Lakers Flip Switch On Sonics Power Surge Postpones Inevitable: Seattle Bows In A Barrage Of Bricks

With all the construction going on to refurbish the old Seattle Center Coliseum, it hardly seemed plausible that most of the bricks flying Saturday afternoon were inside the Tacoma Dome - courtesy of the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Sonics missed 60 of 88 shots - a franchise-record low 31.8 percent - to all but guarantee an 84-82 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday afternoon before 14,681. The loss - postponed for 22 minutes by a power surge with 4:11 remaining - evened the best-of-five opening round playoff series 1-1. Game Three moves to L.A. and the Forum at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

“You can’t win games like this when you don’t hit open shots like we had,” Sonics forward Sam Perkins said. “They played better defense, but we had the shots. We just didn’t knock them down.”

Like the last one, for example. The Sonics got one more chance to tie the game with 10.5 seconds to play when Nate McMillan stole a pass from Cedric Ceballos and called timeout. McMillan inbounded the ball to Detlef Schrempf, who passed to Gary Payton in the post. Payton kicked out to Perkins, open briefly from 3-point range. But he kicked it to McMillan for the final 3-point attempt from the left wing, which was wide open. It caromed off the rim, and time expired during the scramble for the ball.

“We set the play up for Gary to try and do something with it in the post,” McMillan said. “I was open. But when I let it go, I thought it was short.”

It was a typical Sonics attempt at victory when they’re not allowed to run and gun. Just 4-13 during the regular season when they failed to score 100 points, the 96-71 win over the Lakers on Thursday in Game One was merely an aberration due to the Lakers’ 35.4-percent shooting. This time it was the Sonics’ turn for offensive futility.

Payton, shunning the media for the third day in a row, was 7 for 19 from the field, making it 10 for 30 (33 percent) in the two games. But that’s just the start. Schrempf was 4 for 14, Perkins 4 for 15, plus Kendall Gill (1 for 8) and Vince Askew (1 for 9) joined Perkins to make the bench a collective 6 for 32 from the field.

“I can’t be unhappy with this basketball team,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “They played their butts off. There’s frustration and disappointment, and anybody who wants to be disappointed is a jerk.”

Shawn Kemp led the Sonics with 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Schrempf had 19 and Payton 16. Cedric Ceballos rebounded from a two-point effort in Game One to lead both teams with 25 points, and Vlade Divac added 17. The key to Ceballos’ superior effort was 6 for 9 from 3-point range.

“It’s not that I have a crystal ball,” Lakers coach Del Harris said. “But I knew he (Ceballos) would come back for this game. He’s a tremendous competitor, and this was just predictable.”

The Lakers appeared to have control of the game in the final 5 minutes, reeling off a 14-2 burst that gave them an 81-73 advantage at the 4:11 mark when Kemp strolled to the free-throw line.

Then the lights went out - literally. Lightning caused the power surge, and the game was delayed 22 minutes as the overhead lights in the Tacoma Dome went out.

“That’s an old trick,” Harris chuckled. “Things aren’t going so well, you turn the lights out and you never know what can happen. Sure, I worried about it. It wasn’t to our advantage to stop the game at that point.”

The Sonics scored the next six points and had a chance to tie the game with slightly more than 2 minutes remaining when Nick Van Exel stole a pass from McMillan. The next hoop came at the 1:11 mark on a 3-pointer from Ceballos. Perkins matched it to pull the Sonics within two with 1:02 left to play, but there was no offense left.

“They kept doubling us all night, and we weren’t doing a good enough job of finding the open man,” Perkins said. “And even when we did, we were missing open shots.”

The game began with the Lakers making a strong point of aggressive defense, blocking shots and pushing Kemp and Ervin Johnson off the low post. The result was poor shots for the Sonics and a lack of confidence when they did get good shots. Meanwhile, Ceballos bounced back with 14 points in the first half - including 3 for 5 from 3-point range - while Divac had 10 points and two assists to produce a 43-36 halftime lead for the Lakers.

