Rockets’ 3-Peat Upstaged By Sonics’ 3-Feat

This nirvana is brought to you by the number 3.

Three what? Seconds in the key? Three defenders around Hakeem Olajuwon? Three stitches to close the gash in Nate McMillan’s chin? Three coins in the fountain?

No, not those threes. The other 3.

The 3 that started as a basketball gimmick and ending up changing the essence of the game. The 3 the Seattle SuperSonics couldn’t miss Monday night.

Three as in 3 up, two down.

And two to go.

The Sonics got an up-close look at what Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich likes to call his team’s “heart of a champion” in Game 2 of the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals.

And then they performed a triple bypass.

They shot the 3-pointer the way no team in NBA history ever has and they picked the perfect time to do it - needing almost every one of those grenades to outlast the two-time defending champions 105-101 and take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which will reconvene now in Houston.

“The way we’re playing,” offered Sonics forward Detlef Schrempf, “I say let’s play tomorrow.”

Alas, it’ll be threemorrow. Friday to you.

By then, the spell may have worn off or the Rockets may have come up with some new defensive potion, but that will merely be damage control and not prevention. Houston, it is pointed out constantly, has thrived on playing the tortoise in the playoffs these last two years so 0-2 heading home probably doesn’t look that daunting. But in their heart-of-champions hearts, they have to feel they threw a big enough punch at the Sonics in Game 2 to come away 1-1.

“If we play any other team in the league,” Tomjanovich contended, “or if it isn’t their magic moment, I’m sure we win that game - and it probably isn’t even a close game. Their shooting was unbelievable.”

After three quarters, however, belief was the only option.

At that juncture, the Sonics had thrown in their last 13 3-point attempts and yet still trailed 82-80, though that was better than the 10-point deficit they were staring at 5 minutes earlier.

So Sonics coach George Karl sat Shawn Kemp down - nothing against Shawn, other than his range - and cozied up with the evening’s karma, which was something along the lines of fire away and fall back on Hakeem.

And, eventually, here it came - back-to-back 3s by Hersey Hawkins and Gary Payton to pull the Sonics even once again, another 3 by Hawkins to cap a 9-0 run for a 97-90 lead and the crushing 3 by Sam Perkins after the Rockets had closed to within a point with, ahem, 3 minutes to play.

“I don’t know if it’s contagious or if it’s just determination,” said Perkins. “On this team, anybody can make that shot. There’s just an added expectation once somebody starts doing it. When so many guys do, it sort of staggers the defense. They don’t know who to run to, so sometimes there’s nobody running at you at all.”

By night’s end, the Sonics had tried 27 3-pointers and made 20 - 74.1 percent.

Skeet shooters win gold medals with more misses.

Nate McMillan, who used to be able to go a month without a 3, made 5 of 5. The Sonics’ bench went 12 of 14. Vincent Askew, pinpointed by Tomjanovich as Seattle’s worst marksman, made both of his tries. Frank Brickowski tossed in two.

“Seventy four percent?” marveled Brickowski when he finally saw the stats. “There’s your story. Bleep the questions.”

Houston’s only consolation was that Steve Scheffler didn’t hop off the bench to a nail a 3.

“I don’t think they want to give it to us,” Brickowski reasoned. “We’re getting that shot. Then again, you’d rather have a team shooting that shot than Gary or Shawn posting up single-handedly down low. So it’s the lesser of two evils. You have to double Shawn and you have to double Gary.”

Just as the Sonics must double Olajuwon. That helped the Rockets make 13 of 27 themselves from beyond the arc, but the percentage that matters is Olajuwon’s 11-of-30 shooting this series.

And for all those 3s, the play of the game probably came with 10 seconds left, when Payton - the NBA’s defensive player of the year - stripped the ball from Hakeem as he positioned himself for the would-be tying bucket.

The Sonics themselves talk as if they’re not tracking trends, but aberrations. The 33-point blowout in Game 1. This Annie Oakley stuff in Game 2.

“My gut feeling is that we just took a hell of a shot from the Houston Rockets and we’re still standing,” said Karl. “But as big a shot as they gave us, I expect a bigger one Friday night.”

Maybe. But for now, all the talk is of 3s.

And not threepeats.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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