Sonics Overpower Knicks Minus Ewing, New York Has No Answers In Seattle’s 96-84 Win

The Seattle SuperSonics were ready to run. The New York Knicks, playing their fourth game in five nights, were not.

And when the Knicks lost Patrick Ewing to a sprained left ankle with 8:48 to play Saturday night, the Sonics cruised to a 96-84 victory.

Shawn Kemp had 22 points and 19 rebounds and Detlef Schrempf continued his hot streak with 22 points. Gary Payton added 19 points for the Sonics, who had lost three of their last four.

“We did a great job on the boards - that basically determined the game,” Schrempf said. “We got some easy run-outs and some easy follows. Except for Ewing, I don’t think anyone really hurt us.”

The Knicks were coming off their worst loss of the season - a 27-point setback at Atlanta - and ended up chasing the Sonics on transition for most of the night.

“From the offensive standpoint, we didn’t take good shots and we didn’t get good shots because of their defense,” New York point guard Derek Harper said. “We came out and just did not have anything.”

Taking a 71-61 lead into the final period, Seattle stretched it to 13 on a 3-pointer by Sam Perkins, the Sonics’ first trey of the game.

Ewing scored the first six points of the final period for New York, but crumpled to the floor after hitting a fallaway jumper from the foul line with 8:59 left. He limped off the court and into the locker room.

“I came down on Sam’s (Perkins) foot and it just twisted. That’s all I can tell you,” said Ewing, who was taken to a hospital for X-rays. “It’s sore right now. We’ll have to wait and see how it feels over the next few days.”

Ewing scored 11 of his 34 points in the third quarter, shot 11 of 15 and had 10 rebounds.

After Ewing left, Seattle had no trouble pulling away. The Sonics continued to use the fastbreak, moving ahead 90-74 on a layup by Payton with 3:27 left.

It was an important win for a Seattle team that is only .500 since the All-Star break.

“It was as seriously focused as I’ve seen them play, and it made me very happy,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “The whole thing was to not let them get threes and force them into penetration.”

John Starks added 16 points for the Knicks, but the other three starters - Anthony Mason, Harper and Charles Oakley - scored six, seven and eight points, respectively.

Down six at halftime, New York came back to tie it at 49 on back-toback 3-pointers by Starks with 8:19 left in the third quarter. Seattle responded with a 15-6 burst to move ahead 64-55, and led by 10 entering the fourth quarter.

Seattle turned a 15-10 deficit into a 26-20 lead with 9:38 left in the first half, and the Sonics preserved a 45-39 halftime lead by keeping pressure on the ball.

The Knicks committed 13 turnovers in the half, nine of which were Sonics steals. Ewing’s 17 points and 50-percent shooting kept New York in the game.

“He was the only force we had in the first half,” New York coach Pat Riley said. “He played a lot of minutes (33) last night.”

Schrempf entered the game averaging more than 20 points in his last four games and shooting 75 percent from 3-point range in his last eight, but the Knicks didn’t give him any open shots on the perimeter in the first half. Schrempf committed eight of the Sonics’ 18 turnovers.

SuperSonics 96, Knicks 84

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 39 6-13 10-12 9-19 1 4 22 Schrempf 39 9-19 4-4 1-9 2 3 22 Cartwright 20 1-2 0-0 1-2 0 5 2 Gill 27 5-10 3-4 1-3 1 2 13 Payton 41 7-14 5-8 0-4 8 0 19 McMillan 23 1-3 0-0 1-5 3 1 2 Perkins 29 2-6 4-4 0-5 1 4 9 Askew 21 2-5 3-4 2-4 0 2 7 Johnson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 33-72 29-36 15-51 16 21 96

Percentages: FG .458, FT .806.

3-Point Goals: 1-11, .091 (Perkins 1-3, McMillan 0-1, Askew 0-1, Schrempf 0-3, Payton 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 6.

Blocked shots: 2 (Kemp 2)

Turnovers: 19 (Schrempf 8, Kemp 6, Payton 3, Gill, team).

Steals: 9 (Gill 4, Schrempf 3, Payton 2).

Technical fouls: Illegal defense, :20.6 second.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb NEW YORK Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Mason 35 3-8 0-0 0-4 3 4 6 Oakley 30 4-7 0-0 3-10 0 5 8 Ewing 36 11-15 12-14 1-10 2 2 34 Harper 36 3-11 0-0 0-3 3 3 7 Starks 45 4-12 6-8 0-0 8 5 16 Bonner 13 1-3 0-0 3-5 0 0 2 Davis 27 4-11 1-3 0-0 2 3 9 H.Williams 9 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Anthony 9 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 Totals 240 31-72 19-25 7-32 19 25 84

Percentages: FG .431, FT .760.

3-Point Goals: 3-14, .214 (Starks 2-6, Harper 1-4, Anthony 0-1, Davis 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 4.

Blocked shots: 3 (Ewing, Mason).

Turnovers: 14 (Harper 5, Ewing 4, Oakley 2, Starks, Bonner, Davis).

Steals: 9 (Starks 4, Davis 2, Mason, Ewing, Anthony).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: 1. Seattle 18 27 26 25 - 96 New York 17 22 22 23 - 84

A-19,763 (19,763). T-2:03.

Officials-Joe Forte, Lee Jones, Bruce Alexander.