Sonics Handle Cooled Rockets
With San Antonio Spurs nipping at their heels and the pressure of knowing that Pacific Division champions shouldn’t lose to second-stringers, the Seattle SuperSonics earned a 118-103 victory over the injury-plagued Houston Rockets Wednesday night at KeyArena.
“No question, we’re supposed to beat that team,” Sonics guard Nate McMillan said. “But they made it tough. They have guys from the CBA (Continental Basketball Association) who are playing hard, trying to impress opposing coaches and their coach, Rudy T(omjanovich).”
The scrappy Rockets eventually succumbed to a Sonics team that set a franchise-record for field-goal shooting - 64.9 percent. The previous record of 63.5 percent was set against the Los Angeles Clippers in 1991.
It was the Sonics’ eighth consecutive win, improving them to 58-15 and keeping them four games ahead of the Spurs (54-19) with nine games remaining in the race for the Western Conference championship.
Houston, the two-time defending NBA champion, played with an admirable tenacity despite the absence of injured All-Star starters Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, and injured key reserves Mario Elie and Sam Cassell.
Its concentration level was constant even while the Sonics were shooting 67 percent to their 39 percent through three quarters.
“Right from the start the guys have been busting their butts,” Tomjanovich said. “I told them when our guys went down, if you don’t believe you can win, there is no way in the world we can do it.”
The Rockets (43-30) haven’t won - this was their eighth loss in the last nine games - but they showed that whoever puts on a Houston uniform plays with the competitiveness of a reigning NBA champion.
“It was more of a ‘Let’s get away from these guys game,”’ McMillan said. “We knew if we let them hang around, they might catch us with some 3’s. It’s tough playing guys like that because you don’t know them and you don’t know what they like to do.”
The Rockets stayed within striking distance via 87 percent free-throw shooting and 35 percent 3-point shooting on a franchise-record 37 attempts.
Robert Horry knocked down four 3’s and former Yakima Sun King Sam Mack hit four more and scored five other field goals on an array of drives for a team-leading 25 points.
But each time the Rockets cut the lead to eight or nine points in the third quarter, the Sonics were quick to regain a double-digit advantage.
“They were full strength and we weren’t, that’s the bottom line,” said Houston guard Eldridge Recasner, another ex-Yakima Sun King. “Every time we made a run we couldn’t get over the hump.”
Among the shooting stars for the record-setting Sonics: Vincent Askew, who was perfect from the field (6 for 6) in his second game since a nine-game stay on the injured list; Shawn Kemp (9 for 11), stiff-necked Detlef Schrempf (4 for 7), Gary Payton (12 for 17), Hersey Hawkins (7 for 12) and Ervin Johnson (2 for 3).
For Askew, it was a case of trying to catch up.
“It’s very difficult to get into the flow because the team is playing so well you don’t want to do too much,” he said. “You want to play within the team.”
In his most error-free performance in two weeks, Kemp stayed out of foul trouble, grabbed nine rebounds and slammed four dunks. His 24-point total restored his average to 20 points just one day after it dipped to less than 20 for the first time all season.
“He had a great game, I thought,” said Sonics coach George Karl. “He played really well. He could have easily had 30 if we put him back in there.”
Recasner, a former University of Washington guard, reasoned that Kemp’s prowess had nothing to do with who was playing defense.
“It’s kind of hard to handle Shawn with a normal lineup,” Recasner said.
Payton showed his offensive versatility in his 12-assist, 30-point performance in which he scored on a 3-pointer, four fast-break layins, four times on driving layins in the half-court offense and three times on quick moves from the low post, including a left-handed hook shot.
xxxx SuperSonics 118, Rockets 103 FG FT Reb HOUSTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Brown 28 1-6 1-2 3-8 1 2 3 Horry 40 7-20 2-2 3-6 5 3 20 Bryant 21 7-12 2-2 3-7 0 4 16 Mack 38 9-18 3-4 0-2 3 3 25 Smith 28 3-9 2-2 1-1 5 2 10 Chilcutt 18 1-6 5-6 3-5 0 1 8 Breaux 17 1-6 0-0 1-2 0 1 3 Recasner 26 4-11 5-5 2-3 0 3 13 Jones 5 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 Booker 19 2-5 0-0 0-1 2 1 5 Totals 240 35-93 20-23 17-37 16 20 103 Percentages: FG .376, FT .870. 3-Point Goals: 13-37, .351 (Mack 4-8, Horry 4-10, Smith 2-7, Booker 1-2, Chilcutt 1-2, Breaux 1-4, Recasner 0-4). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 2 (Horry, Bryant). Turnovers: 9 (Brown 2, Horry 2, Bryant 2, Recasner 2, Breaux). Steals: 12 (Brown 4, Horry 2, Smith 2, Recasner 2, Bryant, Chilcutt). Technical fouls: Coach Tomjanovich, 8:42 second. Illegal defense: None. FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 32 9-11 6-8 2-9 1 4 24 Schrempf 29 4-7 4-4 1-5 8 1 12 Johnson 24 2-3 0-0 0-6 1 2 4 Hawkins 36 7-12 1-1 1-2 1 1 15 Payton 39 12-17 5-8 1-4 12 1 30 McMillan 24 2-5 0-0 1-7 2 1 5 Askew 23 6-6 2-2 0-4 1 3 14 Perkins 22 2-9 1-2 3-6 1 1 5 Wingate 7 1-1 0-0 0-2 0 2 3 Scheffler 2 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Snow 2 2-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 4 Totals 240 48-74 19-25 9-46 28 16 118 Percentages: FG .649, FT .760. 3-Point Goals: 3-12, .250 (Wingate 1-1, Payton 1-2, McMillan 1-2, Schrempf 0-2, Hawkins 0-2, Perkins 0-3). Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 5 (Johnson 4, Perkins). Turnovers: 17 (Schrempf 5, Hawkins 3, Kemp 2, Johnson 2, Payton 2, Askew, Wingate, Scheffler). Steals: 5 (Kemp, Schrempf, Hawkins, Payton, Snow). Technical fouls: illegal defense, 8:15 second; Payton, 2:48 second; Kemp, 3:06 third. Illegal defense: 1. Houston 20 25 30 28 - 103 Seattle 26 31 32 29 - 118 A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:07.