Sonics: 8 Minutes And Out Seattle Wastes Fast Start, Approaches Elimination

Afterward, Phoenix’s Kevin Johnson was limping, Cedric Ceballos fainted.

But it’s the Sonics who are once again on life support after the host Phoenix Suns overcome a 15-point first-quarter deficit, then dominated the fourth quarter to take a 110-103 victory over Seattle Wednesday night in Game 3 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The Suns now lead the best-of-five series 2-1 and can end Seattle’s season in Game 4 Thursday at 7:30 p.m.PST in front of what figures to be another raucous crowd of 19,023 at America West Arena.

“It’s going to be a tough two days,” said Sonics coach George Karl, whose team is on the verge of being eliminated in the first round for the third time in four years.

Karl will spend those two days trying to figure out Phoenix’s four-guard offense that turned the game into a frenetic jump-shooting battle, something for which the bigger and more veteran Sonics are ill-equipped.

Wesley Person came off the bench for 29 points while Rex Chapman had 23, Johnson 22 and Jason Kidd 10 assists and four steals.

Karl’s mood was brightened only by hearing that Johnson is doubtful for Game 4 after spraining his left ankle in the fourth quarter.

The status of Ceballos, a reserve forward who had eight rebounds as the Suns held their own on the boards with the Sonics despite often using a smaller lineup, is also uncertain after he was taken to the hospital after suffering dehydration.

But if those two can’t play, it won’t be the only change for Game 4.

Seattle reserve guard Nate McMillan, the team’s emotional leader, is probably done for the series after reinjuring his already ailing right knee. And Karl said he will probably start Sam Perkins at center Thursday night “because I believe in him.”

The Sonics need all the belief they can muster right now as they see another 57-win-season or better about to go down the drain.

“I know they believe they can win it,” Karl said. “We have to win two games in a row. We do that all the time.”

It didn’t look like the Sonics would be feeling so desperate when they jumped out to a 31-16 lead with 4:45 left in the first quarter.

Gary Payton, who finished with a career playoff-high 34 points, led the run by hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers and finished the quarter with 18 points, hitting 6-of-7 3-pointers. Payton finished with eight 3-pointers.

Seattle led 40-30 at the end of the first quarter - the most points the Sonics scored in a quarter all season - hitting 14-of-23 shots (60.9 percent). Kemp had nine points, five rebounds and two assists in picking up where he had left off after his electrifying Game 2 performance.

But Seattle’s early 3-point success might not have been all good. Phoenix coach Danny Ainge said the team’s plan was to pack in the middle and let the Sonics bomb away, which Seattle kept doing after the early success.

“It almost came back and got us,” Ainge said. “If we can get them in a jump-shooting contest, we’re happy with that.”

“If they are going to leave us open for those shots, we have to take them,” Karl said.

But Seattle made only 21 of 60 shots the final three quarters, and only 6-of-23 3-pointers.

That reliance on the jump shot allowed the Suns to start to come back.

Johnson, who was shackled in the first two games by the Sonics’ trapping defense and his own ineffectiveness, started to break loose, penetrating and often getting fouled, even if he still wasn’t making all his open shots.

Johnson hit 9-of-10 free throws in the second quarter, keying a 34-17 run that enabled Phoenix to eat up all of Seattle’s lead and take their own 50-48 with 4:33 left.

Karl, however, questioned how Johnson was able to go to the line 12 times and Payton only four.

“He gets calls for little touches, little bumps,” Karl said. “That was the only difference in his game tonight.”

The other key to the Phoenix comeback was Person, who came off the bench to score 14 points in the first half, then started the second half and never cooled down.

Still, the game was tied at 94 with 5:32 left - “we were right where we wanted to be,” Karl said.

But a Chapman 3-pointer put the Suns ahead for good at 97-94. Then consecutive offensive rebounds and putbacks for baskets by Ceballos and John Williams made it 103-96 with 2:26 left.

Phoenix had been outrebounded by the Sonics by a combined 13 in the first two games, but had the same 42 as Seattle in Game 3, including 14 offensive rebounds.

“I thought the two things that hurt us were Ceballos and Hot Rod’s offensive rebounds,” Karl said.

It was 105-99 with under two minutes left when the Sonics then seemed to again fall victim to things that seem to happen only in the playoffs.

First, Payton slipped while receiving an in-bounds pass from Detlef Schrempf, the ball going out of bounds. Then, after Seattle held the Suns scoreless, Kemp stepped out-of-bounds with no defender real close while attempting a baseline move.

