Sonics Stink, But They Win One Of Seattle’s Poorest Showings Ends Well, Gives Team Its Biggest Lead Of Season

Perhaps they did not earn it. They probably didn’t even deserve it.

But the Seattle SuperSonics certainly will take their 89-87 victory over the Phoenix Suns Sunday afternoon, played before a national television audience in KeyArena.

The Sonics won a game in which they gave up rebound after rebound and shot after shot, in which they had one of their worst shooting games of the season and in which they had to withstand a breathtaking final 9 seconds before they could walk away with their fourth consecutive win.

“Shoot, we got lucky,” swingman Hersey Hawkins said, capturing the feeling of the entire Seattle locker room.

Sometimes, though, it is better to be lucky than good, and when the Sonics wake up this morning and look at the Pacific Division standings, they will not care how they got their biggest lead of the season, only that they have it.

As Seattle, which improved to 44-13, heads out on a four-game, seven-day trip East that begins in Miami Tuesday, it holds a 4-1/2-game lead over the Los Angeles Lakers (39-17), who lost to the New York Knicks Sunday, and extended their margin over the third-place Suns (38-19) to six games.

They have not quite clinched their third straight division title and fourth in five seasons, but with 25 games left they certainly can see it gleaming brightly in the not-so-distant future.

“This was a huge win for us so far as the standings are concerned and what we are trying to do,” Nate McMillan said. “We will take this, no question about it.”

The reason the Sonics felt so fortunate to defeat the Suns, who have lost three of four, is that despite playing decent defense, limiting Phoenix to 38.6 percent shooting, the Sonics could not manage to grab a rebound.

They were beaten, 58-41, on the glass - frighteningly, only their third-worst margin of the season - and 21-14 on the offensive side. They gave up 19 second-chance points, a stat that more accurately in this game should have been called second- and third- and fourth-chance points.

Seattle allowed three Phoenix players to grab double-figure rebounds, including 13 by center John Williams, 11 by Antonio McDyess and 11 by 6-foot-8 reserve George McCloud. Point guard Jason Kidd had eight.

“Well, they weren’t shooting the ball well,” Gary Payton said. “And it was a good thing because we weren’t rebounding the ball. It was a good win for us. An ugly one - but we will take it.”

It did not get any uglier than the final sequence, when the Suns were trailing the Sonics by 89-87 after Detlef Schrempf made one of two free throws - the Sonics missed 11 of 28 overall - with 9.6 seconds left.

The Suns called a timeout, and Sonics coach George Karl said his team even knew what play Phoenix was going to run and still couldn’t stop it.

Williams had the ball at the top when Rex Chapman slipped a pick and got free in the middle. Chapman, however, missed the shot - he was five for 19 on the day - that would have tied it. But the game was far from over.

McCloud grabbed the rebound and threw it back up. Miss. McDyess couldn’t get a handle on the ball but tipped it back up to the rim. Miss. Finally, Chapman grabbed the rebound again and shot a high-arcing 8-footer that hit iron and rolled off the back side as time expired. At that point, it didn’t matter who got the rebound - although it was probably Phoenix.

“We ran it to perfection,” Chapman said of the final play. “Only it didn’t go in. We had a lot of missed opportunities. Every time we got a couple breaks we couldn’t take advantage of them.”

Payton led the Sonics with 22 points, 16 of which came in the second half. Payton also had five assists and five rebounds. In his second game back from a throat injury, Schrempf narrowly missed a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.

A game after hitting the winning shot, Vin Baker never could seem to get untracked, scoring just 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting and grabbing four rebounds. If he was not immediately double-teamed by the Suns, Williams did a nice job of defending him.

SuperSonics 89, Suns 87

FG FT Reb PHOENIX Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Scott 32 7-13 1-2 1-5 0 0 19 McDyess 36 9-17 6-9 5-11 1 5 24 J.Williams 28 2-3 1-2 6-13 1 3 5 Chapman 36 5-19 1-1 1-3 3 1 13 Kidd 45 2-13 1-2 3-8 13 3 5 Bryant 7 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 3 0 Nash 3 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Manning 18 4-7 0-0 1-5 0 2 8 Johnson 12 1-3 0-0 0-1 2 0 2 McCloud 23 4-11 0-0 4-11 1 3 11 Totals 240 34-88 10-16 21-58 21 22 87 Percentages: FG .386, FT .625.

3-Point Goals: 9-26, .346 (Scott 4-6, McCloud 3-8, Chapman 2-8, Kidd 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 11.

Blocked shots: 5 (McDyess 2, J.Williams 2, Manning).

Turnovers: 18 (Kidd 7, Scott 4, McDyess, J.Williams, Chapman, Nash, Manning, McCloud, team).

Steals: 8 (McDyess 2, Manning 2, Scott, Kidd, Johnson, McCloud).

Technical fouls: Coach Ainge, 8:04 third; J.Williams, 5:54 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Baker 34 3-10 5-6 2-4 2 4 11 Schrempf 37 5-13 2-6 2-10 8 4 13 McIlvaine 18 3-7 2-2 5-7 0 3 8 Hawkins 40 3-9 1-2 0-7 4 1 9 Payton 39 9-17 2-2 1-5 5 1 22 Ellis 30 3-6 0-0 2-2 0 0 8 Perkins 19 2-6 4-6 1-4 0 2 9 Anthony 17 2-7 1-4 0-1 1 1 7 A.Williams 5 1-2 0-0 1-1 0 0 2 Wingate 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 31-77 17-28 14-41 20 16 89 Percentages: FG .403, FT .607.

3-Point Goals: 10-25, .400 (Anthony 2-3, Ellis 2-3, Hawkins 2-7, Payton 2-7, Perkins 1-2, Schrempf 1-3).

Team Rebounds: 7.

Blocked shots: 3 (Baker 2, McIlvaine).

Turnovers: 13 (Payton 4, Baker 3, Ellis 2, Schrempf, Perkins, Anthony, team).

Steals: 10 (Schrempf 4, Hawkins, Payton, Ellis, Perkins, Anthony, A.Williams).

Technical fouls: Baker, 2:53 first; Payton, 5:54 third.

Illegal defense: None.

Phoenix 18 27 25 17 - 87

Seattle 23 23 29 14 - 89

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