Sonics Outlast Jazz For Best In The West

If this is an indication of how it is going to be, it should be fun.

In what amounted to a likely preview of the NBA Western Conference finals, the Seattle SuperSonics 3-pointed their way to a much-needed 88-86 victory over the Utah Jazz before a capacity crowd in KeyArena on Tuesday night.

“I’m proud of them,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “They earned the win in a lot of difficult situations.”

Perhaps more important, the victory handed the Sonics the lead in the race for the homecourt advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

Seattle improved its record to 54-18, while Utah fell to 53-18, giving the Sonics a half-game advantage for the best record in the West. They trail the Chicago Bulls (56-17) by 1-1/2 games for the best record in the league.

The victory also evened the season series with Utah at two games apiece, which means if the teams end the season with identical records the Sonics should win the tiebreaker because they currently have a better record against Western Conference opponents, which is the first tiebreaker. In short, the Sonics forced Utah to have an outright better record to gain home-court advantage.

But perhaps an indication that the Sonics finally are in the right frame of mind - i.e. not cocky - every one of them was quick to point out there still were 10 games left in the season, and stumbling would be easy. They begin the home stretch Thursday against Dallas, which Seattle has lost to twice this season.

“If we lost to Dallas, tonight’s win doesn’t mean a thing,” said Detlef Schrempf, who hit a huge shot in the final minutes.

Of the Sonics’ final 10 games, five are against teams with sub-.500 records. But that could actually be a curse because they own a better record against teams better than .500 than they do against the dregs.

“This doesn’t win us anything,” Karl said. “This just gives us an advantage. We have a lot of games left. You still have to play hard.”

The Soncis hit 12 of 23 3-point shots versus 2 of 10 for the Jazz.

It is a good indication of what Seattle needs to do to be successful against the Jazz, which had their five-game win streak snapped and fell to 23-3 since the All-Star break.

In Seattle’s other victory over Utah, the Sonics were 8 for 18 from behind the arc. In the losses, the Sonics combined to miss 32 of 41 3-point attempts.

And there was, probably, no bigger 3-pointer than Schrempf’s with 1:42 left in the game. The Jazz had rallied from a 71-63 fourth-quarter deficit to take an 82-80 lead on Karl Malone’s 16-footer.

Schrempf was livid and frustrated by the officials after he was whistled for his fifth foul just moments before. But all that seeped out in one instant when the Jazz left him alone near the top of the key, and he drained the bucket, allowing the Sonics to take the lead for good.

SuperSonics 88, Jazz 86

FG FT Reb UTAH Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Keefe 26 5-6 2-2 2-4 2 2 12 Malone 36 7-14 6-7 3-10 6 2 20 Foster 25 1-6 4-4 1-7 0 2 6 Hornacek 30 4-9 2-2 0-1 7 0 11 Stockton 31 2-10 5-6 0-1 5 3 9 Eisley 17 1-3 3-4 0-0 2 1 5 Russell 28 1-4 2-2 1-4 1 4 5 Morris 16 3-5 0-0 1-4 1 1 6 Anderson 24 5-9 2-4 1-4 0 0 12 Ostertag 7 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 0 Totals 240 29-66 26-31 9-37 24 16 86 Percentages: FG .439, FT .839. 3-Point Goals: 2-10, .200 (Hornacek 1-2, Russell 1-4, Stockton 0-1, Eisley 0-1, Morris 0-2). Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 5 (Anderson 2, Foster, Morris, Ostertag). Turnovers: 10 (Hornacek 3, Keefe 2, Malone 2, Stockton, Eisley, Ostertag). Steals: 7 (Keefe 2, Malone 2, Russell 2, Ostertag). Technical fouls: Malone, 11:08 2nd; Coach Sloan, 3:13 2nd. Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb

SEATTLE

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Baker 37 8-11 2-4 4-10 2 5 18 Schrempf 37 5-11 6-8 1-9 3 5 17 McIlvaine 14 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 Hawkins 27 3-5 1-1 0-1 1 4 9 Payton 40 6-19 0-0 1-5 9 4 14 Perkins 18 2-7 0-0 0-1 1 0 6 Ellis 23 1-5 4-5 0-0 3 1 7 Kersey 16 1-6 1-1 2-4 0 3 3 McMillan 17 2-4 0-0 0-1 4 3 6 Anthony 11 2-4 2-2 3-4 0 4 8 Totals 240 30-72 16-21 11-35 23 32 88 Percentages: FG .417, FT .762. 3-Point Goals: 12-23, .522 (McMillan 2-2, Anthony 2-2, Perkins 2-3, Hawkins 2-4, Payton 2-8, Ellis 1-2, Schrempf 1-2).

Team Rebounds: 10. Blocked shots: 6 (McIlvaine 2, Payton 2, Baker, Perkins). Turnovers: 14 (Payton 5, Ellis 3, Baker, Schrempf, McIlvaine, Hawkins, Kersey, McMillan). Steals: 6 (Payton 3, Schrempf, McIlvaine, McMillan).

Utah 20 19 24 23 - 86

Seattle 26 15 26 21 - 88

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:11.