Hardaway Gets Reality Check At Line Sonics Notebook

So many times Anfernee Hardaway has played the scenario out in his head. Little or no time left, the game riding on his shoulders.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this dream,” Hardaway said. “I’m standing on the free-throw line with the chance to send the game into overtime. I always make the shots.”

In his dreams.

Thursday night in Orlando Arena, the Magic point guard was on the line with 2.1 seconds left and his team down, 105-103, just moments after he had backed down Seattle’s Shawn Kemp with a dynamic 10-foot bank shot.

But his first free throw clanged off the left side of the rim hard, and he was forced to miss the second one intentionally. When he missed the rim as well, the game was quickly over, and so was the Magic’s 21-0 home record with the Sonics’ eventual 106-103 victory.

“It was a nice, comfortable move I put on Shawn,” Hardaway said. “When I went to the free-throw line, I had no doubt in my mind I was going to make them. It didn’t go in, so I just have to forget about it. There will be other times, and I’m sure I’ll make it.”

Or have another nightmare.

Wounded Magic

It didn’t help the Magic that it had to play without Horace Grant, whose strained back that morning kept him out of the game. Then Nick Anderson reinjured the chip-fracture in his left wrist. But the depleted Magic hung in there the whole game.

“They’ve caught us twice,” Hardaway said. “Nobody else has. But you have to give them credit for coming in here and winning. They played great and had a point to make to us. I think we got it.”