Ho, Hum: Sonics Shred Celtics Seattle Improves On Best Record In Nba With Hardly Any Trouble

Another day, little bother.

The Seattle SuperSonics cruised along their merry way Friday, shredding the Boston Celtics’ vaunted pressure defense and easing their way to a 111-92 victory at FleetCenter.

“We’re in a rhythm right now. A lot of guys got a lot of confidence, confidence in each other,” Gary Payton said. “We are playing well. We can go in any building, we can go anywhere, and we feel if we play half decent, or a little bit above, even half well, we can beat anybody.”

Perhaps the catalyst of the victory was Seattle’s blowout of Cleveland Thursday. Had that game gone to the wire, it may have been some effort to come out against the type of fullcourt pressure Rick Pitino has the young lads from Beantown playing.

But by building a 36-point lead against the Cavaliers, Sonics coach George Karl was able to rest his starters for the final quarter in preparation for Friday’s game.

“Having fresh legs made a big difference,” Vin Baker said, “especially in a game like this. This was a high-energy game.”

The Sonics picked up right where they left off against Cleveland, dominating a team that so badly wanted to measure itself against the best team in the league.

Instead, the Sonics showed the Celtics just how far they need to come, showing little difficulty with Boston’s defense and building a 29-point lead.

“There’s not much to say,” Pitino said. “We watched them and we aspire someday to play like they play.”

In fact, the Sonics worked so breathlessly through Boston’s press they often were left with easy, and sometimes uncontested, layups. Of their 111 points, 60 came in the paint.

Much of it was because the Sonics have such good passers. That’s the reason they are able to find the open 3-point shooters, and that is the reason they were able to weave through Boston’s defense.

“I don’t want to say it was easy,” Hersey Hawkins said. “I’ll just say we have good passers, and … confidence in each other that the guy with the ball will find the open man. And we trust that when we find the open man he’ll make the right decisions.

“It’s fun. I think any time you are winning, and you are going out and winning by big numbers, it’s fun.”

Vin Baker was the recipient of most of the Celtics’ charitable rotations, pouring in 22 points to go along with seven rebounds. Gary Payton, after a slow offensive beginning, ended with 18 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals. And Dale Ellis had 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and also grabbed six rebounds.

And once again, Karl got to rest his starters in the waning minutes, keeping them fresh for the remainder of this four-game road trip, on which the Sonics have started 2-0. After an off day today, the Sonics face New York on Sunday before concluding the road trip in Chicago.

The victory was the Sonics’ eighth straight, their best streak of the season. It improved their record to a league-best 29-6. It also gave the Sonics a league-best 15-4 mark on the road, where they have won eight straight as well.

And in the last four games and 14 of the last 15, the Sonics scored more than 100 points, keeping them second in the league in scoring (102 a game) behind the Los Angeles Lakers.

Travis Knight led the Celtics with 21 points, but overall they shot 42 percent - Antonine Walker had just 14 points on 6-for-17 sooting - and committed 17 costly turnovers.

“We’re not 29-6 for nothing,” Payton said.

SuperSonics 111, Celtics 92

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Schrempf 28 5-10 1-1 1-7 8 2 11 Baker 29 7-10 8-13 2-5 2 0 22 McIlvaine 12 3-3 1-3 1-4 0 1 7 Payton 37 5-10 7-9 0-4 5 2 18 Hawkins 27 2-4 5-7 1-4 2 1 10 Ellis 27 8-10 2-4 0-6 0 0 19 Anthony 24 1-3 3-4 0-1 7 2 5 Perkins 23 2-4 0-0 0-2 3 2 5 Williams 19 4-6 1-2 0-1 0 2 9 Wingate 6 0-1 1-2 1-4 0 0 1 Snow 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 Howard 3 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 Totals 240 39-64 29-45 6-38 27 13 111 Percentages: FG .609, FT .644.

3-Point Goals: 4-10, .400 (Payton 1-2, Hawkins 1-2, Ellis 1-2, Perkins 1-3, Anthony 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 18. Blocked shots: 5 (McIlvaine 4, Hawkins).

Turnovers: 19 (Payton 4, Hawkins 3, Ellis 2, Anthony 2, Baker 2, Williams 2, Schrempf, Perkins, Wingate, Howard).

Steals: 9 (Payton 3, Anthony 2, Baker 2, Hawkins, Ellis).

Technical fouls: Payton 8:51, second.

Illegal defense: None.

FG FT Reb BOSTON Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts McCarty 22 3-11 0-0 0-1 2 5 7 Walker 31 6-17 1-2 3-9 3 2 14 DeClercq 4 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 3 0 Billups 26 1-10 1-1 1-1 7 2 4 Mercer 32 7-14 0-0 0-2 1 2 14 Knight 31 10-16 0-0 3-10 1 4 21 Thomas 20 4-4 0-0 0-0 2 3 8 Barros 24 5-8 0-0 0-2 1 1 14 Bowen 29 4-10 2-2 4-5 2 4 10 Brown 18 0-3 0-0 1-2 5 3 0 Rogers 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Totals 240 40-94 4-5 12-33 24 30 92 Percentages: FG .426, FT .800.

3-Point Goals: 8-20, .400 (Barros 4-4, McCarty 1-2, Knight 1-3, Walker 1-4, Billups 1-5, Brown 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 0 Turnovers: 16 (Mercer 4, Bowen 3, Brown 3, Barros 2, McCarty, Walker, DeClercq, Knight).

Steals: 12 (Mercer 2, Thomas 2, Brown 2, Walker, DeClercq, Billups, Knight, Barros, Rogers).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: None.

Seattle 33 31 25 22 - 111

Boston 24 20 22 26 - 92

A-18,624. (18,624). T-1:58.