Sonics Leave Us Asking Again If This Is Love

They ran for roses yesterday in Kentucky. Today, it’s for lilacs in Spokane.

Over here, they’re picking playoff daisies and pulling off the petals in search of a region’s true feelings for the Seattle SuperSonics - and just how (or even whether) those feelings are reciprocated.

They love us. They love us not.

They … love us?

Given the final score, 116-92, in Saturday’s fifth and deciding game of the Sonics’ first-round NBA melodrama against Phoenix, it must be love. Back in their KeyArena cocoon, the Sonics - suspended Sgt. Snorkel-style on the cliff of elimination just days ago - treated their lonely limb as if it were a horizontal bar. It was all somersaults and flips and giant dismounts and perfect 10s.

For an afternoon, anyway, the deevolution of the NBA into the 70-point purgatory of Cavalier Hell was happily postponed.

They love us.

And yet …

“If we’d have lost, it would have gotten ugly,” insisted Shawn Kemp, recalling the reaction to Seattle losses in Games 1 and 3. “I’ll be the first to tell you that.”

We love them not.

Perhaps the Sonics simply spent this introductory series trying to remake themselves into something we’ll have an easier time appreciating, though the gritty underdog costume on a team of their stature fits like Speedos on a sumo wrestler. Yet just a year removed from the oxygen-thin heights of being one of basketball’s two best teams, the Sonics succeeded like scufflers in this series.

Take Saturday’s hero. Anyone out there remember David Wingate?

It’s tempting to say that the Suns will not forget him, except that the Suns suit up a whole bunch of David Wingates and, in truth, had made their point in this series long before Marv Albert put on his pancake makeup.

So much the better. That way Wingate had the show all to himself.

Tenth man for most of his Sonics career, Wingate had three things going for him Saturday: Nate McMillan’s bum knee pushing him up in the rotation; the Suns’ calculated risk to leave him unguarded; and a shot so accurate that it would have elicited oohs and ahs from the NRA convention downtown.

Nineteen points and 10 rebounds later, Wingate had himself a game ball - something the Sonics never bother with, normally being too cool for something that high school.

We love them.

Of course, with McMillan out, Wingate may need a few more 19-point nights if the Sonics are to survive the next round, which begins Monday in Houston against the well-rested Rockets.

“Now we’re probably going to go into Houston in a negative situation,” said Gary Payton, whose fatigue from playing 46 and 53 minutes in Phoenix was evident in his 7-for-26 shooting Saturday.

“They’re probably supposed to beat us or sweep us or whatever they’re going to do. They are probably going to be the odds-on favorite. So, we’ll try to steal one and make it hard for everybody else and then we’ll see what the critics start talking about.”

They love us not.

Key was pretty much a critic-free zone Saturday. The desperation in the Sonics’ situation was such that club management made an embarrassing display out of manufacturing fan hullabaloo. After Phoenix’s manic third-quarter comeback, the marketing doofs marched the University of Washington’s offensive line onto the court to glare at the Suns’ bench as “Bad to the Bone” was piped over the P.A.

Huh?

They should have quit when they were ahead - dressing up a “witch doctor,” complete with grass wig and saber-tooth necklace, to put a hex on Suns sharpshooter Rex Chapman.

Fuzzy, all is forgiven.

The more important noise was generated by the Sonics themselves.

Detlef Schrempf, a cipher in the first three games, was a monster early and late - finishing with 24 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Kemp further settled into his late-found groove with powerful jams, timely rebounds and sensible passes. Hersey Hawkins hassled Kevin Johnson into 8-for-27 shooting, and Wingate and Sam Perkins personally outscored Phoenix’s bench 34-10.

All in time to put a smiley face on a series for too much of which the Sonics were outplayed, outcoached and outbrained. For all the hubbub about the Suns’ little lineup and devastating perimeter game, the Sonics actually made more 3-pointers. And it wasn’t until Game 4 that Perkins’ 2-point attempts finally overtook his 3s.

We love them not.

“In a lot of ways, we won five games in this series,” said Sonics coach George Karl, referring to the huge leads squandered. “We won the last two games twice.”

But now the Sonics have convinced themselves that this is the preferred route back to the Finals.

“Even if a team throws you off,” Kemp reasoned, “it raises your energy level.”

Echoed Karl, “Mentally, we’re better for this series. Mentally, we’re tougher. That’s probably been our weakest area this year. You saw a team believe, you saw a team hang together. They had their opportunities to break apart and they didn’t.”

We love them.

So, then, the Sonics were smart not to sweep, the way Houston and Utah did?

“People are always going to criticize the Sonics,” Kemp said. “I’ve come to that conclusion. We just have to go down and make things ugly for Houston, the way Phoenix made things ugly for us.”

Well, that’s true. Once you pull all the petals off a daisy, it does look pretty damn ugly.

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

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