Seattle’s Tough Defense Puts Squeeze On Utah Baker Scores 28 Points As Sonics Win On Road
The Seattle SuperSonics’ defense may be the biggest reason why they have one of the NBA’s best offenses.
The Sonics forced 21 turnovers and survived a fourth-quarter Jazz comeback to defeat Utah 101-93 on Wednesday night.
“They forced us to turn the ball over, and then they capitalized on the other end,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “There were whole stretches of the game when we couldn’t get the shot we wanted.”
The loss snapped Utah’s seven-game home winning streak and was Utah’s fourth home loss this season.
Vin Baker had 28 points, including 20 in the first half, and 10 rebounds for the Sonics. Karl Malone led Utah with 27 points and 15 rebounds.
Seattle scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to take a 91-73 lead with 9:45 to play, but the Jazz stormed back with a 14-0 run in less than four minutes. Bryon Russell’s 3-pointer cut the Sonics’ lead to 91-87 with 5:12 left.
Seattle’s defense shone when it counted most. The Sonics led 97-93 with 1:24 to play when they forced the Jazz to commit a shot-clock violation. Baker and Gary Payton then made consecutive jumpers to seal the win.
“That was our defense stepping up,” Baker said. “That was what we talked about today - letting our defense create our offense.”
Seattle also got quality minutes from backup point guard Greg Anthony when Payton picked up his fourth foul early in the second quarter. Anthony tied his season high with 10 points and added six assists in 19 minutes.
“A lot of this win belongs to Greg Anthony,” Seattle coach George Karl said. “Those were huge minutes for us.”
In his first game since being left off the Western Conference All-Star team, Utah’s John Stockton had 14 points and 14 assists.
Notes
Hersey Hawkins started his 423rd consecutive game for Seattle. He holds the NBA’s secondlongest streak of consecutive starts behind Malone, who started his 509th straight game… . Utah is just 4-9 against the Pacific Division.
SuperSonics 101, Jazz 93
FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Schrempf 39 7-12 2-2 1-4 2 3 19
Baker 41 10-22 8-11 6-10 2 4 28
McIlvaine 13 0-2 0-0 1-3 1 5 0
Hawkins 33 4-12 0-0 1-3 2 1 9
Payton 29 4-9 2-2 0-0 6 5 10
Perkins 25 3-8 0-0 0-4 1 3 8
Ellis 29 4-9 3-4 0-1 3 0 12
Anthony 19 4-5 1-1 0-3 6 2 10
Kersey 11 2-3 1-2 0-2 1 1 5
Wingate 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 240 38-82 17-22 9-30 24 25 101
Percentages: FG .463, FT .773.
3-Point Goals: 8-18, .444 (Schrempf 3-3, Perkins 2-6, Anthony 1-1, Ellis 1-2, Hawkins 1-3, Payton 0-3).
Team Rebounds: 7.
Blocked shots: 5 (Baker 2, McIlvaine, Hawkins, Kersey).
Turnovers: 10 (Payton 4, Anthony 2, Schrempf, Baker, Perkins, Ellis).
Steals: 11 (Hawkins 4, Payton 3, Perkins 2, Schrempf, McIlvaine).
Technical fouls: Baker, 4:25 second; Schrempf, 3:32 fourth.
Illegal defense: 1.
FG FT Reb UTAH Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Keefe 27 3-6 0-0 4-6 2 0 6
Malone 42 10-18 7-7 1-15 4 5 27
Ostertag 27 2-6 2-2 1-5 0 3 6
Hornacek 33 5-10 4-4 0-5 4 1 14
Stockton 37 7-14 0-0 0-2 14 3 14
Eisley 11 1-1 1-2 0-2 2 3 4
Foster 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
Anderson 18 4-6 4-6 1-2 0 3 12
Russell 28 2-5 1-2 2-4 3 3 6
Carr 11 1-3 0-0 0-2 0 2 2
Vaughn 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 240 36-70 19-23 9-43 29 24 93
Percentages: FG .514, FT .826.
3-Point Goals: 2-8, .250 (Eisley 1-1, Russell 1-3, Hornacek 0-2, Stockton 0-2).
Team Rebounds: 7.
Blocked shots: 3 (Ostertag 2, Keefe).
Turnovers: 21 (Malone 5, Hornacek 4, Stockton 4, Ostertag 3, Russell 2, Foster, Eisley, Keefe).
Steals: 5 (Keefe 2, Stockton, Malone, Anderson).
Technical fouls: Carr, 3:32 fourth; illegal defense, 2:30 third.
Illegal defense: 1.
Seattle 31 28 25 17 - 101
Utah 32 19 22 20 - 93
A-19,911 (19,911). T-2:01.