Lakers Rally To Beat Sonics Ceballos Scores 14 In Fourth To Snap Skid, Top Seattle

Cedric Ceballos, comfortably back playing small forward, turned things around for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ceballos, who started the Lakers’ first four games at shooting guard, scored 14 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and had 12 rebounds Friday night in a 100-97 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics, snapping the Lakers’ three-game losing streak.

“It doesn’t really matter what position I play,” Ceballos said. “It’s just (a matter of) being on the court and taking charge. It may be hard to explain on paper, but when you’re on the floor, everybody has to play to their strengths, whether it’s rebounding, playing the post or shooting from outside.”

Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp each scored 27 points for the Sonics, whose loss was their 100th in 162 regular-season games against Los Angeles.

Ceballos made a soaring slam dunk over Hersey Hawkins and rebounded his own miss 38 seconds later to increase the Lakers’ lead to 98-92 with 35 seconds left.

Gary Payton, who had 16 points and 10 assists for Seattle, hit a jumper with 29 seconds to go, and then stripped Vlade Divac of the ball before going in for a layup that narrowed the gap to 98-96 with 19 seconds remaining.

“I’m proud of the way we played,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “Unfortunately, their trap took our aggressiveness and our enthusiasm away. It’s real frustrating because we did not react well to their aggressiveness.”

Ceballos converted a bounce pass from Anthony Peeler along the baseline and made a reverse layup for a 100-96 edge, marking the first time the Lakers scored 100 points this season in five tries.

Ceballos then missed two free throws after Kemp made one of two at the line, giving Seattle a chance to tie with a 3-pointer. But Schrempf’s 3-pointer fell short of the rim at the buzzer.

“We had drawn up a couple of plays, but didn’t get anything we wanted out there,” Schrempf said. “I got the ball to Sam (Perkins), but he couldn’t do anything with it, so he gave it back to me. But with 2 seconds, all I could do was to step and throw and try to get off a good shot, or get a foul.”

Ceballos put the Lakers ahead to stay at 78-76 on a driving layup with 9:10 remaining, but their lead didn’t get past six points the rest of the way.

Ceballos’ steal of Hawkins led to his two free throws at the other end and gave the Lakers an 85-80 advantage, their biggest of the second half until Corie Blount’s 16-footer made it 93-87 with 2:35 to play.

Lakers 100, SuperSonics 97

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 39 8-17 11-15 5-14 1 4 27 Schrempf 40 8-18 9-11 2-5 2 5 27 Johnson 14 0-2 0-0 4-5 0 3 0 Hawkins 34 3-9 0-0 1-4 6 1 6 Payton 45 7-15 1-1 0-2 10 3 16 Perkins 30 5-9 0-0 2-4 0 4 11 Askew 22 3-9 1-3 5-5 2 3 8 Snow 6 0-1 0-2 0-1 2 3 0 Brickowski 10 1-3 0-0 0-1 0 2 2 Totals 240 35-83 22-32 19-41 23 28 97

Percentages: FG .422, FT .688.

3-Point Goals: 5-17, .294 (Schrempf 2-5, Askew 1-1, Payton 1-3, Perkins 1-3, Hawkins 0-5).

Team Rebounds: 15. Blocked shots: 1 (Schrempf). Turnovers: 21 (Payton 7, Schrempf 7, Kemp 4, Hawkins 2, Johnson). Steals: 9 (Hawkins 4, Payton 3, Kemp, Schrempf). Technical foul: Illegal defense, 8:29 second. Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb L.A. LAKERS Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Campbell 28 4-8 4-6 3-10 1 2 12 Ceballos 43 13-26 6-10 8-12 4 2 32 Divac 28 1-5 5-8 3-7 4 4 7 Peeler 31 4-11 2-4 0-2 1 2 11 Van Exel 24 1-6 3-3 0-2 3 1 5 Blount 26 5-6 0-0 1-6 1 6 10 Threatt 29 4-10 5-5 0-2 7 3 14 Roberts 18 2-5 2-2 2-2 2 2 6 Miller 4 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 2 0 Strong 4 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 1 3 Lynch 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Totals 240 35-79 28-39 17-45 23 26 100

Percentages: FG .443, FT .718.

3-Point Goals: 2-17, .118 (Threatt 1-4, Peeler 1-5, Campbell 0-1, Van Exel 0-3, Ceballos 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 12. Blocked shots: 11 (Campbell 5, Ceballos 2, Divac 2, Blount 2). Turnovers: 18 (Divac 4, Van Exel 4, Roberts 2, Peeler 2, Campbell, Ceballos, Blount, Threatt, Miller, Lynch). Steals: 10 (Ceballos 3, Campbell 2, Roberts 2, Divac, Blount, Threatt).

Technical foul: Illegal defense, 5:50 second. Illegal defense: 1.

Seattle 20 27 21 29 - 97

L.A. Lakers 23 24 21 32 - 100

A-15,542 (17,505). T-2:28.