By Rich Myhre
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – For much of the past four seasons, Vin Baker has been someone Seattle SuperSonics fans have loved to hate.
But in basketball, as in all of life, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
On Tuesday night, the Sonics played most of the second half against the Portland Trail Blazers without Baker, who re-injured a badly bruised left shoulder. Minus Baker, Seattle’s biggest and best low-post player, the Sonics were forced to play almost exclusively from the perimeter.
Which is a fine strategy when the shots are falling. But when they are not – and they did not in the late minutes against the suddenly torrid Blazers – defeat is the usual outcome.
Seattle will face another tough test tonight when the Sacramento Kings visit KeyArena. Sacramento, which has an NBA-best 33-10 record, will present an even bigger challenge if Baker is unable to play.
As of Wednesday afternoon, that question was still up in the air.
“Everything is tough for me,” said Baker, who practiced sparingly on Wednesday. “I can’t sleep on my left side. It’s tough even trying to do different (everyday) things. I know the pain is going to come when I raise my arm.”
Still, Baker is hoping to be in the lineup tonight against a Kings team that will be without All-Star forward Chris Webber (he will serve a one-game suspension for an elbowing incident in a recent game). It will be similar to the decision Baker had earlier in the week, when he did very little at a Monday practice, then played against Portland.
“If my shoulder feels like it did (Tuesday) before the game, I’m going to go (tonight),” he said. “I’m going to try to help my team win basketball games. I’m going to have to play with some degree of pain for the next two weeks regardless, so there’s no sense of me staying out and waiting for it to heal if I think I can help at all.”
Baker was initially hurt in last Thursday’s game against Milwaukee when he banged his shoulder against one of the Bucks. The collision was bone against bone, leaving Baker with a painful bruise that kept him from playing in Saturday’s game against Indiana. He returned against Portland and managed 10 points, four rebounds and three assists in the first half before being hurt early in the third quarter.
Though he has been maddeningly inconsistent since the lockout-shortened 1999 season – and his averages of 12.2 points and 5.7 rebounds a year ago were both career lows – Baker is still better than anyone else the Sonics have around the basket. And he remains capable of big numbers, as he showed against Cleveland in a Jan. 11 game at KeyArena. When the Cavaliers continued to guard Baker with a single defender, he erupted for 32 points.
Even if Baker does not score, his presence creates opportunities for teammates elsewhere on the court. Put Baker on the sidelines and opponents can extend their defense to hinder players like Gary Payton, Brent Barry, Rashard Lewis and Desmond Mason.
Nagging injuries have made this a difficult season for Baker. He has been bothered by a sore back, a severely bruised knee and a sprained right thumb before this latest injury, and has missed nine of Seattle’s 43 games.
Now, with the Sonics squarely in the chase for a Western Conference playoff spot, Baker says he is eager to contribute.
“We’re in such a big stretch of games,” he said, “and whatever I can give to the team, I think it will help. It will help more than me sitting on the sidelines, waiting for my shoulder to heal.
“I think can help keep us in the playoff race. At what capacity, I don’t know. But I think I can help.”
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