Sonics clinch – finally

SEATTLE – Forward Rashard Lewis called it “a bumpy road” while forward Danny Fortson said it was like “being stuck in quicksand,” but center Jerome James was more succinct.

“It’s been hell,” he admitted, referring to the two weeks the Seattle SuperSonics have waited to clinch the NBA’s Northwest Division championship.

On Friday night at KeyArena, exactly 14 days since they dropped their magic number to one, the Sonics finally got the last elusive win they needed to claim their first division championship since the 1997-98 season. The 97-72 victory over the visiting New Orleans Hornets was emphatic – and so was the noisy celebration in the Seattle locker room afterward.

“I’ve won (pro basketball) championships overseas, but they don’t even compare to how wonderful this is,” James said. “This is like a high, a rush. This is so sweet. As a professional athlete, you wait your whole life to accomplish something like this. All the sweat and tears and hard work and pain pills and fussing and cussing and fighting and everything else is all worth it today. It’s worth it to be in this room of brothers, and to feel the camaraderie and the love.

“And now we’re going to get ready for our playoff push,” he said. “The girls did it (referring to the Seattle Storm, the 2004 WNBA champions) and we’re gentlemen … so now we’ll try to bring this thing home.”

The victory gives the Sonics the No. 3 Western Conference playoff spot, meaning a first-round matchup against the No. 6 seed when the postseason begins next weekend. By winning Friday, Seattle also has the homecourt advantage in the first round if the opponent is Denver. The Sonics need one more victory to clinch homecourt advantage against two other possible first-round foes, Sacramento and Houston, or a loss by those teams.

Denver, in fact, became an ever-increasing shadow for Seattle in the division race. The Sonics had a double-digit margin in late March, but as they went on a six-game losing streak – their longest of the season – the Nuggets managed a winning string that reached 10 games with Friday night’s win against Memphis.

Still, no matter what happens in the season’s final few days will dislodge the Sonics from the top spot.

“Tell Denver, maybe next year,” crowed forward Reggie Evans, one of several Seattle players wearing caps commemorating the division title.

Nearby, Lewis was one of the more reflective Sonics. He is, after all, the player who has been here the longest and has seen the team slip from prominence to several non-playoff seasons.

“I never thought this would happen (this season),” Lewis said. “Honestly, I thought we’d be fighting for the sixth, seventh or eighth spot, and trying to fight our way into the playoffs. I never thought we’d be at the top of the list.”

Coach Nate McMillan, meanwhile, wore a big smile for the first time in, well, two weeks. He was also soaked from a Gatorade bath his players administered in the locker room shortly after the final horn.

“After I talked to them for a few minutes, they came over as if they wanted to hug me,” he said with a laugh. “I know they don’t like me that much, but I didn’t even think about it. And I got hit with a big bucket. A full bucket. But that’s OK.”

The last two weeks, he added, “have been tough. You go through a stretch where you lose some key guys (Lewis, Fortson, guard Antonio Daniels and forward Vlade Radmanovic all missed games). We talked about not making excuses, but the injuries were definitely a key to the way we were playing. But we gave ourselves a big enough cushion that we could survive that.”

After losing a half-dozen games in a fortnight, New Orleans was just the remedy for the slumping Sonics. The hapless Hornets, who came in having lost five straight games and are dead last in the NBA’s Western Conference, scored the game’s first two points, but soon Seattle was on top to stay.

The game was barely into the second period before the Sonics had a double-digit margin they would hold the rest of the way. The final 25-point margin was Seattle’s largest since

As the final horn faded, the team began unveiling a banner from the KeyArena rafters, proclaiming the division title. With thousands of cheering fans lingering, the players stayed on the court, shaking hands and tossing gifts into the crowd. Some of the Sonics, including All-Stars Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, went so far as to fling his sweaty sneakers into the stands before leaving the court in their socks.

“We had to make it happen,” McMillan said. “We just didn’t know when or where. But I believed in this team all season long, that if we played the game the right way we’d give ourselves a chance to win. And they did.

“We earned this division championship,” he added, “and now no one can take it away from us.” Finishing first with a Denver loss “would be good,” he added, “but I think it just means a little more if you win it yourself.”

Ahead for Seattle is a three-game road trip to close the regular season. The Sonics are scheduled to take a charter flight out of Boeing Field this morning, bound for Minneapolis and a Sunday after meeting with the T-wolves. They travel then to Dallas for a Tuesday game, followed by a Wednesday finale in Houston.