Sonics Getting Spanked On Boards Lack Of Intensity In Rebounding Cited As Reason For Struggles

Basketball coaches from the grade-school level on up will agree that rebounding mostly is effort and desire, given a relative equality in height.

“It’s just boxing your man out,” said Seattle center Sam Perkins.

And it’s something the SuperSonics haven’t been doing of late.

The Sonics have been outrebounded in their last four games by an average of 7.25 a contest, capped by the Los Angeles Lakers posting a 45-35 edge on the boards Sunday in their 104-103 victory in KeyArena.

After having more total rebounds than their opponents most of the season, the Sonics now are getting outboarded for the season by 21. And of the 13 team statistical categories in the NBA, rebounding is the one where the Sonics rank the worst. They are 23rd in rebounds per game and offensive rebounds per game, and 18th in defensive rebounds per game.

“It’s something I am concerned about and something that mentally you can emphasize,” said Sonics coach George Karl, who said much of practice Monday was spent on rebounding. “Other teams look like they are making (rebounding) a part of their game plan against us, and they are really pounding us and pushing us, and we have not rebounded well.”

Guard Gary Payton said after the loss to the Lakers he thinks the lack of rebounding is the team’s biggest problem right now, mainly because fewer rebounds lead to fewer fastbreak attempts.

“We have to focus on rebounding,” Payton said. “That’s what is killing us right now. We are getting outrebounded every night. If we rebound the ball and get it out and run, we get easy baskets all the time.”

The game against the Lakers might have been Exhibit A for the Sonics that all it will take is a little more attention to detail to get the job done on the boards. Seattle was outrebounded 25-14 in falling behind by 11 at halftime. In the second half, the Sonics outrebounded the Lakers by one and rallied to briefly take the lead before falling just short at the end.

“What I haven’t liked is our focus on it,” Karl said. “We showed them today how many shots there were (against the Lakers) where we had five guys watching the flight of the ball and nobody going to get the ball.”

Where Karl sees a particular problem is in rebounding missed 3-pointers, particularly on the defensive end.

“Those are team rebounds that have to be done as a team,” Karl said. “Most of the time, they come off at weird angles and weird bounces. It is a hard shot to rebound.”

Karl said he thinks the solution might be sitting on the Sonics bench.

“I hate to keep emphasizing Nate McMillan (who is due back sometime after the All-Star break after having suffered a pulled leg muscle in December), but he was the best rebounding guard in the NBA three, four seasons in a row,” Karl said. “And the rebounds we are not getting right now are Nate’s rebounds, the ones that bounce way out there.”

In general, the Sonics’ front line is getting the job done. Shawn Kemp is averaging 11.2 rebounds a game, which ranks sixth in the NBA, and Detlef Schrempf is getting 6.8 a game, decent for a small forward. The Sonics’ center position is harder to judge because Jim McIlvaine plays so little for a starter (he averages 3.8 rebounds in 19.5 minutes a game) and Perkins (3.6 rebounds) spends a lot of his time roaming the perimeter where he isn’t expected to rebound.

Recently signed forward Terry Cummings is expected to shore up rebounding off the bench, which sometimes has been a problem.

And, Karl said, rebounding simply was just one of the many things the Sonics did wrong in a sluggish first half Sunday as Seattle fell to 0-6 against the Lakers, Houston and Utah this season. Karl said he feels the problem is more a matter of the Sonics’ approach to games against the better teams in the league.

“I thought we had gotten to the point that we would play special basketball against everybody we played against,” Karl said.

“What happens in this league is there are about 20 teams you can play individually against, without offense, without execution, you can play selfish and still win because of our defense. But you have to play with a specialness to beat the elite teams.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: RANK REBOUNDING Seattle’s NBA rank in three key rebounding statistics: Total rebounds per game 23rd Offensive rebounds per game 23rd Defensive rebounds per game 18th