tired. In 39 minutes, he hit 11 of 17 shots, pulled down 16 rebounds and also led the Sonics with seven assists.

The Sonics, winning for the ninth time in 11 games, missed 16 of their first 17 3-point attempts, but they hit all of their last five in the final quarter, three by Sam Perkins and two by Payton.

“We had the open shots all night, but down the stretch we made the shots we had to,” Payton said.

Wrestling underneath all night against Golden State’s big men, Kemp was wondering when the Sonics’ outside shots would start falling.

“One-for-17?” he said, repeating the statistics that reporters told him. “Really? Well, we didn’t shoot well in the first three quarters, but in that last quarter we came up big, didn’t we?”

Rookie Joe Smith had 18 points and Rony Seikaly 16 rebounds for Golden State, which outrebounded Seattle 54-38.

Playing their third straight game without Schrempf, who is out for six weeks with a fracture in his left leg, the Sonics didn’t secure the game until the final minute.

With the score tied 99-99, Payton sank a 3-pointer with 57.9 seconds left. And with 29.4 seconds left, Seikaly missed two attempts from close in before fumbling the ball out of bounds.

Hersey Hawkins sank two free throws with 28.2 seconds left for a 104-99 Seattle lead and Vincent Askew added a dunk after the Sonics broke Golden State’s press.

After two free throws from B.J. Armstrong, Hawkins had two free throws with 13.6 seconds left.

The Sonics missed their first 12 3-point attempts before Payton put Seattle ahead 74-71 with a 3-pointer with 4:01 left in the third quarter.

Latrell Sprewell scored 17 points for the Warriors, who got 10 of Tim Hardaway’s dozen points in the final quarter.

For Seattle, Perkins scored 11 of his season-high 21 points in the fourth quarter.

“In the last quarter, I just took more time when I shot the ball,” Perkins said.

SuperSonics 108, Warriors 101

FG FT Reb GOLDEN STATE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Marshall 16 2-6 2-2 1-4 1 2 7 Smith 33 6-13 6-9 5-9 1 3 18 Gatling 16 4-4 2-2 0-3 0 5 10 Armstrong 19 2-8 2-2 0-3 3 2 6 Sprewell 34 6-15 5-8 1-2 5 1 17 Seikaly 36 4-13 3-4 6-16 2 1 11 Hardaway 29 6-16 0-0 0-7 7 3 12 Mullin 31 5-7 0-0 0-4 1 2 12 Barry 15 3-5 0-0 1-2 1 1 8 Rozier 11 0-0 0-0 3-4 1 3 0 Totals 240 38-87 20-27 17-54 22 23 101

Percentages: FG .437, FT .741.

3-Point Goals: 5-21, .238 (Barry 2-2, Mullin 2-4, Marshall 1-3, Armstrong 0-3, Sprewell 0-3, Hardaway 0-6).

Team Rebounds: 8

Blocked shots: 5 (Smith 2, Seikaly 2, Rozier 1).

Turnovers: 19 (Seikaly 5, Marshall 3, Smith 2, Armstrong 2, Sprewell 2, Gatling, Hardaway, Mullin, Barry, team).

Steals: 6 (Sprewell 2, Seikaly 2, Barry 2).

Flagrant foul: Marshall, 6:37 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Askew 35 4-9 1-2 1-3 6 4 9 Kemp 39 11-17 10-14 5-16 7 3 32 Perkins 30 8-16 2-3 1-4 2 4 21 Hawkins 38 2-9 4-4 0-2 4 1 8 Payton 41 11-18 3-6 2-7 6 5 28 Brickowski 26 2-4 4-4 0-3 2 1 8 McMillan 20 0-4 0-0 0-1 2 0 0 Wingate 10 1-6 0-0 1-2 1 1 2 Scheffler 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 39-83 24-33 10-38 30 19 108

Percentages: FG .470, FT .727.

3-Point Goals: 6-22, .273 (Perkins 3-5, Payton 3-6, Wingate 0-1, McMillan 0-3, Askew 0-3, Hawkins 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 9

Blocked shots: 6 (Kemp 2, Perkins 2, Askew, Brickowski).

Turnovers: 14 (Payton 4, Hawkins 4, Kemp 3, Askew, Brickowski, McMillan).

Steals: 13 (Payton 6, Hawkins 2, Brickowski 2, McMillan 2, Kemp).

Illegal defense: 1 or None.

Golden State 20 39 18 24 - 101

Seattle 26 28 25 29 - 108

A-17,072 (16,296). T-2:15.