Energized Sonics Demoralize Detroit Seattle Shellacks Pistons 134-94 Behind Kemp’s 25 Points, 16 Boards

The Detroit Pistons had to be hoping that beating the New York Knicks on Saturday would have taken a lot out of the Seattle SuperSonics.

It didn’t quite work that way.

The Sonics were inspired by the win, not tired, and destroyed the Pistons 134-94 Sunday night.

“After a big win like that, you can either let yourself be tired, or you can use it to prepare you for the next night,” said Shawn Kemp, who had 25 points and 16 rebounds in 30 minutes. “We let it prepare us. We just had a lot more energy than they did.”

The margin made it the third-largest road win in Seattle history, and the third-worst home loss in Pistons history.

“It really hurts,” Piston rookie Grant Hill said. “Something is definitely wrong when a team can come in and embarrass you on your home court.”

The Sonics won for the third time on their fourgame road trip, while the Pistons dropped their third in four games.

Detroit played the second half without Joe Dumars, who suffered a mild concussion with 37.9 seconds left in the first half after banging heads with Kemp while chasing a loose ball.

“That was a pretty hard shot,” Kemp said. “It rung my bell a little, but I think Joe got by far the worst of it. I’m glad he wasn’t seriously hurt.”

Terry Mills also missed the second half with a foot problem.

“Joe is the guy we lean on to run the team, and Terry just couldn’t move out there,” Pistons coach Don Chaney said. “It hurt us a lot, because we needed that extra shooter and that extra big guy.”

Seattle led 60-46 at the half and broke the game open in the third quarter. The score was 67-54 when the Sonics went on a 12-2 run, led by nine points from Kemp.

Kemp finished with 16 points in the quarter, and Seattle led 96-65 with 12 minutes to play. The Sonics increased that lead to as many as 47 in the fourth quarter before cruising to the easy win.

“We had a pretty good first half, but we really turned it on in the second,” Nate McMillan said. “We found out last night that it is a lot of fun to play hard and play aggressive.”

Kemp led Seattle in scoring, and Gary Payton added 21, even though neither played in the fourth quarter.

Hill led the Pistons with 21 points, and Oliver Miller had 17 points and 12 rebounds, but Detroit was outrebounded 52-34.

“We knew what Seattle could do, and we played right into their hands,” Miller said. “Everyone around here is talking about the playoffs, but we need to win some games before we can even think about that.”

The game started evenly, and Detroit led 24-22 late in the first quarter, but Seattle went on a eightpoint run and led 32-29 at period’s end.

The SuperSonics also scored the first six points of the second quarter to go ahead by nine.

The Pistons slowly chipped away at Seattle’s lead, and had it down to 48-46 with 2:30 left, but Seattle scored the half’s final 12 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Detlef Schrempf and Sam Perkins.

“We played offense, we played defense and we rebounded,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “We have to play the Pistons again on Saturday, and I just hope they have forgotten about this by then.”

SuperSonics 134, Pistons 94

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 30 10-14 5-8 5-16 2 3 25 Schrempf 27 3-7 7-8 3-6 5 2 14 Johnson 25 5-8 0-0 4-7 1 4 10 McMillan 33 2-5 1-1 0-4 8 3 5 Payton 32 9-15 3-7 2-4 4 4 21 Perkins 10 3-8 0-1 3-3 0 0 7 Marciulionis 28 6-10 5-7 0-2 7 1 17 Askew 24 3-8 6-8 2-5 1 2 13 B.Houston 12 6-7 1-2 0-0 0 0 14 Scheffler 11 2-3 4-4 1-5 1 0 8 Totals 240 49-85 32-46 20-52 29 19 134

Percentages: FG .576, FT .696.

3-Point Goals: 4-12, .333 (Schrempf 1-1, B.Houston 1-2, Askew 1-3, Perkins 1-4, McMillan 0-1, Marciulionis 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 8.

Blocked shots: 4 (Kemp, Johnson, Perkins, Askew).

Turnovers: 17 (McMillan 4, Marciulionis 3, Schrempf 2, Payton 2, Kemp, Askew, B.Houston, Scheffler, team 2).

Steals: 15 (Marciulionis 5, Payton 3, McMillan 2, Perkins 2, Askew 2, Kemp).

Technical foul: Payton, 3:48 first.

Flagrant foul: McMillan, 4:25 second.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb DETROIT Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Hill 36 6-15 9-10 2-6 5 1 21 Mills 11 1-5 0-0 1-4 0 2 2 Miller 31 7-10 3-4 4-12 2 3 17 Dumars 18 1-4 0-1 0-0 5 0 2 A.Houston 19 4-10 3-3 1-1 0 5 14 Hunter 24 1-7 0-2 0-2 2 2 3 West 20 0-3 2-4 1-2 0 3 2 Addison 23 5-9 0-0 2-3 2 3 10 Knight 20 4-6 1-2 0-1 4 3 9 Macon 21 4-10 0-0 0-0 3 4 10 Newbill 11 1-1 0-0 0-2 2 4 2 Leckner 6 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Totals 240 35-81 18-26 11-34 25 30 94

Percentages: FG .432, FT .692.

3-Point Goals: 6-24, .250 (A.Houston 3-7, Macon 2-6, Hunter 1-5, Mills 0-2, Dumars 0-2, Addison 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 10.

Blocked shots: 8 (Miller 4, West 3, Newbill).

Turnovers: 21 (Hunter 4, Hill 3, Addison 3, Dumars 2, Macon 2, Leckner 2, Mills, Miller, A.Houston, West, Knight).

Steals: 10 (Macon 3, Hunter 2, Mills, Miller, A.Houston, Knight, Newbill).

Technical foul: Hunter, 3:48 first; Miller, 7:54 third.

Illegal defense: None. Seattle 32 28 36 38 - 134 Detroit 29 17 19 29 - 94

A-16,235 (21,454). T-2:08.

Officials-Bennett Salvatore, Ed F. Rush, Tim Donaghy.