Schizosonics Need To Find A New Angle

If Shaquille O’Neal were capable of making a couple of free throws Sunday, the opening round of the NBA playoffs locally was fated not only to match SchizoSonics vs. Jail Blazers, but Seattle vs. Baja Seattle, Medina (Barry Ackerley) vs. Mercer Island (Paul Allen), Bob Whitsitt Past vs. Bob Whitsitt Present, and Shawn Kemp and J.R. Rider sharing perspectives about the significance of the big hand on the clock, relative to the little hand.

Lots of good story angles.

Instead the Sonics play the Phoenix Suns, who no longer have Charles Barkley. But they do have John Williams and Rex Chapman.

Hoo-boy. Thanks, Shaq. You big goof.

Sure, the Suns lately have become a nice little club. But they have had two head coaches and 23 players this season, a 13-game losing streak, an 11-game winning streak and a four-guard offense the likes of which has never won a lick in playoff history.

Besides having only the NBA minimum in personality, the Suns have almost no inside game. Their rock-and-fire outside offense can win some regular-season games, and it may win one in the postseason, based on the theory that there is no defense for the well-executed 30-foot jumper. But winning a series against a good team? Oh dear, no.

Many in the national media are forecasting this series as the upset special of the first round. The Sonics have no one but themselves to blame for that perspective. After burying the first-round demon in last year’s run to the Finals, the Sonics have revived it, Jason-like, by succumbing to some of the same internal weirdness of seasons past.

The demon appears again in part because the Sonics’ last victory over a .500 team came more than five weeks ago, a 97-91 win at Atlanta March 14. Even a series win over Phoenix can’t fix that (the Suns ended 40-42).

That means the Sonics’ first chance for a reputable win will be in a second-round series next month, presumably against Houston - a team that just last week gave the Sonics a whipping that was the basketball equivalent of the 100-year flood, 113-73.

Since then, Kemp has slipped back into form as quietly as the change that was made at starting center between Jim McIlvaine and Terry Cummings. These developments don’t make the national radar. The Sonics are still perceived as being as precarious as the guy on the old Ed Sullivan show who spun eight plates on eight sticks.

Also ignored is a difference between the Sonics today and the ones who evaporated in 1994 against Denver and 1995 against the Lakers - Gary Payton.

In both first-round losses, Payton’s game was relatively weak. In his own sometimes mystifying lexicon, he “was trippin’.” So far this season, Payton has shown zero trend toward a fade-out.

Not only has he not let the enormity of his new $87 million contract change him, he has been a forceful, fearless leader who no longer defers to anyone. He recognizes and even embraces the responsibility of being The Man, although he attempts to disclaim it in interviews.

Rather than fade after a long playoff run and a summer of Olympic basketball, this season he played a career-high 3,213 minutes, 11th in the league, an average of 39.2 a game.

Never has there been a Sonic more impervious to fatigue and pain.

The ‘96 playoff run, along with the recent regular season, revealed a Payton that will not let himself or his teammates wilt in the crucible.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be beaten. It just means they won’t be upset in the playoffs. A subsequent playoff loss to any among Houston, Utah or the Lakers can’t be considered an upset.

It is true that they aren’t as good a club as they were a year ago. It is also true they are smarter and tougher than two and three seasons ago, thanks largely to Payton. That buys the house at least one round, pardon the expression.

The Suns don’t bring to the post-season many compelling story lines. Nor are they destined to produce major news.