Sonics Win Fifth Straight Payton Leads Seattle To 92-88 Victory Over Arch-Rival Portland

If Monday night was any indication, call him Gary Payton, all-star.

When the reserves are announced today for the West squad, which will be coached by Seattle’s George Karl, speculation has it that one point guard spot will go to either Payton or Portland’s Rod Strickland. The two met Monday night, and the matchup was no contest as Seattle beat the Trail Blazers 92-88 for their fifth straight victory.

Payton had 21 points, was 10 for 12 from the field, and hit the game-clinching 19-footer with 13.5 seconds to play. Strickland was 1 for 8, scored 3 points and missed a layup on Portland’s final possession.

Any comparison is unfair, though, because Strickland sat out the entire third quarter with back spasms.

“His back was hurting him, so that slowed him down a lot,” Payton said. “I can’t take any credit for slowing down a player like that. He was looking like he was hurting out there.”

Payton was feeling fine.

“It was one of those nights,” he said. “A lot of things were dropping for me.”

The Sonics got unlikely help from Frank Brickowski, who was 3 for 4 from 3-point range and scored 16 points. Brickowski’s 3-pointer with 2:46 to play put Seattle ahead for good, 90-87.

“Tonight was his best game for us,” Karl said.

Clifford Robinson scored 25 for Portland, but was just 8 for 24 from the field and missed two free throws with 1:55 to play and his team down 90-87.

The Blazers’ Arvydas Sabonis scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, but his 10-foot fadeaway shot that would have tied the game with 31 seconds to play rimmed the basket and fell out. James Robinson added 20 for the Blazers.

“Close doesn’t matter,” Portland coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “But you know, on a sub-par night against a very good team, we put ourselves in position to win at the end.”

Portland, on target to become the worst free-throw shooting team in NBA history, was 19 for 31 from the line, 4 for 8 in the final quarter.

“There were a lot of things we could have done better,” Carlesimo said. “But you’ve got to start with that very same thing every time, unfortunately, especially when it happens in the fourth quarter.”

Buck Williams made 1 of 2 free throws with 1:17 left to cut the lead to 90-88.

The Sonics led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Portland was down only 49-48 at the break, thanks to a pair of late technical fouls.

Payton and Detlef Schrempf were called for technicals with 30.3 seconds to go. James Robinson made the two technical free throws and Harvey Grant 1 of 2 free throws on the foul call that preceded the complaints.

Shawn Kemp was held out of the starting lineup by Karl because he missed the shootaround because of problems with his flight from Seattle. The players gathered in Portland after some of them took the team plane to Arizona for the Super Bowl.

The Blazers took the lead for the first time since midway through the opening quarter when Chris Dudley’s offensive rebound made it 57-56 with 7:20 left in the third quarter.

Portland built a 72-66 lead on Sabonis’ inside basket to start the fourth quarter before Seattle rallied, tying it 76-76 on Sam Perkins’ 3-pointer with 7:04 to play.