Baker, Baker, He’s Our Man

Welcome to Seattle, Vin.

If SuperSonics forward felt as if he had not quite made his mark yet, he certainly did Tuesday night.

With that awkward looking jump shot that he releases on his way down, Baker swished a shot from 16 feet with three seconds remaining that sent the Sonics to a 91-90 victory over the Chicago Bulls before 17,072 delirious fans at KeyArena.

Afterward, Baker acted like a little kid, running down the court with his hands in the air, throwing a fist to the sky and jumping up and down on an invisible pogo stick.

“I don’t know if my heart can take it,” Baker said afterward, “but this is what I came here for, to beat the Bulls.”

Indeed, Baker ended an emotional night by scoring his 19th point over Luc Longley. Gary Payton started the play on the perimeter but got shut down by Michael Jordan. He passed to Hersey Hawkins, who fed it to Baker on the baseline. With the clock winding down, Baker calmly drained his shot.

“It wasn’t designed,” Baker said, “but with 3 seconds left, you are supposed to take it or take the brunt of the jokes in the locker room.”

The Bulls had one attempt left to win the game, and everybody in the arena thought the ball was going to Jordan. But Toni Kukoc, who scored a game-high 30 points, took the in-bounds pass, dribbled across the court and threw up an off-balance shot from behind the 3-point arc that was partially blocked and never made it to the rim.

“I was surprised,” Baker said. “I think everybody was surprised Michael didn’t get the ball. George (Karl) even said he was going to help out if Michael came over by the sideline.”

As for the Bulls, they said Jordan was supposed to get the ball. But Jordan was covered, so Luc Longley passed it to Kukoc. Kukoc should have called a timeout and the Bulls could have started the play again, but Kukoc’s brain froze and tried to score himself.

“It was a terrible decision on my part,” Kukoc said. “I should have called the timeout.”

The result was a whole arena in bedlam, a stark reminder of the 1995-96 NBA Finals, when these teams met. The fans even stayed after the final horn to continue cheering.

It was the Sonics’ fifth consecutive victory and improved their record to 11-3. The Bulls, who have been dealing recently with the distraction of All-Star forward Scottie Pippen demanding a trade, continue to falter, dropping to an 8-6 record, including 2-5 on the road.

Payton led Seattle with 22 points, 12 assists and six rebounds, while Baker posted 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. Detlef Schrempf had 17 points and nine rebounds.

The Bulls struggled as they have all season, with only one or two guys doing all the scoring. Jordan, predictably, scored 26, but Kukoc finally got hot and contributed 30 points, hitting 5-of-9 3-pointers. But that was 56 of the Bulls’ 90 points, with Randy Brown’s being the only other Chicago player in double figures (12).

The Sonics led the game the entire first half, limiting the Bulls to 30 percent shooting in the first quarter and 40 percent in the first half, when Seattle held a 48-39 lead.

But behind Jordan and Kukoc, the Bulls came racing back in the third quarter behind Kukoc and Jordan, taking a 66-63 lead entering the fourth period.

That’s when things got interesting - and exciting. The Sonics shot 64.7 percent, hitting 11 of 17 shots. Chicago virtually matched that, hitting 11 of 19. Each time the Bulls would pull away, the Sonics would come roaring back with a clutch 3-pointer or a fine inside move by Baker or Schrempf.

“In the fourth quarter, we had a lot of chances to go, ‘Wow, we can’t win this game,”’ Karl said. “But we kept fighting.”

Trailing 89-84 on a Jordan jumper with 1:25 left, Payton hit a 3-pointer to pull to 89-87. Jordan hit one of two free throws, and Schrempf, who was fouled by Randy Brown, pulled Seattle to one point by hitting his two foul shots.

On the Bulls’ next possession, Jordan got trapped in the corner and passed cross court to Brown. Brown threw up an air ball that Longley caught, but he laid it in after the shot clock went off, giving the Sonics the ball.

“I think it was great that Vin was kind of welcomed to Seattle by winning a big game with a big shot,” Karl said.