Sonics Race By Suns Kemp, Payton Dominate As Seattle Evens Series, Builds Confidence

As quickly and emphatically as possible, the Seattle SuperSonics on Sunday night laid to rest all rumors of their imminent demise.

Playing desperate for the first time all season after a Game 1 loss had most of Seattle hovering over the panic button, the Sonics responded by opening with their best 5 minutes since last year’s run to the NBA Finals.

The fired-up Sonics jumped out to a 20-2 lead and coasted to a 122-78 win over the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs at KeyArena.

“Maybe the giant is awake,” said guard Hersey Hawkins.

Shawn Kemp led the way with 23 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and three dunks in the kind of electrifying performance that could be the official end of his infamous slump.

“I’ve been waiting to explode a little bit,” Kemp said. “It was fun.”

The win, which was the largest margin of victory in Seattle playoff history, evened the best-of-five series at 1-1 with Game 3 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at America West Arena in Phoenix.

“Don’t forget, they came in and did what they had to do,” said Sonics coach George Karl about the Suns.

“Now the war has begun. We now have to go down there and get at least one game, and Game 3 will be the key. This series is now a fight and it’s exciting.”

The Sonics’ 106-101 Game 1 loss had revived all sorts of ugly memories of their first-round defeats in 1994 and 1995.

But Sonics players and Karl had maintained they were still confident and were remaining calm, even though Friday’s win was Phoenix’s third in a row against Seattle and seemed to indicate the Sonics hadn’t figured out the Suns’ three-guard attack.

Instead, it was the Suns’ guards who were left wondering Sunday night as the point guard tandem of Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd combined to hit only 1-of-19 shots and score eight points, and the Suns hit only 5-of-22 3-point attempts after hitting 13 in Game 1.

“I thought we lost our poise throughout the game,” said Phoenix coach Danny Ainge. “We really tried to rush. We have a lot of really good one-on-one players and they tried to do it themselves.”

The loss was the worst in Phoenix’s playoff history, as was the Suns’ 26.9 percent shooting.

“We covered some of their plays differently,” Karl said. “But K.J. and Kidd are not going to go 1-for-19 again, probably.”

SuperSonics 122, Suns 78

FG FT Reb PHOENIX Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Chapman 34 6-12 4-4 0-2 0 3 18 Tisdale 11 1-2 0-0 0-3 0 2 2 Williams 15 0-2 1-4 4-4 0 2 1 Johnson 31 1-12 4-4 1-3 2 4 6 Kidd 34 0-7 2-4 1-5 8 1 2 Manning 15 3-6 8-8 3-5 1 5 14 Bryant 12 1-4 2-2 1-2 0 2 4 Ceballos 30 3-10 4-4 2-7 1 1 11 Person 25 4-11 1-2 0-10 1 1 11 Meyer 11 0-4 0-0 2-5 1 0 0 Brown 13 2-4 5-6 1-2 1 2 9 Nash 9 0-4 0-0 1-1 1 4 0 Totals 240 21-78 31-38 16-49 16 27 78

Percentages: FG .269, FT .816.

3-Point Goals: 5-24, .208 (Chapman 2-4, Person 2-6, Ceballos 1-3, Meyer 0-1, Johnson 0-4, Kidd 0-6).

Team Rebounds: 9.

Blocked shots: 5 (Williams, Manning, Ceballos, Meyer, Nash).

Turnovers: 22 (Ceballos 5, Chapman 4, Johnson 3, Meyer 3, Nash 2, Kidd 2, Tisdale, Manning, Person).

Technical fouls: coach Ainge 2, 7:18 third.

Flagrant fouls: Person, :16 fourth.

Ejections: coach Ainge, 7:18 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 32 8-12 6-9 3-15 5 6 23 Schrempf 30 6-11 0-0 2-5 2 3 13 Cummings 21 3-7 2-2 1-5 1 1 8 Hawkins 33 6-8 4-4 4-7 1 3 19 Payton 36 10-24 2-3 1-2 6 2 23 Perkins 19 0-6 2-2 0-4 2 2 2 McMillan 15 0-2 0-0 1-3 2 5 0 Wingate 18 3-7 1-2 1-4 2 4 8 Graham 16 2-7 2-2 0-3 1 2 7 Stewart 8 2-3 2-2 0-1 2 2 6 McIlvaine 6 3-3 1-2 1-1 0 0 7 Snow 6 2-2 1-2 0-0 0 0 6 Totals 240 45-92 23-30 14-50 24 30 122

Percentages: FG .489, FT .767.

3-Point Goals: 9-28, .321 (Hawkins 3-5, Kemp 1-1, Snow 1-1, Schrempf 1-2, Graham 1-3, Wingate 1-4, Payton 1-5, Stewart 0-1, McMillan 0-2, Perkins 0-4).

Blocked shots: 9 (Kemp 3, McIlvaine 2, Cummings, Perkins, Wingate, Stewart).

Turnovers: 12 (Kemp 3, Hawkins 2, Payton 2, Cummings, Perkins, McMillan, Wingate, Stewart).

Steals: 14 (Schrempf 2, Wingate 2, Stewart 2, Kemp, Cummings, Hawkins, Payton, Perkins, Graham, McIlvaine, Snow).

Phoenix 18 19 26 15 - 78

Seattle 35 21 29 37 - 122

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:12.