Supersonics Nearly Stumble Seattle’s 113-108 Win Over Boston Not As Easy As Players Anticipated

The way the Seattle SuperSonics looked at it, the Boston Celtics weren’t supposed to be so close in the end.

Getting 26 points from Gary Payton and 24 from Detlef Schrempf, the Sonics weren’t able to put the Celtics away until the final 19 seconds in a 113-108 victory Monday night.

“I don’t think anyone felt this was a game we were going to lose,” Seattle’s Hersey Hawkins said.

“The wins or losses show if a team is good or bad,” Antoine Walker of the Celtics said. “We’re obviously not very good right now.”

While the Sonics improved to 4-0 since the All-Star break, Boston lost its seventh straight and saw their road record drop to 2-23, worst in the NBA.

Walker, the sixth pick overall in last June’s NBA draft, had 27 points for Boston before fouling out with 14 seconds left. He made 11 of 17 shots from the floor.

The Sonics got a critical dunk from Shawn Kemp on an alley-oop pass from Hawkins with 19 seconds left that gave them a 112-108 lead.

“I think it was a good win,” Seattle coach George Karl said. “I’m not disappointed with this win at all. They’re (the Celtics) NBA guys, too. They’re making millions of dollars, too.”

Schrempf, who scored 34 points in the Sonics’ 11-point win over the Lakers in Los Angeles Sunday, was not happy, however.

“We made them look good,” Schrempf said. “That was not how we’re supposed to play. We have to play good defense and they made too many easy buckets. There was no defense out there at all.”

The Boston loss left coach M.L. Carr thinking his team’s 12th victory was right around the corner.

“If we play like that on most nights, we’re going to win some more ball games,” Carr said. “But it’s tough to pull off a win against Seattle no matter how well you play.”

“Seattle’s one of the league’s best clubs and we played them tough,” Boston’s Rick Fox said. “Now, we need to play like this against the lesser clubs in the league.”

After Kemp’s dunk, Boston’s Todd Day missed a layup with 15 seconds to go and Kemp was fouled on the play by Walker, his sixth. Kemp made one of his two free-throw attempts.

Eric Williams and David Wesley missed 3-point attempts for Boston in the final 10 seconds.

Kemp, coming off a one-game suspension for fighting that caused him to miss the Lakers’ game, had 22 points and Hawkins added 16. Kemp played only 25 minutes because of foul trouble.

“He had an awesome game, but he should have because he was well rested,” Hawkins said. “I’d like to see what kind of game he would have had if he hadn’t picked up all those fouls. They had no one inside to stop him.”

Fox made his first nine shots before missing his last six and finished with 21 points. Day came off the bench to add 18 points.

All four Sonics’ wins since the All-Star break have come with the return of Nate McMillan. In 18 minutes, McMillan had five points and four assists.

SuperSonics 113, Celtics 108

FG FT Reb BOSTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Walker 41 11-17 3-5 5-12 6 6 27 Williams 46 6-15 4-4 0-4 3 2 16 Szabo 13 0-0 3-4 1-4 1 1 3 Fox 43 9-15 0-0 2-4 7 5 21 Wesley 41 5-15 5-5 2-4 8 4 17 Conlan 22 2-4 2-2 1-3 1 2 6 Day 30 6-10 3-3 0-0 1 3 18 M.Hawkins 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Lister 3 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 0 0 Totals 240 39-77 20-23 12-32 27 25 108

Percentages: FG .506, FT .870.

3-Point Goals: 10-21, .476 (Fox 3-5, Day 3-6, Walker 2-3, Wesley 2-5, Williams 0-1, M.Hawkins 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 4 Blocked shots: 3 (Walker, Williams, Conlon).

Turnovers: 19 (Walker 6, Williams 5, Wesley 3, Fox 2, Szabo, Conlon, team). Steals: 11 (Wesley 4, Walker 2, Fox 2, Conlon 2, Day).

Technical fouls: None. Illegal defense: None.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 25 10-15 2-4 3-7 0 5 22 Schrempf 41 9-16 6-6 3-5 5 1 24 McIlvaine 15 0-0 0-2 1-4 0 2 0 H.Hawkins 39 5-12 6-6 0-2 7 1 16 Payton 44 10-20 4-5 0-4 10 2 26 McMillan 18 2-4 0-0 0-3 4 1 5 Perkins 30 3-3 5-5 2-5 0 4 13 Wingate 18 3-3 0-0 0-2 2 2 7 Cummings 7 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 0 Snow 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 Totals 240 42-75 23-28 10-33 29 21 113

Percentages: FG .560, FT .821.

3-Point Goals: 6-16, .375 (Perkins 2-2, Payton 2-4, Wingate 1-1, McMillan 1-3, Schrempf 0-2, H.Hawkins 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 10 Blocked shots: 7 (Kemp 3, McIlvaine 2, Perkins 2) Turnovers: 19 (Kemp 5, Payton 3, Perkins 3, H.Hawkins 2, Wingate 2, McMillan, Cummings, Snow, team). Steals: 10 (H.Hawkins 4, Kemp 2, Payton 2, McMillan, Wingate).

Technical fouls: None. Illegal defense: 1.

Boston 29 25 26 28 - 108

Seattle 27 28 27 31 - 113

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:14.