After a nightmarish 4 for 28 from 3-point range and 35.4-percent shooting overall in Game One, the Lakers responded with 52.9-percent shooting in the first half and 5 of 11 from beyond the arc.

This time it was the Sonics who were horrid, making 14 for 50 (28 percent) from the field in the first two quarters, falling behind by 11 several times. And all that prevented a double-figure deficit for the Sonics by intermission was a four-point play by Schrempf with 2.3 seconds remaining as George Lynch fouled him while sinking a 3-pointer. It prevented the Sonics from an all-time playoff low of 10 points in a quarter.

Were it not for that inconceivable play and the 12 points and nine aggressive rebounds from Kemp, the Sonics would have been dead. Perkins (0 for 6), Gill (1 for 5) and Askew (1 for 7) were a combined 2 for 18 from the bench, further amplifying why the Sonics shot 23.1 percent in the second period.

Schrempf sank two more treys to open the third quarter to complete a 10-0 run for the Sonics, pulling them within one. The rhythm seemed to be coming. When Sam Bowie flagrantly fouled Kemp going to the basket, he sank both free throws and Payton followed with a drive from the wing to give the Sonics a 59-58 lead. It reached four at one point. But Van Exel cut it to 71-69 by the end of the quarter, and L.A. answered with a 14-2 run.

Then the lights went out on everybody. Four minutes later, the lights went out on the Sonics.

Lakers 84, SuperSonics 82

FG FT Reb LOS ANGELES Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Campbell 27 6-10 1-2 0-4 1 4 13 Ceballos 42 9-18 1-2 1-5 1 2 25 Divac 46 6-15 4-6 2-7 6 4 17 Peeler 28 4-8 0-0 0-2 5 2 10 Van Exel 48 5-10 2-2 0-3 4 4 13 Jones 26 1-4 0-0 0-3 5 1 2 Bowie 12 1-3 0-0 1-4 0 5 2 Lynch 11 0-1 2-2 0-3 0 3 2 Totals 240 32-69 10-14 4-31 22 25 84

Percentages: FG .464, FT .714.

3-Point Goals: 10-19, .526 (Ceballos 6-9, Peeler 2-4, Divac 1-1, Van Exel 1-4, Lynch 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 12.

Blocked shots: 8 (Campbell 3, Jones 2, Divac, Van Exel, Bowie).

Turnovers: 14 (Divac 5, Van Exel 4, Campbell, Ceballos, Peeler, Bowie, team).

Steals: 5 (Van Exel 4, Divac).

Technical fouls: None. Flagrant foul: Bowie, 3:32 third. Illegal defense: None.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 38 7-15 8-8 5-12 2 4 22 Schrempf 38 4-14 7-7 0-3 1 3 19 Johnson 13 1-3 2-2 3-7 0 4 4 McMillan 32 3-7 0-0 4-8 5 2 6 Payton 45 7-19 1-2 1-2 6 2 16 Perkins 35 4-15 0-0 2-8 2 2 11 Gill 19 1-7 0-0 1-2 3 2 2 Askew 20 1-8 0-0 4-5 1 1 2 Totals 240 28-88 18-19 20-47 20 20 82

Percentages: FG .318, FT .947.

3-Point Goals: 8-24, .333 (Schrempf 4-6, Perkins 3-8, Payton 1-4, Askew 0-1, McMillan 0-2, Gill 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 12.

Blocked shots: 7 (Perkins 3, Johnson 2, Kemp, Schrempf).

Turnovers: 13 (Kemp 3, Schrempf 3, McMillan 2, Gill 2, Payton, Perkins, team).

Steals: 9 (Kemp 2, Schrempf 2, McMillan 2, Askew 2, Payton).

Technical fouls: Kemp, 4:42 third; Illegal defense, 6:08 third. Illegal defense: 1.

Los Angeles 30 13 26 15 - 84

Seattle 22 14 35 11 - 82

A-14,681 (16,296). T-2:43.

Officials-Mike Mathis, Dan Crawford, Jim Clark.