No Sweat! Suns Humble Sonics

To emphasize how important the nationally televised regularseason finale between the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns was, just ask his eloquence, Sir Charles Barkley.

“I’m glad I didn’t play in the fourth quarter,” Barkley said. “I’ve got a tee time this afternoon and I didn’t want to waste my energy.”

Good thing for the Sonics. As it was, Barkley had 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists to lead the Suns to a surprisingly easy 105-100 victory over the Sonics on Sunday in America West Arena.

The victory was the eighth in nine games for the Suns (59-23), who unseated the Sonics (57-25) as Pacific Division champions. The Suns open the playoffs here Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Sonics play host to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.

“I’m obviously real pleased with the way the team is playing,” Suns coach Paul Westphal said. “We’ve met a lot of challenges and had a real tough stretch these last few weeks. It’s a good note going into the playoffs.”

Not necessarily so for the Sonics, who have lost three of their last five over a tough, eight-day stretch. Then again, they won eight out of nine going into the playoffs last year to capture the best record in the NBA then lost in the first round to Denver. It was the first time since the present system began in 1984 that a first seed lost to the eighth seed.

“We’ve had some bad games here lately, but that may be to our advantage,” Sonics forward Shawn Kemp said. “Last year, we were cruising going into the playoffs and lost. Maybe we weren’t focused enough. Now we’re playing a team (Los Angeles) that beat us four out of five, so I don’t think we’re going to take anything for granted this year.”

Probably not. No doubt there wasn’t much there Sunday afternoon. They held the lead for a grand total of 38 seconds early in the first quarter, then never got a sniff of an advantage again. The Sonics shot a paltry 42.4 percent from the field, negating their 52-50 rebounding advantage.

Meanwhile, the Suns sank just 44.4 percent of their field-goal attempts, although that figure was skewed by the five 3-pointers attempted in the final 1:49 by Dan Majerle, who was attempting to reach 200 3-pointers for the season. Prior to that, they were 13 of 28 from 3-point range. Barkley was 3 of 4, and Wesley Person, who finished with 17 points, was 5 for 8 from beyond the arc.

Detlef Schrempf paced the Sonics with 18 points, followed by Gary Payton’s 17 and Sam Perkins’ 16, while Kemp and Kendall Gill added 14 apiece. After shooting nearly 50 percent most of the season, the Sonics have failed to shoot better than .475 in six of the past eight games - and they have split those eight games. Even shooting twice as many free throws as the Suns (23 of 33 compared to 12 of 16) didn’t help.

Suns 105, SuperSonics 100

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 37 4-12 6-10 6-13 5 2 14 Schrempf 37 6-17 5-5 2-6 2 2 18 E.Johnson 16 0-3 1-2 2-10 0 1 1 McMillan 26 1-5 0-2 1-6 4 6 3 Payton 35 8-16 1-2 1-2 5 3 17 Gill 27 4-10 6-6 1-3 3 1 14 Perkins 28 6-9 1-2 1-4 1 2 16 Askew 22 3-8 3-4 2-6 4 2 9 Marciulionis 8 2-3 0-0 0-2 0 0 4 Houston 2 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 4 Scheffler 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 36-85 23-33 16-52 24 19 100

Percentages: FG .424, FT .697.

3-Point Goals: 5-18, .278 (Perkins 3-5, Schrempf 1-6, McMillan 1-3, Gill 0-1, Payton 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 8.

Blocked shots: 6 (Perkins 3, E.Johnson, McMillan, Gill).

Turnovers: 12 (Payton 3, Gill 3, Kemp 2, McMIllan 2, Johnson, Perkins).

Steals: 7 (Gill 2, Payton 2, Kemp, Perkins, Marciulionis).

Technical fouls: Askew, 5:49 fourth.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb PHOENIX Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Barkley 30 9-15 2-2 5-13 9 2 23 Green 42 4-10 6-6 2-15 3 2 15 Kleine 18 1-6 0-0 2-7 1 4 2 K.Johnson 35 7-12 2-4 0-1 5 3 16 Person 25 6-10 0-0 0-1 1 1 17 Tisdale 25 5-14 0-0 4-7 0 4 10 Majerle 28 3-13 0-0 2-2 2 2 9 Ainge 24 2-6 2-3 0-4 2 3 6 Perry 13 3-4 0-1 0-0 1 0 7 Totals 240 40-90 12-16 15-50 24 21 105

Percentages: FG .444, FT .750.

3-Point Goals: 13-33, .394 (Person 5-8, Barkley 3-4, Majerle 3-12, Perry 1-1, Green 1-4, Ainge 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 3

Blocked shots: 3 (K.Johnson 2, Tisdale).

Turnovers: 12 (Person 3, Ainge 3, Barkley, Green, Kleine, K.Johnson, Majerle, Perry).

Steals: 2 (Person, Majerle).

Technical fouls: Ainge, :47.2 second; Barkley, 7:57 third.

Illegal defense: 1. Seattle 14 33 25 28 - 100 Phoenix 27 29 27 22 - 105

A-19,023 (19,023). T-2:17.

Officials-Don Vaden, Joe Crawford, Jack Nies.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NBA FIRST ROUND Opening lineups for the NBA playoffs (best-of-5 series):

Thursday Cleveland at New York, 4 p.m. Atlanta at Indiana, 5 p.m. Houston at Utah, 6:30 p.m. L.A. Lakers at Seattle, 7:30 p.m.

Friday Chicago at Charlotte, 4 p.m. Boston at Orlando, 5 p.m. Denver at San Antonio, 6:30 p.m. Portland at Phoenix, 7:30 p.m.