Hawkins Nails Down Sonics Win

Kenny Anderson was watching Gary Payton and forgot about Hersey Hawkins.

Hawkins beat Anderson for a backdoor layup with 2.8 seconds left to give Seattle its ninth consecutive victory, 98-97 over Portland on Wednesday night.

“Anderson turned his back, Gary made a great pass and I had the easy part,” Hawkins said of the winning play.

The Sonics, who lead the Los Angeles Lakers by one game in the Pacific Division, won for the first time in 11 games this season when they trailed after three quarters.

“It was a great win for us because we haven’t been able to come back from a deficit,” coach George Karl said.

The Sonics won despite career-high scoring nights by Portland’s Gary Trent (24) and rookie Jermaine O’Neal (20).

“Jermaine played exceptional,” Blazers coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “He defended two of the better forwards in the league (Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp). That’s hard for anyone, let alone an 18-year-old kid.”

“This one makes me mad,” Trent said. “We must have had jelly on our fingertips the way we let this one slip away.”

Schrempf scored 26 points for Seattle. Kemp had 23 points and 14 rebounds, and Payton added 20.

The Sonics trailed 97-96 after O’Neal dunked a miss by Anderson with 8.6 seconds left. But Hawkins followed with the winner.

Payton’s assist was his 12th of the night. He also had six steals.

SuperSonics 98, Trail Blazers 97

FG FT Reb PORTLAND Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Robinson 35 5-11 5-6 1-2 2 5 17 Trent 32 9-11 6-6 3-7 2 5 24 Sabonis 25 5-10 2-2 1-5 2 2 12 Anderson 43 2-10 1-1 1-5 10 2 5 Rider 43 6-16 0-2 0-6 4 4 13 Dudley 18 0-1 0-2 1-2 0 4 0 Wingfield 8 1-1 2-2 0-0 0 2 4 O’Neal 25 8-10 4-4 2-6 0 4 20 Brown 4 1-2 0-0 0-2 1 2 2 McKie 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 37-72 20-25 9-35 21 30 97

Percentages: FG .514, FT .800.

3-Point Goals: 3-12, .250 (Robinson 2-4, Rider 1-4, Brown 0-1, Anderson 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 11.

Blocked shots: 6 (Trent 2, O’Neal 2, Robinson, Sabonis).

Turnovers: 23 (Rider 5, Anderson 4, Sabonis 4, Robinson 2, Brown 2, Trent, Dudley, Wingfield, O’Neal, McKie, team).

Steals: 9 (Anderson 2, Wingfield 2, Robinson, Trent, Sabonis, Rider, McKie).

Technical foul: Illegal defense, 10:58 fourth.

Flagrant foul: Trent, 7:45 third.

Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Kemp 38 8-17 7-11 4-14 1 3 23 Schrempf 40 8-11 8-9 0-3 4 3 26 McIlvaine 15 1-4 0-0 1-3 0 2 2 Hawkins 32 4-8 6-7 1-1 5 0 15 Payton 44 7-14 3-4 0-0 12 1 20 Perkins 32 2-10 3-3 0-2 1 3 9 Stewart 11 0-3 0-0 1-2 0 2 0 Snow 8 0-3 1-2 0-0 1 2 1 Cummings 8 1-4 0-0 2-3 0 3 2 Wingate 12 0-1 0-0 1-1 1 3 0 Totals 240 31-75 28-36 10-29 25 22 98

Percentages: FG .413, FT .778.

3-Point Goals: 8-23, .348 (Payton 3-6, Schrempf 2-3, Perkins 2-9, Hawkins 1-4, Kemp 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 17.

Blocked shots: 2 (McIlvaine, Perkins).

Turnovers: 16 (Kemp 4, Schrempf 4, Payton 3, Perkins 3, Cummings, Wingate).

Steals: 16 (Payton 6, McIlvaine 3, Hawkins 2, Wingate 2, Schrempf, Snow, Cummings).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: 1.

Portland 23 28 26 20 - 97

Seattle 29 21 25 23 - 98

A-17,072 (17,072). T-2:27.

Officials-Ron Garretson, Ted Bernhardt, Scott Wall.