Bring on the Lakers

  • Rich Myhre / Herald Writer
  • Thursday, November 29, 2001 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Rich Myhre

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – Our lives are sometimes touched with strange, surprising events.

It could be an unexpected promotion, an unforeseen inheritance from a distant relative, maybe even a miracle cure. Something wonderful that takes place when we least expect it.

Like what happened last season when the Seattle SuperSonics played the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers were the NBA’s best team in 2000-01. They won 56 games and lost just 26 during the regular season, then sprinted through the playoffs with a 15-1 mark en route to a second straight league championship.

The Sonics, meanwhile, were one of many mediocre NBA teams a year ago. Seattle finished with a winning record at 44-38, but failed to qualify for the postseason.

There is, then, no logical way to explain the outcome of four meetings between the two teams. Seattle won every game, and the contests were never all that close – the Sonics won by 33, eight, 11 and 12 points.

Los Angeles, of course, could shrug off the four losses as an aberration. You can do that when you end up taking home the league championship trophy.

For the Sonics, though, the sweep remains a memorable accomplishment to this day. In a season of frequent dark clouds, those four wins over the Lakers were one big, beautiful silver lining.

“To beat those guys in all four games, and then to have them go on and win the championship, we felt good about that,” said Sonics coach Nate McMillan.

Seattle will be trying to extend its winning streak over the Lakers to five games when the teams square off tonight. It will be one of two visits for Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and the other Phil Jackson-led Lakers to KeyArena this season.

What remains unclear is just why the Sonics dominated Los Angeles last year. One game stands out, Seattle’s 121-88 win on Nov. 30. That was McMillan’s home coaching debut – he had taken over for Paul Westphal three days earlier – and the Sonics were obviously fueled by a great burst of emotional energy.

However, nothing about the other three wins – 103-95 on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles, 91-80 on Jan. 23 in Seattle, and 109-97 on March 11 in Los Angeles – is remotely unusual. Except the outcomes, that is.

“We knew we had their number last year,” said former Sonics forward Jelani McCoy, who signed with the Lakers as an offseason free agent and is currently on the team’s injured list. “We felt confident every time we played them. We kind of expected to beat them. I don’t know why. We just kind of got comfortable in our basketball playing them.”

McMillan also has trouble answering that question, though he suspects that some of it was matchups. Seattle had Ruben Patterson a year ago and he always defended Bryant well (Patterson, remember, was the self-proclaimed “Kobe stopper”). Also, Payton has usually been inspired to have great games against Los Angeles.

But ultimately, McMillan said, “you ask yourself how we could play so well against the Lakers and then we lose against a team such as Detroit or someone like that. I didn’t understand that.”

Some things, it seems, cannot be fully understood.

They should just be enjoyed.

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