SuperSonics’ Rebounding a New Concern

As if being beaten Monday night wasn’t bad enough for the Lakers, they also were beaten on the boards by the team that finished the regular season next to last in rebounding percentage, making a bad fourth-quarter showing even worse.

The Lakers got only five rebounds in the final period, compared to 11 for the SuperSonics, who scored eight points after missing an initial shot and turned a two-point lead with 5:25 remaining into a 106-92 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. In all, Seattle had a 41-35 advantage in this category.

“We were watching that,” Laker Coach Del Harris said of his staff monitoring the disparity. “We watch that all the time.”

They saw Shaquille O’Neal grab 11, Robert Horry seven and, in a welcome contribution from the backcourt, Eddie Jones six, but no one else had more than four. The SuperSonics, meanwhile, got eight from Vin Baker and guard Hersey Hawkins, seven from Jerome Kersey in 23 minutes and six from Sam Perkins in 22 minutes. The contributions from Kersey and Perkins, a pair of former Lakers, both came off the bench.

The result was a major setback for the Lakers, who had shown a great deal of improvement in the second half of the regular season to finish 16th in rebounding percentage, up from 25th at the all-star break, and most recently beat the formidable Portland Trail Blazers there in Game 4 to help clinch the first-round victory. The SuperSonics, meanwhile, had only outrebounded an opponent 25 times during the regular season--half as many as L.A.

“We play that score just like we play the scoreboard,” Harris said. “That’s how important we feel it is on our coaching staff.”

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The Lakers have not lost two consecutive games in more than two months, since March 1-2 on the road against the New York Knicks and Washington Wizards. The run of 22 wins in the final 25 contests of the regular season followed immediately. . . . The Lakers have never lost the first two games of a playoff matchup without home-court advantage and come back to win the series. . . . Harris, on the Game 1 play of Kersey, a favorite while with the Lakers: “He was the ‘Wild Thing’ we knew and loved last year. We were sorry to see him go, and sorry to see him here.” . . . In 1995, the Lakers lost the opener against the SuperSonics, at Tacoma, and then recovered to win the final three and advance to the second round.

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LAKER PLAYOFF STATISTICS

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PLAYER FG% FT% REB AST PTS O’Neal .632 .426 11.6 3.6 28.6 Fox .508 .846 4.8 4.8 15.6 Jones .359 .778 3.6 2.0 12.0 Bryant .395 .684 2.6 2.4 9.8 Van Exel .321 .583 2.6 3.8 9.8 Campbell .652 .789 3.6 1.0 9.0 Horry .556 .692 4.8 3.6 8.0 Fisher .500 .688 1.0 3.0 7.2 Blount .800 -- 3.0 0.5 2.0 Barry .000 -- -- -- -- Bennett -- -- -- -- -- Rooks -- -- -- -- -- TEAM .497 .643 37.0 24.6 101.6 OPPONENTS .456 .787 41.6 23.4 101.0

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