There’s No Reign in Seattle

They crashed the party without so much as offering an apology. As if the Seattle SuperSonics care. If it’s a rip job aimed at them, they’ve already heard it, probably in the last month.

Now they’re inconsiderate hosts. The city and the team were only supposed to supply the backdrop to the coronation Wednesday, a night set aside for the Chicago Bulls and their date with destiny. Then this:

SuperSonics 107, Bulls 86.

Talk about getting stood up.

“This team’s taken a lot of crap all year long,” Seattle Coach George Karl said after his team cruised in Game 4 of the NBA finals before 17,072 at KeyArena, denying the Bulls a chance to sweep to their fourth championship in six years. “I don’t know, I think we’re beyond that. I don’t think anybody stopped believing in that locker room. I don’t think that was happening.

“I think we were mad, we were angry, we were frustrated, we were annoyed. But I think this team’s come too far to throw some of the labels that people have thrown at us.”

Shawn Kemp, the Seattle star, who in the two off days after the Bulls had built a 3-0 lead and seemed poised to go for the jugular questioned whether the SuperSonics had not already thrown in the towel.

That was followed by a performance Wednesday that proved the SuperSonics still had a pulse, if not much of a chance in the long run, considering no team in NBA playoff history has trailed, 3-0, and won a series. Seattle shot 56.2% (compared to 40% for Chicago), made nine of 17 three-pointers (Bulls: six of 24) and even committed fewer turnovers (18-15) while playing the aggressor.

No broom. Just Game 5 here Friday.

“I don’t know if I want to call it vindication,” Seattle guard Hersey Hawkins said. “But I definitely think not playing well the other night [a 108-86 rout by the Bulls] and having our heart and our courage tested, that made us come out and play with more intensity tonight. I guess when everybody counts you out, it’s easier to go out and play loose.”

Said Kemp, apparently forgetting who was dropping the hammer earlier in the week: “It’s not the first time we’ve been talked about badly. That type of talk, we’re used to it at this point.”

Even the SuperSonics taking a 5-4 lead seemed significant--it was the first time they had been ahead since late in the second quarter of Game 2, five days earlier.

Soon, that became lost in a barrage of grander numbers. A 21-point cushion for Seattle at halftime, for one, which came with Michael Jordan making only three of nine shots and Scottie Pippen continuing his playoff slump at one of eight. And it wasn’t only those two--the Bulls combined to shoot 38.2%.

“I anticipated them coming out strong at the beginning,” said Jordan, six for 19 by the end of the night. “I just didn’t anticipate the way we played.”

The SuperSonics, meanwhile, couldn’t turn around without tripping on success. Gary Payton and Kemp starred. Sam Perkins provided a big lift off the bench, finishing with 17 points. Frank Brickowski replaced Ervin Johnson as the starting center and even managed to avoid being ejected.

And then there was Nate McMillan. Sidelined by a bad back the previous two games, after lasting only six minutes in the opener, he was doubtful for Wednesday, if not longer had the SuperSonics extended the series. Supposedly.

Late in the first quarter, he went in. The crowd, already fed by the early lead, roared anew.

“Everybody saw it,” Karl said. “Everybody saw the lift he gave us. Just the confidence.”

Added Hawkins, who finished with 18 points: “Nate, he’s our inspirational leader. No one wanted to win this game more than him.”

This wasn’t Willis Reed hobbling into the Garden, but Seattle was taking its positives where it could find them. That McMillan would make two of three three-pointers and add three rebounds and three assists in 14 minutes only increased his impact on a night when Kemp had 25 points and 11 rebounds and Payton contributed 21 points and 11 assists.

“I really watched what I did,” McMillan said. “I chose my times to be aggressive and just tried to stay out of the way of most people. My whole concern was how many minutes I could play.”

He played nine in the second quarter, probably not coincidentally the stretch when the SuperSonics turned a four-point lead into 16, helping them to a 28-11 advantage in those 12 minutes. The deficit was 21 at halftime, 23 early in the third quarter and, after the Bulls made a passing attempt to turn it into a game, as many as 27 in the fourth.

There went the Bulls’ nine-game winning streak, replaced instead with only a second loss in 16 playoff games.

There went the kingdom, at least for a night.

“We had played extremely well up to this point,” Jordan said. “I guess it was inevitable we would have a bad game. Nothing went right for us tonight.”

And the SuperSonics?

“They seemed very defiant,” he said. “Let’s see if they can maintain it.”

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* HEISLER COLUMN

An 11-point quarter? A 21-point loss? The Bulls didn’t take this well at all. C4

* NOTES, BOX SCORE: C4