Seattle Fails To Show Up For Gut Check

There was a time, perhaps when Karl Malone was a young man and his fellow dinosaurs still roamed the earth, when the Sonics would beat the Jazz by 30 points.

But a check of the fossil record reveals such a result wasn’t that far back. In fact, it was 13 days ago. After Thursday night, it just seems like several millennia since the Sonics were dominant.

Thursday night’s 118-83 decision at the Belta, uh, Delta Center was no mere Sonics defeat. To keep with our references to prehistory, the Jazz bombed the Sonics back to the Stone Age.

The breadth and depth of this defeat goes beyond a loss that was relatively predictable following the Sonics’ self-scuttling in Game 5. This was a blow to their manhood.

To get to the point, the Sonics in this game were utterly gutless.

Rare is the quality pro sports team that doesn’t have some kind of rally, some kind of kick, that will allow it to re-introduce the element of contest somewhere along the way in a lopsided affair.

But the Sonics under George Karl and led by Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton have always been a rare team. These guys are so rare that they could make a potential seventh-game loss in the West finals seem as bad as a first-round defeat against Denver or Los Angeles.

Asked whether the guts were missing tonight, Karl paused a while before saying, “I’ll stay on what I said before,” referring to the fact that the Jazz played so well this game that the Sonics probably wouldn’t have won playing their best.

Maybe so. What he didn’t say meant more. Karl knew his team brought almost nothing in the way of the courage necessary to at least put doubt in the minds of the Jazz, who might not need a plane to fly to Seattle for Sunday’s resolution.

Nate McMillan, who has been party to many an astonishing Sonics sag in his 10 years in Seattle, was asked whether it was surprising that the Sonics didn’t muster a rally.

“It is,” said McMillan, rendered almost ineffectual by a nerve problem bothering his leg. “To see (the Jazz) respond (to the Game 5 win) and for us not to react … it was, for whatever reason, very surprising.

“It can’t happen in Seattle. At least, I doubt if it will.”

There’s a key word - doubt. McMillan has seen this team operate this vapidly enough times to know they are capable of a full … well, Seattle, as it has become known in the sports vernacular. A loss Sunday would mark the third straight season that the Sonics will have lost their final three games on the way out of the playoffs.

Yo, Shaq, any room in that outhouse?

The magnitude of Thursday night’s loss has installed boxcars full of doubt in the Sonics, while freeing the Jazz of any worries about whether they can cut it against a younger, more athletic team.

Proof of the Jazz renaissance and the Sonics stagnation comes in a quick glance at Utah’s field-goal shooting over the series. The Jazz have grown smarter each game about the Seattle defense.

Look at these Utah shooting percentages: Game 1, 39.5; Game 2, 40; Game 3, 44.2; Game 4, 48; Game 5, 43.4; Game 6, 60.3 percent. The only slip in the progression was Game 5, which they won anyway thanks in part to 40 free throw attempts.

The same pattern of improved shooting prevailed in the Lakers series last year. The cause is simple: The more a team sees the Sonics traps and double-teams, the more it figures out where to move and where to pass.

“You know, that’s what they always said about our offense,” said Jeff Hornacek, who had yet another big night with 23 points. “People say we run the same plays over and over. Well, we do that because they work, and that’s what the Sonics do.

“I’m not saying we’ve figured out their defense totally, but we’re getting open looks and we’re hitting them.”

Playoff blowouts happen every year, even to good teams. But they don’t often happen to successful teams as late as the sixth game of a seven-game conference final.

The development might not necessarily be terminal. But if you know a store that sells guts, give the Sonics a call. They’re in the market.