Sonics Pay For Oversight

Mario Elie is used to being overlooked.

At Power Memorial High in New York, the alma mater of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elie led his junior-varsity team to a 25-0 record as a sophomore, only to see a teammate named Chris Mullin get most of the credit.

Then after college, he spent five years playing overseas after being cut by the Milwaukee Bucks, which if nothing else enabled him to learn to speak Spanish, Portugese and French.

In any language, he can read scouting reports that say forget about Elie, even though he has a huge resume of playoff success, having played in the postseason every year since working his way into the NBA in 1991.

“This is my time of year,” Elie said Tuesday, a day after tying an NBA playoff record by hitting 5 of 5 3-pointers in leading Houston to a 112-102 victory over Seattle in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

“I just put on the hard hat and go to work.”

Elie’s always been a playoff player, dating back to a first-round series in 1991 when, in his first NBA start, he helped Golden State beat San Antonio by guarding Terry Cummings.

“I thought I held my own,” Elie said. “Here I am a little guy (6-foot5, compared to Cummings at 6-9) and I was holding my own, pushing him out and helping us beat them. That was a big upset for us.”

The playoffs didn’t go as well last year when Elie and the Rockets were swept by the Sonics, ending a string of two straight NBA titles.

“I get tired of hearing about their four-game sweep and that they have dominated us in the past,” Elie said. “We have dominated them this year.”

Along with his hot shooting, Elie also spent part of Game 1 guarding Gary Payton.

“Gary Payton’s a great player, but I’ve played Glen Rice, Michael Jordan and Grant Hill, so it’s just another challenge for me,” Elie said.

Minimal Mac

Much was made before Game 1 of how Jim McIlvaine might play a bigger role than he did in the Sonics’ series against Phoenix, helping guard Houston center Hakeem Olajuwon. But McIlvaine played only 3 minutes in the first half, finishing the game with 9 minutes when he played a lot of garbage time.

And Sonics coach George Karl is now backing away from statements that McIlvaine will play a major role.

“There’s still probably a need for Mac against Hakeem, but Hakeem’s footwork and quickness are his assets, not his size so much,” Karl said, adding McIlvaine would play more against bigger centers like Shaquille O’Neal and Arvydas Sabonis.

McIlvaine said he will do as told.

“It really depends on the pace of the game,” said the Sonics’ $33 million center. “If we were playing well I probably would have played more. There may be games I play 25 minutes and others where I don’t play at all.”

Making headlines

Karl, not a real fan of newspapers anyway, awoke Tuesday to see a Houston Chronicle headline that read “Karl calls Rockets too selfish to win.”

That case wasn’t really made in the story, in which Karl said the addition of Charles Barkley had made the team less selfish. It appeared to simply be a case of a misleading headline.

“It continues to sadden me that you all take my words and write what you want to write,” he said. “I only have respect for the Rockets.”

But Karl doubts that it matters much what coaches or players say this time of year.

“Over the years, I’ve felt motivation from newspapers comes from underdogs and weaker teams,” Karl said. “Solid, strong contending teams have a motivation and self pride that very little stuff is going to hurt them.”

Wingate’s fame

Sonics reserve David Wingate, the star of the Game 5 win over Phoenix with 19 points, came back to earth in Game 1 against Houston, hitting only 1 of 7 shots in 15 minutes.

And the Rockets said they weren’t too worried about Wingate repeating what he did against Phoenix.

“We are going to leave him (open),” said Rocket Eddie Johnson. “He knows that we are going to leave him. David, we are going to leave you.”