Sonics Prevail Despite Kemp Struggling Forward Survives Collisions While Teammates Pick Up Scoring Slack

Shawn Kemp, whose greatest obstacle has been himself the past two months, kept running into more solid impediments Thursday night.

First, there was a collision with Dallas center Shawn Bradley in the second quarter, which momentarily had Kemp holding his knee and screaming in pain and SuperSonics coach George Karl fretting the possible irony of losing Kemp to injury just when he appears committed to finding himself again on the court.

Then in the third quarter, the knee turning out to be not seriously hurt, Kemp ran head-to-head with Dallas guard Robert Pack on a pick, and lay dazed on the floor for several anxious seconds before shaking off the cobwebs and staying in the game, a 90-82 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

“Just a tough day at the office,” said Kemp, who has learned a lot about such things lately. “I’ll be fine.”

That Kemp kept getting back up spoke volumes about his renewed commitment, though the numbers on the stat sheet didn’t.

Kemp didn’t hit a field goal and scored only six points in 31 minutes. But Terry Cummings (14 points) and Sam Perkins (13) came off the bench and sparked a fourth-quarter rally that won it for the Sonics in front of 13,687 at Reunion Arena.

“Terry and Sam have played great,” Karl said. “In a lot of ways, our bench is the reason we still have a chance to win the Pacific Division.”

And Karl didn’t care that his team had to struggle to defeat a Dallas squad that is 23-54 and simply playing out the string.

“Any time you win on the road down the stretch is a good win,” Karl said. “Sure I wish we had shot better (46.9 percent), had a better flow and never let them scare us. But it’s a good win.”

And certainly a needed one as the 53-24 Sonics moved a game in front of the idle Lakers in the Pacific Division and stayed tied with Houston in the battle for playoff seeding in the Western Conference.

But Karl admits the Sonics, and particularly Kemp, need a breakout game to regain confidence with only five games remaining until the playoffs, a rout where everything comes easily and smoothly.

That didn’t happen against Dallas. The Mavs led by three heading into the fourth quarter before the Sonics got their fast-break going, hitting 9 of 14 shots to outscore the hosts 28-17.

Gary Payton, who had been held in check for three quarters, had four layups in the quarter, and Cummings hit a pair of jumpers en route to six points.

All that helped ease the fact that Kemp is still searching for answers on the court, now that he has pledged to no longer be a distraction off of it.

Kemp’s primary problem was getting shots as he was only 0 for 4 for the game, and had only one shot in 13 first-half minutes. Kemp said part of the problem is that the team isn’t running many plays for him down low.

“I don’t get many opportunities,” Kemp said. “Teams are double-teaming me and triple-teaming me every time, so I have to search and find way to get opportunities. And when we come in the locker room, we don’t say ‘Let’s get the ball to Shawn.’ So it’s up to me to find a way to get the job done.”

Karl says teams are taking Kemp out of plays with constant double-teams and that Kemp will have to expand his offensive game to score more.

“I’ve told Gary and Shawn that if a team is going to take you out then you have to learn how to play in the flow of the game and find shots by moving and running and cutting,” Karl said.

And Kemp said there are other ways he can find more scoring opportunities.

“You may see me getting rebounds and dribbling the ball up the court and getting more lay-ups, or see me bringing the ball down and getting jump shots,” Kemp said.

And Kemp did contribute nine rebounds, four assists and one monster block of a shot by the 7-foot, 6-inch Bradley.

But no one in the Sonics locker room is fooling themselves into thinking they can win playoff games without Kemp hitting a single field goal, particularly with Detlef Schrempf still struggling to come back from his injury and Nate McMillan laboring from a knee injury that he said will make him day-to-day the rest of the season.

Sonics 90, Mavericks 82

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Schrempf 32 2-8 6-6 1-3 2 0 10 Kemp 31 0-4 6-10 3-9 4 5 6 McIlvaine 18 3-4 0-0 2-3 0 3 6 Payton 44 6-15 3-4 0-5 4 5 16 Hawkins 37 4-11 7-7 1-8 1 3 17 Perkins 24 6-9 1-1 1-5 2 2 13 Wingate 15 1-2 0-0 0-0 3 2 3 McMillan 17 2-3 1-2 0-3 3 0 5 Cummings 22 6-8 2-2 1-4 1 4 14 Totals 240 30-64 26-32 9-40 20 24 90 Percentages: FG .469, FT .813.

3-Point Goals: 4-17, .235 (Hawkins 2-8, Wingate 1-1, Payton 1-3, Perkins 0-2, Schrempf 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 8.

Blocked shots: 4 (Schrempf, Kemp, McIlvaine, Perkins).

Turnovers: 20 (Cummings 4, Hawkins 4, Payton 4, Kemp 3, Schrempf 2, Perkins 2, McIlvaine).

Steals: 8 (Payton 3, Schrempf 2, Kemp, Perkins, Cummings).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: None.

FG FT Reb DALLAS Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Finley 41 10-20 2-2 2-3 3 2 25 Green 43 2-4 0-0 0-6 2 5 4 Bradley 33 2-8 3-7 2-8 1 5 7 Pack 29 4-8 6-10 1-2 5 3 14 Danilovic 42 8-16 2-2 1-6 2 5 22 Dreiling 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Harper 19 1-2 2-4 0-0 4 2 4 King 16 3-3 0-0 1-5 0 2 6 Strickland 12 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 O’Bannon 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 Muursepp 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 30-66 15-25 7-31 17 26 82 Percentages: FG .455, FT .600.

3-Point Goals: 7-24, .292 (Danilovic 4-10, Finley 3-9, Pack 0-1, Green 0-2, Strickland 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 7.

Blocked shots: 2 (Bradley, Finley).

Turnovers: 19 (Bradley 3, Pack 3, Danilovic 3, Finley 2, Harper 2, Strickland 2, O’Bannon, Green, team 2).

Steals: 12 (Green 4, Pack 3, Finley 2, Danilovic, Harper, King).

Technical fouls: Bradley, 3:31 first.

Illegal defense: None.

Seattle 18 26 18 28 - 90

Dallas 18 22 25 17 - 82

A-13,687 (18,042). T-2:11.