Sonics Get Physical, Rough Up Rockets
What struggles against top teams?
What late-night drinking?
What lack of team chemistry?
All that was rendered stale news on Friday night as the Seattle SuperSonics hammered Houston, 105-85, in an effort that exuded playoff intensity for 48 minutes.
No, after a wild game, in which the Sonics answered a number of questions - and buried a few demons along the way - it’s unlikely that anybody was thinking about the litany of Sonics’ problems that had led to several weeks of community hand-wringing.
This was a game of dramatic exchanges - and none involved Valentine’s greetings - as the teams combined for eight technical fouls, two ejections, and a half-dozen profane shouting matches between amped-up fans and disappointed Rockets.
It also featured one extremely large dose of redemption for the Sonics, who had previously gone 0-7 against the elite teams of the Western Conference.
“Well, we’re now 1-and-whatever. We’ll build on that and go from there,” said Sonics forward Detlef Schrempf, who finished with 20 points.
Sonics coach George Karl, too, used the word “foundation” when dissecting the game.
“Intensity,” he said with an intense air. “So many times, we can figure things out if there’s an attitude out there, some intensity, and we’ve had that the last two games - we’ve had a spark in our game.
“It was a good 48-minute game,” Karl said. “Our attitude brought frustration to them. That’s been happening to us, teams coming in here and causing us frustration. We’ve had spurts of what we had tonight, but we had it for the whole game. That’s a good foundation to build on.”
Here’s how the bricks in that foundation were laid:
With guard Gary Payton exhausting every driving move he ever knew, and then inventing a few more on top of that. He scored 23 points with eight rebounds and eight assists - and humiliated helpless Rockets defenders in the process.
“It seems that every time we needed it, we ran the pick and roll and Gary got something for us,” Karl said.
With 70 points in the paint (compared to Houston’s 28), 33 points off 21 Houston turnovers, and 33 points off the bench.
“We felt we had to go back to our trapping and rotating and creating turnovers and bad shots,” Schrempf said. “We did that.”
And with a display of the much-questioned team chemistry.
Once, Shawn Kemp and Jim McIllvaine got tangled in a wreck under the basket, and they almost tripped over each other trying not to, well, trip over each other. Rump pats and hand slaps all around. Buddies forever.
And when Kemp and the Rockets’ Kevin Willis squared off in the third quarter, the other four Sonics on the floor circled Willis in defense of their teammate. Talk had been that the Sonics needed to draw in closer as a team. And if it took the threat of a duke-out to do it, well, so be it.
“Kemp was just trying to get physical,” Willis said of the scuffle that resulted in ejection for the two. “They got the lead and then they wanted to show they’re real aggressive. I’m not too keen on somebody trying to make me an example.”
Willis objected to the show of Sonics unity, labeling Nate McMillan and Payton “a couple of ice cream cones.”
Rockets forward Charles Barkley was more succinct. “We got our butts kicked; let’s take it like men and go home.”
Notes
Houston’s Matt Bullard made his first start is four seasons. His last start was April 24, 1993, against Dallas… . Darell Garretson, the league’s chief of officiating, attended the game to observe the officiating crew of Tony Brothers, Steve Javie and Terry Durham.
xxxx SuperSonics 105, Rockets 85 FG FT Reb HOUSTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Barkley 35 6-11 0-2 3-12 3 3 14 Bullard 28 5-10 0-0 0-1 3 2 12 Olajuwon 29 3-7 0-2 2-6 1 2 6 Elie 30 6-8 1-1 0-0 3 0 17 Maloney 19 0-5 0-0 0-1 2 3 0 Willis 11 3-5 2-5 0-3 0 2 8 Price 27 3-10 4-4 0-3 5 2 11 Harrington 16 3-4 0-0 2-3 0 3 6 Mack 21 1-7 2-2 0-1 1 0 4 Livingston 18 1-1 2-2 0-2 2 3 4 Moore 4 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 3 Stevens 2 0-2 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 Totals 240 32-71 11-18 8-34 20 21 85 Percentages: FG .451, FT .611. 3-Point Goals: 10-32, .313 (Elie 4-6, Barkley 2-6, Bullard 2-6, Moore 1-1, Price 1-6, Willis 0-1, Stevens 0-1, Mack 0-2, Maloney 0-3). Team Rebounds: 10. Blocked shots: 2 (Olajuwon 2). Turnovers: 22 (Barkley 5, Elie 5, Olajuwon 3, Price 2, Livingston 2, Maloney, Mack, Moore, Stevens, team). Steals: 7 (Elie 2, Price 2, Barkley, Olajuwon, Stevens). Technical fouls: Barkley, :39.3 second; Maloney 5:24 third; Willis 2, 1:26 third. Ejection: Willis 2, 1:26 third. Illegal defense: 1. FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 27 7-9 3-4 1-4 3 4 17 Schrempf 32 7-13 6-6 1-2 2 1 20 McIlvaine 22 2-7 0-0 0-4 0 3 4 Hawkins 32 3-9 2-2 2-9 6 1 8 Payton 36 11-20 0-0 3-8 8 4 23 Perkins 23 3-7 4-4 1-4 1 1 11 McMillan 21 2-5 0-0 1-2 5 1 6 Cummings 22 4-8 0-0 2-4 0 4 8 Wingate 16 2-3 0-0 1-1 3 1 4 Snow 4 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 Ehlo 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Stewart 2 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Totals 240 43-84 15-16 12-39 30 20 105 Percentages: FG .512, FT .938. 3-Point Goals: 4-19, .211 (McMillan 2-2, Perkins 1-3, Payton 1-4, Snow 0-1, Wingate 0-1, Cummings 0-1, McIlvaine 0-1, Schrempf 0-1, Hawkins 0-5). Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 6 (McIlvaine 3, Perkins 2, Kemp). Turnovers: 10 (Payton 2, Hawkins 2, McIlvaine 2, Kemp, Schrempf, Cummings, Ehlo). Steals: 16 (Payton 3, Kemp 2, Schrempf 2, Hawkins 2, Perkins 2, Cummings 2, McMillan, Wingate, Stewart). Technical fouls: Coach Karl, 6:54 second; Kemp 2, 1:26 third; Payton, 1:26 third. Ejection: Kemp, 1:26 third. Illegal defense: 1. Houston 23 22 19 21 - 85 Seattle 24 29 27 25 - 105 A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:05.