SEATTLE – Five years ago, center Jerome James was not good enough to keep his job with the Sacramento Kings.
On Saturday night, James was plenty good enough to help the Seattle SuperSonics slide past his former ballclub, 87-82, in Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series.
The 7-foot-1 James, a sometimes-maligned player in his four Seattle seasons, had perhaps his best game as a pro with 17 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots (all career playoff highs) against the team that cut him in training camp before the 2000-01 season.
On top of everything else, James scored what turned out to be the game’s most crucial basket, dropping in a point-blank jump hook with 25 seconds to play to take Seattle from a one-point margin to an 85-82 lead.
The Kings had a chance to tie on their next possession, but missed one 3-point attempt, and then another after an offensive rebound. The Sonics got the ball back and cinched the outcome with a pair of Ray Allen free throws in the late moments, delighting a noisy sellout crowd of 17,072.
Allen, in fact, was superb for much of the night, finishing with a game-high 28 points and also nabbing 10 rebounds, more than any of the Kings. Still, most of the talk afterward was about James, and the fact that he took as many as 20 shots (converting seven) seemed to matter little to any of his teammates.
”When he plays like that, it makes a heck of a difference for us,” said guard Antonio Daniels. ”And I don’t care how many shots he takes. If he gives us 17 points and 15 rebounds, you can’t ask for anything more. If we can have a post presence like that, we’ll go where he takes us.”
James was drafted by the Kings in the second round in 1998 and played 16 games his rookie season. The next year he injured his knee and sat out the entire season, and then was waived the following October.
”I have no ill feelings towards the Sacramento Kings for cutting me,” James said, facing a large circle of media after the game. Because of his knee injury, ”I really can’t blame them for letting me go. And I’m actually thankful to them for doing that because it allowed me to go out and gain the experience I need to be able to play at this level with this team.”
Revenge, he added, was not a factor in his Game 1 performance.
”I’m more professional than that,” he said. ”This is a business and this is my job. Tonight I wanted to come out and execute my job to the best of my ability. I didn’t need any more motivation other than being in the playoffs … with a great group of guys. That’s all the motivation I needed to come out and have a great night.”
In their first playoff appearance since a May 3, 2002, game in San Antonio, the Sonics broke on top early and threatened to make the game rout. With Sacramento shooting poorly from the field – the Kings missed their first nine field goal attempts – Seattle built a lead that reached double digits late in the first quarter and grew to a high of 21 points early in the third period.
Finally, the Kings came to life. They outscored Seattle 14-3 to close the third quarter, and continued to peck away in the final period. The Sonics led by nine points with 3:30 left in the game, but Sacramento went on a 8-0 scoring run to draw with one point, 83-82, as guard Cuttino Mobley dropped in a 3-point shot with 42 seconds to play.
The Sonics took a timeout to set up the play that broke down, but eventually led to Daniels taking a back-door pass from Rashard Lewis and finding James open under the basket. James fumbled the ball, dropped it, but managed to regain control and dropped in a short shot.
”Jerome was a giant part of their win,” said Sacramento center Greg Ostertag. ”You know Ray is going to get his and Rashard is going to get his, but when Jerome gets 17 points and 15 rebounds that’s just a huge boost for them.”
Sacramento, meanwhile, got 24 points from forward Peja Stojakovic and 22 from Mobley, but the bigger story was the play of guards Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson, one of the NBA’s best point guard tandems. Together they were 1-for-23 from the field, with Bibby going a woeful 1-for-16, including 0-for-6 from the 3-point stripe.
”I missed the first couple of shots and then I think it got into being (a lack of) confidence,” Bibby said. ”I missed a couple of shots … a lot of shots, actually. But you just have to swallow it and go on to the next (game).”
That Sacramento could come so close to winning on the road with two key players playing so poorly ”is a plus, if you look at it,” Bibby added. ”We didn’t shoot good, and I doubt it will be like that again.”
Despite a spate of recent injuries, both teams played with full rosters. The Sonics welcomed back forward Vlade Radmanovic, who was making his first appearance since a March 16 game at Detroit due to a stress fracture in his lower right leg. He missed his only field goal attempt and went scoreless in 13 minutes.
Sacramento got back Stojakovic, who missed the last three games with a pulled groin muscle, and center Brad Miller, who had been out since a Feb. 27 game at Washington with two left leg injuries, the latter a fractured fibula. Miller played just eight minutes, but had an impact by making all three of his field goal attempts and his one free throw while adding four rebounds and three assists.
The two teams square off again in Game 2, which will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at KeyArena. From there the series moves to Sacramento for games Friday and next Sunday.
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