Sonics Not Quite Ready To Put It In Panic Mode
With sleep not really an option, George Karl arrived at his office at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and again watched the tape of what caused his restlessness.
And the more he watched, the more he became convinced there is nothing that can’t be easily corrected about Phoenix’s 106-101 win over the Seattle SuperSonics Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference first round playoffs.
“You can talk about matchups and all that, but we just missed shots and they made shots down the stretch,” Karl said.
Game 2 of the five-game series is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in KeyArena and is as close to a must-win game for the Sonics as there can be.
A loss, and Seattle would have to win three straight and two on the road to avoid losing in the first round for the third time in four years. And a first-round loss this year might result in a long, and potentially busy, off-season.
Of course, the Sonics know all about first round must-wins. The Sonics lost in the first round in 1994 to Denver and to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1995. Last season, Seattle lost Game 2 at home to Sacramento before rebounding.
“It seems like every year we have to get into this place,” Karl said. “We put ourselves in a corner a little earlier than we would have liked to be. But we’ve fought out of the corner before and I think we will fight out of it this time.”
Sonics players were similarly optimistic and said that maybe their past experience of first-round foibles will help them deal with this latest crisis.
“It’s one game,” said forward Detlef Schrempf. “We’ve done this to ourselves four years in a row now, losing a game at home in the first round. It’s not something we are not used to.”
Karl isn’t promising major lineup changes for tonight’s game, no massive altering of the game plan. He figures the Sonics need to defend the 3-point shot a little better, but also figures that Rex Chapman can’t again make a record nine treys and score 42 points.
Karl also figures the Sonics need to play more aggressively and competently on offense, but also saw that Seattle led by five with under six minutes to go before going on a huge drought.
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