Sonics Know Failure - That’s Why They Have A Chance

There’s no team that knows failure like the Seattle SuperSonics.

And if Wednesday’s 107-90 defeat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals was no abject failure for Seattle, it was a disappointment because the Sonics knew they had a chance to win this opener.

They stayed with the Bulls through three quarters as Detlef Schrempf put up 11 third-quarter points to go with the 30 from Shawn Kemp entering the final 12 minutes.

But the Bulls’ bench strength showed in the fourth quarter after Schrempf had taken advantage of Toni Kukoc in the third quarter, Kukoc came back to victimize Schrempf in the fourth, scoring 10 straight points for the Bulls.

But coming back will be nothing new for the SuperSonics.

Coming into the franchise’s first NBA Finals in 17 years as perhaps the biggest underdogs in Finals history hardly worried Seattle.

“We could be winning a game by 30 on the road,” Detlef Schrempf said. “And there’d be some guy behind the bench yelling, ‘This don’t mean nothing. You’re gonna lose in the first round anyway.’ “We’ve been hearing that the last two years,” said Schrempf about the Sonics’ first-round upset losses to the Denver Nuggets in 1994 and Los Angeles Lakers last season.

“We finally win the first round this year, and everyone says Houston is going to kick our butt,” Schrempf said. “And then it’s Utah and they say Utah is too smart for us. And we get up 3-1 and we lose two and it’s ‘Here we go again.’ People have always doubted us.

“We’re used to it.”

But what neither the Bulls, nor anyone else expected was to see Schrempf, the 6-10 Scottie Pippenlike forward, opening the game guarding Michael Jordan.

There had been much speculation about whom the Sonics would sacrifice against Jordan, and it was expected to be Hersey Hawkins or Gary Payton. But Sonics coach George Karl is from the Don Nelson school of defense, daring other teams to change their strategy by challenging them with unusual matchups.

“You have to show Jordan a lot of different faces,” said Sonics assistant Bob Weiss.

Seattle continued to do that, giving Jordan a look at Vincent Askew in the second quarter as the Sonics tried to make their work in the first half: Make Jordan give up the ball and let Ron Harper and Luc Longley beat you.

Those two combined for the first 12 Bulls points as Seattle double-teamed off both while using defensive specialist Payton on the much taller Pippen.

Pippen, who is not a great post-up player and usually stays outside to direct the Bulls offense, was unable to take advantage as he shot 2 of 8 in the first half, the Bulls hitting just 36.4 percent of their shots in the opening two quarters.

The talk was of a sweep, and few predicted the Sonics could win two games of the possible seven.

But the Sonics have been through this before. Unlike the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals, they played the Bulls hard and without fear.

Seattle rallied from 11 behind early in the third quarter to head into the fourth trailing 79-77.

“I’ve been waiting for this chance a long time, said Schrempf, who led the Sonics back. “We know we can beat this team. They are similar to us in the way they play defense. We just need to go out and stay together and play hard. When we do those things, we have a good chance to win games.”