Sonics Stop Lakers At Pass Defense, Kemp Make Difference As Seattle Shells Los Angeles 96-71

The Seattle SuperSonics couldn’t stop Nick Van Exel. They stopped all the other Los Angeles Lakers, though.

Despite a 29-point performance by Van Exel, the Sonics won the opener of their first-round NBA playoff series with a 96-71 victory Thursday night.

“When he’s aggressive, he’s slippery,” Sonics coach George Karl said of Van Exel. “My biggest disappointment was we sent him to the foul line so much.”

The Lakers, who had a team-record-low point total, missed 24 of 28 3-point shots. Vlade Divac was Van Exel’s only teammate in double figures with 11 points.

“When they don’t shoot it from outside, they’re a lot easier to defend,” Karl said.

Disappointing first-round losers last season to the Denver Nuggets, the Sonics got 21 points from Shawn Kemp, 20 from Detlef Schrempf and 17 from Kendall Gill.

The Sonics figure they have a lot to prove in the playoffs after their shocking loss in the opening round last season.

“We won the first two games last year and that got us nothing. This is only a first step,” Gill said.

Van Exel, who scored 40 points in one of the Lakers’ four regular-season victories in five games against the Sonics this season, outscored Gary Payton, Seattle’s AllStar guard and leading regular-season scorer, 29-8.

But Cedric Ceballos, who averaged 21.7 points for the Lakers during the season, was held to two points. The Sonics’ defense keyed at stopping Ceballos.

“We tried not to give him any sneak layups or garbage points on transition,” Schrempf said.

Van Exel wasn’t gloating.

“I’d trade my 29 points for eight points and a win any time,” Van Exel said. “We’re upset. We’re going to come out Saturday with a vengeance.”

Kemp had five dunks, three in the final quarter when the Sonics broke the game open. In the first 5 1/2 minutes of the fourth period, the Sonics expanded a 68-57 lead to 81-62 as Kemp made two dunks.

Until Tony Smith’s 3-pointer for the Lakers with 5:37 to go, the only Los Angeles baskets in the fourth quarter were scored by Divac on goaltending calls against Kemp.

“We started off slowly and tapered off from there,” Lakers coach Del Harris said, noting his team scored 22, 20, 15 and 14 points in each quarter.

Van Exel kept the game close most of the way.

After the Lakers point guard hit a 3-pointer to cut Seattle’s lead to 58-55 with 4:57 left in the third quarter, the Sonics outscored the Lakers 10-2 for an 11-point lead going into the final period.

Kemp capped the run with a twohanded dunk with 10.5 seconds left in the third quarter.

SuperSonics 96, Lakers 71

FG FT Reb LOS ANGELES Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Campbell 27 4-11 1-2 4-6 1 4 9 Ceballos 25 1-10 0-0 2-5 1 2 2 Divac 31 5-9 1-1 3-6 2 4 11 Peeler 25 4-11 0-0 1-3 2 5 9 Van Exel 39 9-17 9-13 1-4 1 1 29 Jones 27 1-6 0-0 1-2 1 3 2 Bowie 25 1-5 0-0 0-2 2 3 2 Threatt 11 1-4 0-0 0-0 2 2 2 Lynch 8 1-1 0-0 1-3 0 0 2 Harvey 2 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 Miller 10 0-0 0-0 1-4 1 2 0 Smith 10 1-5 0-2 0-0 0 1 3 Totals 240 28-79 11-18 14-36 13 27 71

Percentages: FG .354, FT .611.

3-Point Goals: 4-28, .143 (Van Exel 2-9, Smith 1-4, Peeler 1-4, Threatt 0-2, Ceballos 0-4, Jones 0-5).

Team Rebounds: 10. Blocked shots: 4 (Campbell, Divac, Jones, Bowie). Turnovers: 22 (Ceballos 5, Divac 4, Van Exel 2, Jones 2, Lynch 2, Smith 2, Miller, Peeler, Campbell, team 2). Steals: 10 (Van Exel 4, Ceballos, Divac, Peeler, Threatt, Lynch, Miller).

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 34 9-12 3-6 3-7 3 4 21 Schrempf 35 6-13 6-9 0-4 1 2 20 Johnson 23 2-5 2-2 2-5 0 3 6 McMillan 30 2-5 2-2 1-6 8 3 6 Payton 37 3-11 1-1 2-3 6 2 8 Gill 25 6-10 4-4 0-2 4 2 17 Perkins 33 3-7 2-2 0-7 4 2 10 Askew 21 2-6 2-2 2-3 2 3 6 Scheffler 1 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Houston 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 34-71 22-28 10-38 28 21 96

Percentages: FG .479, FT .786.

3-Point Goals: 6-17, .353 (Schrempf 2-4, Perkins 2-6, Gill 1-2, Payton 1-3, McMillan 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 17. Blocked shots: 6 (Kemp 2, Schrempf, Johnson, McMillan, Perkins).

Turnovers: 19 (Kemp 5, Schrempf 4, Perkins 3, McMillan 2, Payton 2, Johnson, Gill, Askew). Steals: 13 (McMillan 5, Kemp 2, Gill 2, Johnson, Payton, Perkins, Askew).

Technical foul: Illegal defense, 5:44 second. Illegal defense: 1.

Los Angeles 22 20 15 14 - 71

Seattle 29 21 18 28 - 96

A-14,073 (16,296). T-2:17.

Officials-Jess Kersey, Ron Garretson, Ed Middleton.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NBA PLAYOFFS Thursday’s games New York 103, Cleveland 79 Indiana 90, Atlanta 82 Utah 102, Houston 100 Seattle 96, L.A. Lakers 71

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