Jazz Tries to Apply Choke Hold

Past is prologue. Or, why the Seattle SuperSonics are well acquainted with the Heimlich maneuver.

They have been down this road before, of course. Usually to find that it’s a dead end.

In 1994, after a 63-win season, a Pacific Division championship, a 2-0 lead in the first round against the 42-40 Denver Nuggets became a 3-2 defeat, capped by an overtime loss at home.

In 1995, after beating the Lakers by 28 points in the opener, the SuperSonics again lost three in a row to a lower-seeded team to be eliminated in the first round.

And 1996?

At least they made it all the way to the Western Conference finals before being dragged down by the usual shortcomings, namely lack of maturity (Shawn Kemp picking up silly fouls that have limited him to 32.2 minutes), leadership (freezing with Game 5 on the line) and questionable heart, not to mention the Utah Jazz. But maybe that only makes it worse--Seattle getting within one victory of its first trip to the NBA finals in 17 years and then, of all times, doing a belly-flop.

Two of them, actually. A streak of turnovers in overtime of Game 5 and then a lesson in offensive execution by the Jazz in Game 6 have tied the series, forced a deciding Game 7 today at 4 p.m. at KeyArena and forced the SuperSonics to confront their history of self-mutilation. And the doubters.

“There’s no pressure on us,” Seattle’s Nate McMillan said, doing his best imitation of someone who means it.

“This is the last game. You go out and play. You’re at home, they’ve done what they had to do the last two games, we haven’t played well, and now we have to. It’s as simple as that. We have to play much better than we’ve played or it ends.”

With three consecutive losses. For the third consecutive year.

“The past is the past,” McMillan continued to insist. “The thing is that we have to win on Sunday. That’s all it boils down to. We can’t be concerned with what people are saying.”

People like their own coach, for example? “This is the one time I’m kind of happy we have a couple days,” George Karl said. “Mentally, we’ve got to regroup.”

At least Karl was quick to add his continued confidence in the SuperSonics, noting, “I believe in my basketball team, I like my basketball team. It will be there on Sunday.”

Of course, so will the Jazz.

“It’s a one-game series and it should be a lot of fun,” Utah’s John Stockton said. “I’m not really worried about the 3-1. I’m worried about one for one. That simplifies things. That makes our focus pretty simple.”

Added Karl Malone: “Now those guys’ backs are against the wall. Without a doubt. Ours was, to get back here. Now theirs are. Those guys are going to come out ready to play, and I know that and we know that. We have to weather their storm at the beginning because they’re going to want to have us down by 40 to start the game.”