Suns Get Help From Elders : NBA playoffs: Veterans make key contributions in 104-97 victory over SuperSonics. Phoenix leads series, 2-1.

If there is a primary reason the Phoenix Suns have a 2-1 lead over the Seattle SuperSonics in the Western Conference finals, it is experience.

Veteran Danny Ainge opened Friday night’s fourth quarter with a three-point basket. Frank Johnson followed with an 18-footer, then made another from 22 feet out. Young Dan Majerle made a layup, but the elder statesmen took over again, with Johnson making a three-pointer and Tom Chambers connecting on a 16-footer along the baseline.

Just like that, a game tied entering the fourth quarter at Seattle Coliseum had become a 12-point lead for the Suns with 7:05 to play, enough padding for them to hold on for a 104-97 victory before 14,812.

As for the SuperSonics, they got 24 offensive rebounds to dominate the boards but shot only 40%. Just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, after going 41.4% and 44% while splitting the first two games at Phoenix.

“I don’t know if we can beat them shooting 40%,” Seattle Coach George Karl said. “We’ll find out.”

Maybe the hard way. The Suns were seemingly the SuperSonics’ for the taking again, two days after coming back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win and grab home-court advantage. This time, the SuperSonics went from 12 points behind after Chambers’ shot with 7:05 to play to two points behind with 2:46 remaining.

But that was as close as they got.

Kevin Johnson, playing with a badly bruised thigh after getting kneed in the third quarter, ran past Payton going down the right side and was fouled. He made the first free throw and missed the second, but Charles Barkley got the rebound and put it back in. Barkley had 16 points and 16 rebounds. Suddenly the Sun lead was 100-95 with 1:48 to play.

Derrick McKey made one free throw for Seattle. Trailing by four points on their next possession, the SuperSonics’ Sam Perkins, the hero in Game 2 with two three-pointers the final 1:59, threw up an airball from behind the three-point line.

Majerle, only two of seven from the field at this point, made a three-pointer from the right side with 38 seconds to play.

“I think we could have won without it,” Phoenix Coach Paul Westphal said. “But it sure let us breathe a lot easier.”

The Suns may not even have been in that position if not for Frank Johnson, who once had no position on the team or in the NBA.

He had spent the previous three years playing in Italy, last appearing in the NBA with Houston in 1988-89, before coming to camp with Phoenix. When the Suns cut him before the start of the regular season, Johnson prepared for retirement. The Minneapolis resident called Timberwolves’ General Manager Jack McCloskey looking for a front-office job.

Instead, the Suns called two days later and brought him back when Kevin Johnson, no relation, was sidelined because of a groin strain. Frank contributed 4.3 points in 14.6 minutes of 77 regular-season games.

Next, he is carrying the Suns through a critical fourth-quarter stretch of a playoff game on the road, he and the other oldies but (for a night) goodies.

“I don’t think we have any fear of failure,” Ainge said. “We have a lot of experience in that group. But you can’t have any fear of missing shots in that situation. I think Tom’s and mine and Frank’s experience really had a factor in the fourth quarter.”

Frank Johnson, for one, begged to differ.

“Danny has no fear,” he said after finishing with 10 points on four-of-five shooting in 13 minutes. “But there is some hesitancy in my jumpers. I’m 34 years old, but I’m a rookie in this position because I’ve never been this far in the playoffs in my career.”

Now he’s a step further. The Suns, too.