By Frank Hughes
The News Tribune
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Say this much for the Seattle SuperSonics, at least they didn’t give up.
Down by 27 points in the first half, the Sonics made a valiant second-half comeback before succumbing to the Charlotte Hornets 111-101 before a sprinkling of fans at Charlotte Coliseum on Wednesday night.
But perhaps because he had 20 members of his family and friends watching, Sonics coach Nate McMillan was not interested in moral victories. He was angry that his team embarrassed him for 24 minutes.
“I don’t want comebacks,” McMillan said. “I want 48 minutes of basketball. We played two quarters once again, and that is not enough to win a ballgame. We should come out and play the way we did in the second half.
“We took the first half off.”
If the Sonics had made the comeback complete, the Charlotte community may have kicked this Hornets team (20-21) out before it could move to New Orleans next season.
As it was, the Sonics simply could not recover after giving up 41 points in the second quarter, a season high, and 71 first-half points, also a season high.
“We have a tendency to come out flat,” Desmond Mason said. I have no idea why.”
It looked as if the Hornets, who defeated the New York Knicks by 43 points on Monday night, would coast to their second consecutive easy victory when they shot 60 percent through the first two quarters.
At halftime, McMillan let his players have it.
And the Sonics (21-20) did to Charlotte what the Nuggets did to the Sonics last Friday night; they caught a team with too much confidence flat.
Granted, all NBA teams go on runs. But not like this. With Charlotte missing 14 of its first 17 shots in the third quarter and turning over the ball seven times, the Sonics played smothering defense and executed their offense to near-perfection.
Seattle hit 18 of its first 29 shots in the second half and eventually cut Charlotte’s lead to 98-94 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the game. The few fans on hand were booing loudly enough for a sellout crowd.
But then Elden Campbell made a free throw and David Wesley hit a 3-pointer from the corner, putting the Hornets up by eight with 2:30 left in the game.
When Rashard Lewis missed a shot and then had his putback blocked by Campbell, the game was essentially over, save for some trash-talking by Gary Payton to Lee Nailon and McMillan venting his frustration on the officials, drawing a technical foul with just over a minute left.
“You play defense, you get a rebound and you go down and get a high percentage shot,” McMillan said. “It’s as simple as that. We did that in the second half, but it was too high a mountain to climb and we ran out of gas. You can’t play two quarters and expect to win a game.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
