When It Counts, Sonics Finding A Way To Win

There are as many ways to win as there are fouls in Jess Kersey’s whistle, and the Seattle SuperSonics are experimenting with them all.

Let us count the ways and pray we don’t run out of fingers.

So far during these NBA playoffs, we have seen the Sonics win with their Elvis - Shawn Kemp - not even allowed in the building. We have seen them get scary lucky, we have seen them swallow Hakeem Olajuwon whole and we have seen them make every shot from 3-point range short of a Meadowlark Lemon half-court hook. We have seen them blow 20-point leads and blow out teams that never lose by 20, much less 30.

Now we have seen the Sonics out-Utah the Jazz, so we have pretty much seen it all.

Well, maybe not. We have not seen them out-Chicago the Bulls, but perhaps in time, hmm?

You can’t call the Sonics the most versatile team in basketball without setting off a coughing fit in Chi, but it works if you parlay both the elasticity of coach George Karl’s rotation and this Heinz 57 of winning methodology.

Versatile? The Sonics are both Maserati and minivan, and all models in between.

And the significance of Monday night’s 91-87 triumph over the perplexed Jazz - beyond the 2-0 jump it gives the Sonics in these Western Conference finals - is a simple style point.

“This is the kind of game that used to jump up and bite us,” said Nate McMillan, allowing himself a usually forbidden peek back at the bad old Mays.

Specifically, it was the kind that used to snag a swatch out of the shorts of Kemp and Gary Payton, Seattle’s young and restless stars, who not so long ago had no concept of tending the playoff cauldron beyond boiling the water.

That has changed in baby steps during the 1996 playoffs, and quite likely it turned for good Monday night against a team that is supposed to know all the angles - against Karl Malone and John Stockton, of all people. If Kemp and Payton truly do fancy themselves the latter-day incarnation of that duo, this game provided a degree of validation.

For Kemp, in particular.

Yes, Malone had a monster 32-point, 13-rebound night - but in the final 1:11, Kemp twice buried short turnarounds over the Mailman for Sonic leads, and then made a perfect read for a steal when Utah’s offense broke down and a trapped Stockton forced a wild cross-court pass.

All this after being saddled with his fourth foul in the second quarter and a fifth after a mere 27-second appearance in the third. Payton, too, had his third foul well before halftime. Fouls were playing such hell with Karl’s rotation that David Wingate as the final minute go-to guy didn’t seem like a stretch, but eventually the Ritz Brothers of refereeing calmed down and normalcy returned.

“When me and Shawn get in foul trouble, we have to get a little smarter,” said Payton. “In our earlier days, two or three years ago, we’d probably have made even stupider fouls when we got back out there and fouled out of the game.

“But me and Shawn have grown up a little bit.”

Undeniably. And undeniably, the Jazz have unraveled a little bit in this series.

Historically one of the toughest and smartest of NBA teams, Utah was not at all tough in Game 1 and not particularly smart when it counted in Game 2.

“It’s a game I felt we should have won,” said Utah coach Jerry Sloan. “But we did a poor job of executing and did a couple of dumb things down the stretch.”

By way of illustration for the next three days, SportsCenter will replay Kemp’s steal with the Jazz down 2 and 28 seconds remaining. Sloan said the Jazz failed to set a screen to start the play, resulting in Stockton’s being left in no-man’s land, and that his help was out of position for any kind of pass.

“If we execute that properly,” he said, “it’s probably a layup.”

Instead, Kemp was there to play Ken Griffey and take away Utah’s home run.

“I felt like Gary Payton out there,” Kemp cracked.

But just as damaging was Utah’s failure to hold the stunning advantage it forged in the final 4 seconds of the third quarter, when two 3-pointers by Jeff Hornacek put the Jazz up 73-65.

“But instead of staying focused,” said Malone, “it seemed like we got satisfied with ourselves.

“Losing by three or four doesn’t feel any better than by 30 or 20. It was our kind of ballgame and we didn’t get it done.”

The Sonics did, and in their wide variety of ways. With their stars stung by fouls, the bench came through - notably Sam Perkins and Nate McMillan, who combined to make 10 of 14 shots. For the sixth time in these playoffs, the Sonics held an opponent to less than 42 percent shooting. Payton, despite the fouls, still won the statistical battle from Stockton, who had 11 points in the game’s first 13 minutes and nothing thereafter.

“I don’t know if (winning this one) is a psychological advantage,” said Kemp. “We realize we can’t put ourselves in that position in Utah and expect to win.”

Expect to win, no. Have a chance to win, yes.

“Maybe it wasn’t as spectacular or pretty as the game was two days ago,” said Karl, “but this game will probably give us more value in the end.”

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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