After First Round, Karl in Final Jeopardy : Pro basketball: Seattle coach is tired about hearing how his job is on the line because of two consecutive quick playoff eliminations.

Uh-oh.

The second guessers are headed for Seattle SuperSonic Coach George Karl, whose team folded in the first round of the NBA playoffs for the second consecutive season, losing to the Lakers, 114-110, Thursday night at the Forum.

The Lakers, who won three consecutive games after losing the first game, advanced to face the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals. The SuperSonics go on vacation, and Karl, who guided them to the NBA’s best record in 1993-94, may soon be unemployed.

Karl unleased an obscenity-laced tirade before the game when asked about the rumors that he’ll be fired.

“What have I done wrong?” Karl asked. “I’ve coached my butt off. Why do I got to be ashamed? I didn’t make a good decision (by benching guard Kendall Gill for the second half of Monday night’s loss to the Lakers). “OK, (kill) me. Fire me. I don’t give a damn. I’ve given what I have to give.

“I care. I like those guys (the SuperSonics). I like coaching. Go (mess) with someone who doesn’t do his job. Go (mess) with some of the frauds out there, man.

“The . . . mob. The lynch mob.”

Despite all that, Karl said he’s holding up well under the stress.

“I’ll be OK, guys,” he said as he slouched against a wall. “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m as stable as I’ve ever been. . . . No one in my family wants to move from Seattle. Nobody, zero.”

Guard Gary Payton, who had 27 points, pulled Karl aside after the game and led him down a hallway outside the locker room and away from reporters, where he consoled the embattled coach.

“George Karl is going to stay our coach and I’m going to support him to the end,” Payton said. “When I came here he changed my whole game and now to back out on him and say that it’s his fault, that ain’t right. And it ain’t his fault.”

Guard Nate McMillan, who sat alone in his locker stall crying, thinks Karl could be the scapegoat.

“He is going to take the blame,” McMillan said. “Coaches go first. K.C. (Jones) then Kloppy (Bob Kloppenburg) and now maybe George. It’s time for some of us players to take the blame. They keep bringing in coaches, but you can’t keep doing that. It’s time for some of us players to reflect on what we’ve done.”

Laker Coach Del Harris, who received his NBA coach-of-the-year trophy before the game, sympathizes with Karl.

“They can talk about replacing the coach all they want, but that would be a huge mistake,” Harris said.

Even if Karl returns, Gill, who feuded with Karl this season and sat out five games because of clinical depression, doesn’t want to play for him.

“I’m not saying that,” Gill said when asked if it’s either him or Karl who remains with the SuperSonics. “I’m saying that saying that I don’t want to play under this (platooning) system because I don’t think it works.”

The SuperSonics were outscored, 32-20, in the fourth quarter and gave away five turnovers in the final 6:57 as the Lakers reached the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since 1991.

“It was our embarrassment,” Karl said. “You’re humbled, but you go on. It’s not something to be proud of, but we’re a better basketball team than we’ve shown in the playoffs the last two years. Everybody in that room knows that.”

Asked after the game if he fears for his job, Karl hesitated, shook his head and said softly, “No.

“I don’t think people understand how much it hurts, so why talk about it? It hurts; it’s going to hurt for a while.”