One More For The Road Sonics Force Series Back To Houston For Game 7

The surliness didn’t end when the game did.

And it probably won’t until sometime Saturday afternoon when this series that players and coaches have been calling a war, and that has finally turned into one, ends.

In a raucous and rowdy KeyArena, the Seattle SuperSonics were dominant early then hung on late to beat the Houston Rockets 99-96 in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals and force a winnertake-all Game 7 at noon Saturday at The Summit in Houston.

“We are going to win Saturday, that’s all I have to say,” said Houston’s Charles Barkley in the only comment he made during a formal press conference.

It was a performance that seemed designed to set a tone for Saturday when Seattle will attempt to become only the sixth team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win a seven-game series.

Seattle coach George Karl, however, had beaten Barkley to the proverbial punch when he took to the same podium moments earlier and blasted Houston forward Kevin Willis for Willis’ rough play in the second half.

Willis, in fact, goaded Seattle forward Shawn Kemp into throwing a punch that missed late in the third quarter, and that went unseen by any of the three officials on the floor.

Throwing a punch can be grounds for immediate ejection and suspension from the next game, but since Kemp wasn’t punished on the spot, it is unclear if any action will be taken.

Kemp and Karl didn’t seem worried about that afterward, however, with Karl saving his venom for Willis, a 13-year veteran who has long had a reputation as a dirty player.

“It’s going to be an extremely physical basketball game on Saturday,” Karl said. “I’m shocked that Kevin Willis. … all he did was try to create a fight and disrupt the basketball game with his elbows. He used to be a good basketball player but all he’s done now is turned into a dirty SOB on the court.

“To let him do what he did in the game and what he’s done in the series isn’t basketball, and it’s dirty and disgusting to me. These are two teams that have had a very good series and a lot of respect and to let him make it dirty turns me off a great deal.”

Replied Willis: “I’ve been in this league a long time and I don’t need to play dirty. Elbows are just a part of the game. It’s not dirty. I’m just working hard out there to get position.”

Said Kemp: “Ain’t nothing between me and Kevin Willis. We really don’t have any words for each other. That’s just how he plays.”

Willis’ antics seemed to work in disrupting the Sonics, as the Rockets rallied from an 80-61 deficit early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 95-93 with 31 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Clyde Drexler.

But then Seattle’s Gary Payton dribbled away most of the 24-second shot clock before driving into the lane and hitting a left-handed spinning layin that rolled in with 12.1 seconds.

“I couldn’t believe we could get that tired and tentative,” Karl said of a fourth quarter in which the Sonics made only 4 of 13 shots and went 6:57 before Payton’s layin without a field goal. Hakeem Olajuwon led the late Houston rally by scoring 16 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter.

But Seattle, now 7-1 in must-win playoff games the past two years and 4-0 this year, had enough of a lead to withstand the late charge.

“We were aggressive and ready to go,” said Seattle center Sam Perkins. “Mentally we were in the right frame of mind. We heard they were practicing for Utah and all of that played a part in it. We weren’t going to go down without a fight.”

SuperSonics 99, Rockets 96 FG FT Reb HOUSTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Barkley 39 7-17 5-7 4-12 5 4 20 Elie 41 7-9 2-3 3-3 3 6 18 Olajuwon 41 12-21 6-7 3-11 1 5 30 Drexler 43 3-14 2-2 3-9 6 2 9 Maloney 27 1-5 1-2 1-1 2 1 4 Threatt 23 2-5 2-2 0-1 3 4 7 Willis 16 2-7 4-4 2-3 1 4 8 Johnson 10 0-3 0-0 2-4 0 0 0 Totals 240 34-81 22-27 18-44 21 26 96 Percentages: FG .420, FT .815.

3-Point Goals: 6-23, .261 (Elie 2-3, Threatt 1-2, Barkley 1-3, Maloney 1-4, Drexler 1-8, Olajuwon 0-1, Johnson 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 13.

Blocked shots: 5 (Olajuwon 4, Willis).

Turnovers: 21 (Barkley 4, Olajuwon 4, Maloney 3, Willis 3, Elie 2, Drexler 2, Threatt 2, Johnson).

Steals: 7 (Barkley 2, Elie, Olajuwon, Drexler, Maloney, Willis).

Technical fouls: Barkley, 3:51 second; Drexler, 2:42 second; Olajuwon, 4:59 third; Willis, :03 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 39 6-14 10-14 6-11 3 3 22 Schrempf 40 5-12 4-4 1-4 2 3 14 Perkins 33 2-5 0-0 0-4 0 2 6 Hawkins 39 4-10 7-8 0-2 4 1 16 Payton 43 7-16 4-5 2-8 13 2 19 Cummings 23 6-13 2-2 3-5 0 6 14 Wingate 15 3-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 6 Snow 7 1-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 2 Stewart 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Totals 240 34-76 27-33 12-35 23 19 99 Percentages: FG .447, FT .818.

3-Point Goals: 4-12, .333 (Perkins 2-2, Payton 1-4, Hawkins 1-5, Kemp 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 8.

Blocked shots: 4 (Kemp 2, Perkins 2).

Turnovers: 13 (Kemp 4, Payton 3, Hawkins 2, Wingate 2, Perkins, Cummings).

Steals: 12 (Payton 5, Snow 2, Kemp, Schrempf, Perkins, Hawkins, Cummings).

Technical fouls: Payton, 2:42 second; illegal defense, 8:03 third; illegal defense, 1:13 third; illegal defense 1:07 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

Houston 13 24 24 35 - 96

Seattle 30 21 27 21 - 99

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:26.