Sonics Fall In Pacific Showdown Lakers Drop Seattle To 0-6 Against West’s Top Three Teams

Hersey Hawkins’ head dropped after his 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim as time ran out Sunday, allowing the Los Angeles Lakers to leave town with a 104-103 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics in a showdown of Pacific Division leaders at KeyArena.

He was obviously downcast over missing the shot, but he might also have been fretting in anticipation of what was about to come - more questions about why the Sonics are having so much trouble beating the best teams in the West.

Sunday’s loss left the Sonics 0-6 against the other three teams acknowledged as the best in the Western Conference - the Lakers, Houston and Utah - with a loss at home and on the road to each. Sunday’s loss also dropped the Sonics back into second place in the Pacific Division at 30-13 while the Lakers improved to 31-12.

“I think the public and everybody else is always going to make a bigger deal out of things than they actually are,” Hawkins said. “We have 40 games to play and we will play those guys six more times. That will be our opportunity to beat them. Right now, they’ve got the best of us.”

Coach George Karl was hardly concerned after the defeat.

“There hasn’t been a game against the top teams that has me worried because they have all been close (nine points or less),” Karl said. “Sure, it’s a statistic that (the media) is going to abuse and throw at us and we are going to have to have a tough skin about it.

“But all I’m saying is that this basketball team is in fine shape.”

That was basically the party line afterward, that these losses aren’t much to worry about, that last year’s run to the NBA Finals taught this team how to win in the playoffs, and that it will be ready when April comes.

“These were six giveaway games,” said Gary Payton, whose stellar play led a second-half comeback that saw the Sonics take the lead in the fourth quarter after trailing by 21 in the second.

“(Other teams) are just taking it more serious than we are… . We don’t come prepared most of the time… . We are going out there … and it’s not happening. We are not rebounding the ball and doing the things we are supposed to do.”

That was stunningly apparent in the first half Sunday as the Sonics came out playing with cement feet despite the specter of a high-visibility matchup with the Lakers on national TV on Super Bowl Sunday.

None of that was enough to prevent the Sonics from falling behind, 32-22, at the end of the first quarter, shooting only 7 of 22 (31.8 percent) and then getting blistered early in the second quarter before rallying at the end to trail 62-51 at halftime.

The Lakers shot 13 of 18 (72 percent) in the second quarter, and were four of eight from the 3-point line, including a 26-footer by Robert Horry - who started in place of Jerome Kersey - that made it 51-30 with 6:10 left in the first half.

“It was a big game and we looked slow out there,” forward Detlef Schrempf said. “We hurt ourselves by rushing too many things on offense, and defensively, we had no rotations and they were hitting 3s and getting offensive rebounds.”

The Sonics have had a greater percentage of points scored against them from the 3-point line (23) than any other team in the NBA, something the team is always susceptible to because of its trademark trapping, double-teaming defense.

“Sometimes we don’t rotate and sometimes we are there and we let them shoot it anyway,” said Karl. “There were 4-5 times today where we were standing right there covering the guy and we didn’t even put our hand up.”

Taking the most advantage Sunday were Lakers guards Eddie Jones (25 points and four 3-pointers) and Nick Van Exel (23 points and four 3’s) who complemented the expected production of Shaquille O’Neal (22 points, 11 rebounds) inside.

Seattle took the lead on four separate occasions in the fourth quarter, although never by more than two points.

Lakers 104 SuperSonics 103

FG FT Reb L.A. LAKERS Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Campbell 13 1-2 0-0 0-5 2 4 2 Horry 32 5-11 0-0 2-4 2 3 12 O’Neal 39 9-19 4-8 4-11 3 2 22 Jones 39 6-14 7-8 1-4 5 4 23 Van Exel 41 10-21 1-1 3-6 6 3 25 Knight 34 3-5 0-1 3-8 0 5 6 Kersey 12 1-3 0-2 1-4 4 2 2 Fisher 7 1-3 0-0 0-1 0 0 3 Bryant 17 3-6 0-0 1-1 1 0 7 Rooks 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 Scott 4 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 1 0 Totals 240 40-86 12-20 15-45 24 26 104 Percentages: FG .465, FT .600.

3-Point Goals: 12-30, .400 (Jones 4-7, Van Exel 4-12, Horry 2-6, Fisher 1-1, Bryant 1-1, Scott 0-1, Kersey 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 13.

Blocked shots: 8 (Campbell 2, Horry 2, O’Neal 2, Knight, Kersey).

Turnovers: 14 (Van Exel 3, Jones 3, Bryant 3, Horry, O’Neal, Knight, Fisher, team).

Steals: 5 (Jones 3, O’Neal, Bryant).

Technical fouls: Van Exel, 3:07 second; illegal defense, :23.9 second; illegal defense 5:32 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 32 4-13 7-8 6-13 2 6 15 Schrempf 40 6-12 6-8 2-7 3 3 18 McIlvaine 20 1-3 0-0 2-5 0 1 2 Hawkins 35 3-9 6-7 0-2 2 1 13 Payton 45 8-17 8-8 0-2 7 2 25 Perkins 26 4-10 1-2 0-2 3 3 11 Stewart 3 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Cummings 18 5-9 0-0 0-1 1 3 11 Wingate 11 2-2 3-4 0-1 1 1 8 Snow 10 0-0 0-0 0-2 5 1 0 Totals 240 33-77 31-37 10-35 24 21 103 Percentages: FG .429, FT .838.

3-Point Goals: 6-15, .400 (Perkins 2-5, Cummings 1-1, Wingate 1-1, Payton 1-3, Hawkins 1-4, Kemp 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 11.

Blocked shots: 7 (McIlvaine 2, Perkins 2, Kemp, Payton, Stewart).

Turnovers: 7 (Perkins 2, Cummings, Kemp, Schrempf, McIlvaine, Hawkins).

Steals: 10 (Payton 4, Hawkins 2, Cummings 2, McIlvaine, Snow).

Technical foul: Schrempf, 7:27 third.

Illegal defense: None.

L.A. Lakers 32 30 21 21 - 104

Seattle 22 29 29 23 - 103

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:36.