Payton’s Drive Dodges Bullets Sonics’ 4th-Quarter Comeback Offsets Career Day By Muresan

File this one under “The Great Escape.”

The escape artist?

None other than Detlef Schrempf.

With his team teetering on the brink of a loss to one of the NBA’s worst teams, Schrempf found his shot in the final 4 minutes and lifted the Seattle SuperSonics past the Washington Bullets, 108-103, in the Tacoma Dome on Thursday night.

The Sonics trailed by 14 points with 9 minutes to go in the fourth quarter before Schrempf and the Sonics battled back to escape with the win.

Schrempf scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter. He sank three clutch outside shots, including two 3-pointers, in the final 4 minutes.

His final basket, a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 52 seconds to go, tied the game at 102 and sent the Tacoma Dome crowd of 13,775 into a frenzy.

“It was unbelievable what he did,” Sonics coach George Karl said.

Nearly as unbelievable was the performance by the Bullets.

This was a team with the thirdworst record in the NBA (18-48). A team that hadn’t beaten the Sonics since 1989.

Yet, somehow, the Sonics prevailed. The victory pushes the Sonics’ record to 46-20, leaving them 2 1/2 games behind Pacific Division-leader Phoenix, which was idle Thursday.

It was Seattle’s 12th straight win over Washington, and the Sonics’ 16th straight win over the Bullets at home. At 26-7, Seattle is tied with Phoenix and Utah for the NBA’s fourth-best home record.

Schrempf and Gary Payton spearheaded Thursday’s victory.

Payton also scored 24 points and made the shot that gave Seattle the lead for good with 16.9 seconds to go.

Payton got the shot opportunity after the Bullets’ Rex Chapman threw up an airball from long-range. Payton quickly drove into the key and sank a difficult, one-handed banker from 10 feet that glanced high off the glass. Suddenly, Seattle was ahead for the first time since the first quarter, 104-102.

With their confidence shattered, the Bullets couldn’t recapture the lead. Calbert Cheaney sank 1 of 2 free throws to pull Washington to within 104-103, but then Schrempf went 4 for 4 from the line to close out the scoring.

So dejected was Washington’s Chris Webber that he began walking to the locker-room after receiving an inbounds pass with a second left.

The comeback seemed improbable for the Sonics, who missed their first nine shots to start the fourth quarter.

When Webber completed a tip-jam with 9:21 remaining, the Bullets were soaring with a 90-76 lead. But the net was damaged on the play, prompting an 8-minute delay while it was repaired.

The Sonics had a lot of time to chat during that delay.

“When the net went down, we said we’d better get some offense,” Schrempf said. “Hopefully, with that delay, they’d cool off. It was nice to have everything go our way after that delay.”

The Sonics outscored the Bullets 32-13 after that.

The comeback spoiled a tremendous performance from Washington’s 7-foot-7 center Gheorghe Muresan, who scored a career-high 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting.

Muresan’s hot hand helped Washington build a 60-50 halftime lead. And that lead ballooned to 15 points in the fourth quarter.

SuperSonics 108, Bullets 103

FG FT Reb WASHINGTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts MacLean 21 2-7 1-2 0-1 3 4 5 Webber 41 10-15 0-1 4-9 5 3 20 Muresan 38 11-16 4-6 4-7 0 3 26 Cheaney 40 9-18 4-8 0-5 3 4 23 Overton 41 3-10 0-0 1-6 7 3 7 Walker 11 1-3 3-4 2-5 1 2 5 Chapman 34 6-13 4-4 0-5 1 3 17 Tucker 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Butler 6 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 McIlvaine 6 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 2 0 Totals 240 42-84 16-25 11-39 20 24 103

Percentages: FG .500, FT .640.

3-Point Goals: 3-13, .231 (Cheaney 1-3, Overton 1-3, Chapman 1-3, Webber 0-2, MacLean 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 12.

Blocked shots: 5 (Webber 3, Muresan 2).

Turnovers: 16 (Cheaney 5, Chapman 4, Muresan 3, Webber 2, MacLean, team).

Steals: 7 (Webber 2, Muresan 2, Overton 2, Cheaney).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 40 7-12 5-9 7-13 2 4 19 Schrempf 42 8-13 5-6 1-6 7 3 24 Johnson 17 2-2 0-0 2-7 1 1 4 Marciulionis 17 4-9 0-0 0-0 1 3 8 Payton 42 11-17 2-5 1-2 9 4 24 Perkins 26 3-9 2-2 0-1 1 1 9 McMillan 31 2-7 2-2 1-8 7 4 7 Gill 25 6-17 1-2 4-6 1 1 13 Totals 240 43-86 17-26 16-43 29 21 108

Percentages: FG .500, FT .654.

3-Point Goals: 5-20, .250 (Schrempf 3-6, McMillan 1-4, Perkins 1-5, Gill 0-2, Marciulionis 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 9.

Blocked shots: 6 (Johnson 2, Perkins 2, Kemp, McMillan).

Turnovers: 14 (Kemp 6, Schrempf 3, Johnson 2, Marciulionis, Payton, team).

Steals: 11 (Gill 4, Payton 3, McMillan 2, Marciulionis, Schrempf).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: None.

Washington 27 33 26 17 - 103 Seattle 23 27 26 32 - 108

A-13,296 (16,296). T-2:23.

Officials-Ron Garretson, Joe DeRosa, Sean Corbin.