“There’s no excuses, no questions, no nothing,” Kemp said. “We know what we have to do.”

Of course, they’ve known that before.

“We haven’t lost any confidence, we’re not like that,” Payton said. “We’ve been together four, five years now and we’re going to die together. I’m not giving up on nobody and nobody is giving up on me.”

Notes

Gary Payton lost his steals title to Atlanta’s Mookie Blaylock, but he got a measure of revenge Tuesday when he was named to the NBA’s all-defensive first team ahead of Blaylock.

“By far he and Mookie are the best defensive point guards in the league,” Seattle coach George Karl said of Payton, named to the alldefensive team for the fourth straight year. Blaylock was named to the second team.

Payton was joined on the first team by fellow guard Michael Jordan, forwards Scottie Pippen and Karl Malone and center Dikembe Mutombo.

Payton had another solid year in obvious defensive categories like steals (2.40 a game, third in the NBA). But Karl was just as impressed that Payton averaged a career-high 4.6 rebounds.

“That’s a big defensive play,” Karl said. “You have to finish your defensive play by getting the rebound.”

Payton was named the defensive player of the year last year, but finished second this year behind Mutombo.

Ainge playing games

Phoenix coach Danny Ainge had inferred that he might change the starting lineup for Game 3, but decided against it, going ahead with Wayman Tisdale at forward and John Williams at center.

However, each was out of the game after barely more than three minutes as the Sonics jumped out to an early 15-point lead.

Karl also had anticipated a change.

“We talked about it,” Karl said. “We played the what-would-we-do-if-we-were-them game for about a half hour and came up with six, seven things that we might do.”

Ainge had also hinted that he would use Seattle’s fourth-quarter in Game 2 as motivation, implying that the Sonics had poured it on needlessly.

But Karl protested that that’s not what happened.

The Sonics led 101-77 with 3:43 left when Seattle’s reserves went on a 21-1 run to close out the game.

“If you look at the scoreboard, it looks embarrassing,” Karl said. “But it was just a run by both benches. Our guys played hard and aggressive.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Suns 110, SuperSonics 103 FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Schrempf 39 3-10 2-2 0-8 4 4 8 Kemp 32 7-15 10-11 5-11 2 5 24 Cummings 28 4-8 2-2 5-7 3 4 10 Hawkins 44 5-15 1-1 0-2 3 3 14 Payton 46 12-24 2-4 2-9 6 2 34 McMillan 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 Graham 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 Perkins 19 1-5 1-2 0-3 2 1 3 Wingate 19 2-5 3-4 2-2 2 2 8 Totals 240 35-83 21-26 14-42 24 23 103 Percentages: FG .422, FT .808. 3-Point Goals: 12-30, .400 (Payton 8-14, Hawkins 3-7, Wingate 1-3, Kemp 0-1, Perkins 0-2, Schrempf 0-3). Team Rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 6 (Wingate 4, Cummings 2). Turnovers: 13 (Payton 6, Kemp 3, Hawkins 2, Cummings, Wingate). Steals: 8 (Hawkins 3, Wingate 2, Schrempf, Cummings, Wingate). Technical fouls: None. Illegal defense: 1. FG FT Reb PHOENIX Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Chapman 35 8-14 3-6 0-3 2 3 23 Tisdale 3 2-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 4 Williams 24 4-4 0-0 1-4 1 2 8 K.Johnson 41 6-17 10-12 3-6 8 1 22 Kidd 40 2-6 2-2 1-6 10 4 7 Bryant 4 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Manning 26 5-8 1-2 0-5 0 2 11 Person 41 8-14 7-8 3-10 1 2 29 Ceballos 25 2-9 2-2 3-8 0 3 6 Nash 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 37-79 25-32 11-42 22 18 110 Percentages: FG .468, FT .781. 3-Point Goals: 11-29, .379 (Person 6-10, Chapman 4-8, Kidd 1-2, Ceballos 0-1, Nash 0-1, K.Johnson 0-7). Team Rebounds: 11. Blocked shots: 9 (Manning 3, Person 2, Ceballos 2, Williams 2). Turnovers: 12 (Kidd 4, Chapman 2, K.Johnson 2, Manning 2, Williams, Ceballos). Steals: 9 (Kidd 4, K.Johnson 2, Chapman, Manning, Person). Technical fouls: coach Ainge, 2:33 second. Illegal defense: 1. Seattle 40 22 19 22 - 103 Phoenix 30 27 25 28 - 110 A-19,023 (19,023). T-2:12.