Schrempf Stays Hot For Sonics

Eventually, it figures Detlef Schrempf will cool off, it just hasn’t happened yet. But the Seattle SuperSonics hope it will never happen.

Schrempf recorded season-highs with 33 points and 16 rebounds, and Shawn Kemp added 27 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Sonics to their fourth consecutive road victory, a 128-118 victory over the Golden State Warriors in overtime Tuesday night in the Oakland Alameda Coliseum.

Sam Perkins sank a pair of free throws to send the game into overtime and sank two 3-pointers at the outset of the overtime, as the Sonics outscored the Warriors 12-2 to begin the overtime and were never challenged thereafter.

“He’s hot,” Perkins said of Schrempf. “It’s like this, Sssss.”

The victory brought the Sonics record to 22-9, while the Warriors slipped to 10-20. The game marked the return of Chris Mullin for the Warriors, as he had not played this season following a sprained knee ligament and chip-fracture in his left kneecap. Mullin and Tom Gugliotta had 23 each to go along with the team-high 25 points from Latrell Sprewell.

The lead changed hands eight times in the final seven minutes of regulation, with Perkins swishing two free throws with 1.3 seconds left to tie the game at 111, and Sprewell’s desperation 3-pointer falling out of bounds, went in and out, setting up the five-minute overtime.

“I had to make the first one,” Perkins said. “Then, when I made that, I knew I had to make the other to send it into overtime.”

The Sonics opened up quickly in the extra period, with Kemp scoring on a post-move with his left hand, then Perkins sank a pair of 3-pointers, moving the lead to 119-111, with 2:39 left. The Warriors called timeout and had to make some serious offensive adjustments considering an 8-for-20 shooting run.

It mattered little. Schrempf was sank consecutive jumpers to extend the lead to nine. Hardaway sank a pair of free throws, but they never got closer than seven.

The Warriors played the entire first half with an electricity only possible by a team in a special mindset. With the return of Mullin and the rejuvenation of Sprewell after a four-day mini-camp over the weekend, the Warriors shot a glittering 58 percent from the field to take a 57-53 lead.

The return of Mullin allowed Gugliotta to move to power forward and it opened his game up enough to score 16 points before intermission, matching Sprewell’s total. Despite losing center Rony Seikaly to a sprained ankle 10 minutes into the game, the Warriors rebounded with Seattle and ran the floor just as well.

Seattle did score 12 points off 10 turnovers, but the Warriors opened up an eight-point lead late in the half, as they sank 61 percent of their shots in the second period, led by Sprewell’s 10.

Meanwhile, the Sonics were completely out of whack by that point of the half. With Sonics coach George Karl having ousted Kendall Gill from the starting lineup for missing practice Sunday night, the rotation fell off kilter due to foul trouble, and he didn’t even put Gill into the game until there was just 1:52 left in the second period.

The result was Gill tossed up two awful shots, one a 15-foot airball. Were it not for a pair of steals by Payton at the end of the half, coupled with Kemp’s dunk just before the buzzer, the Sonics would have been in deep trouble.

Sonics 128, Warriors 118 (OT)

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 42 11-18 5-8 3-13 1 3 27 Schrempf 42 13-21 6-6 9-16 1 5 33 Perkins 39 6-16 4-6 2-6 2 2 21 McMillan 30 2-8 0-0 2-8 13 5 4 Payton 45 6-20 4-7 2-6 13 4 16 Askew 20 4-7 2-2 0-3 1 3 10 Marciulionis 23 3-8 2-4 0-0 5 4 9 Johnson 9 0-0 2-2 2-2 1 1 2 Gill 14 3-6 0-2 0-0 2 2 6 Wingfield 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 265 48-105 25-37 20-54 39 29 128

Percentages: FG .457, FT .676.

3-Point Goals: 7-29, .241 (Perkins 5-13, Schrempf 1-1, Marciulionis 1-3, Gill 0-2, Payton 0-4, McMillan 0-6).

Team Rebounds: 7.

Blocked shots: 3 (Perkins, McMillan, Marciulionis).

Turnovers: 13 (Kemp 5, Payton 3, Marciulionis 2, Schrempf, McMillan, team).

Steals: 15 (Payton 7, Kemp 4, Perkins 2, Schrempf, Johnson).

Technical fouls: Illegal defense, 8:35 second; Illegal defense, 11:47 fourth; Illegal defense, :45.5 fourth.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb GOLDEN STATE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Gugliotta 43 10-17 0-0 1-10 4 3 23 Mullin 43 9-16 3-3 0-6 7 2 23 Seikaly 25 0-0 5-6 1-9 1 5 5 Hardaway 44 3-15 6-8 0-1 12 4 13 Sprewell 53 9-22 7-7 1-6 4 0 25 Alexander 28 7-9 0-0 4-8 1 5 14 Wood 20 3-5 3-4 1-5 2 5 9 Jennings 9 1-2 4-5 0-0 3 2 6 Totals 265 42-86 28-33 8-45 34 26 118

Percentages: FG .488, FT .848.

3-Point Goals: 6-23, .261 (Gugliotta 3-4, Mullin 2-4, Hardaway 1-7, Alexander 0-1, Sprewell 0-7).

Team Rebounds: 12.

Blocked shots: 4 (Alexander 2, Hardaway, Sprewell).

Turnovers: 23 (Gugliotta 5, Sprewell 5, Seikaly 4, Hardaway 4, Mullin 3, Wood, team).

Steals: 8 (Mullin 3, Hardaway 2, Gugliotta, Seikaly, Alexander).

Technical fouls: Wood, 9:02 second; Mullin, 1:08 overtime.

Illegal defense: 1.

Seattle 27 26 30 28 17 - 128 Golden State 28 29 24 30 7 - 118

A-15,025. T-2:29.

Officials-Joe Crawford, Bill Spooner, Monte McCutchen.

set them off. Two minutes into the fourth period, they were up four and the Sonics were reeling. Missing free throws and defensive assignments, there was only one solution.

The return of Payton from a break.

His sixth and seventh steals of the night produced seven unanswered points by the Sonics, who within a 51-second burst, regained the lead, 97-96, with 7:13 left. That set up the exciting conclusion.

“We just had to hang in there,” Perkins said. “Once we got to overtime, we knew we could win.”