By Frank Hughes
The News Tribune
PHOENIX – Without even looking at a boxscore or a scoreboard, it was easy to discern in the Seattle SuperSonics’ locker room the outcome of their important game against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
On one end of the locker room, 7-foot-2 center Jerome James started singing a note from down near his toes, lifted it up through his vocal chords and spouted it out like on old-time gospel singer.
On the other end, Desmond Mason tried to match the tune with one of his own, and in between teammates swung their hips and laughed.
Yes, things are going great of late for the Sonics, who defeated the Suns, 103-91, before 14,716 disinterested fans at America West Arena. It was Seattle’s third consecutive victory.
“I think this is huge,” Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. “You beat a Boston (Saturday), then you beat Sacramento (Sunday), one of the best teams in the league, and then you come to Phoenix, where you expect (those) guys to come out aggressive. The guys came out focused, played a solid game on both ends and they beat this team. There was no luck involved. We just executed.”
The win pushes Seattle (28-25) three games above .500 for the second time this season. But more important, it puts three games between the Sonics and the Suns (25-28) and 2 1/2 games between the Sonics and the Clippers (26-28), the teams with whom the Sonics are battling for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.
“It’s big for us,” guard Gary Payton said. “We want to make the playoffs. It is time for a playoff push, and we have to be focused on that.”
The victory also gave the Sonics a 2-1 edge in head-to-head play with Phoenix, which is the first tiebreaker if the teams end up with the same record. The second tiebreaker is conference record – Seattle is 15-17 in the West, while Phoenix is 16-20 – and the third tiebreaker is record in the Pacific Division (Seattle 9-8, Phoenix 9-11).
But tiebreakers won’t be a factor if the Sonics keep playing the way they are, winning their fifth consecutive road game after losing five of seven games at home. The Sonics are 13-14 on the road this season. Their road record could be a good omen, because after playing host to Portland tonight and Atlanta on Friday, the Sonics head out this weekend on a five-game trip East, all against teams that are beatable.
McMillan was concerned heading into the game because Scott Skiles resigned as Phoenix’s coach Sunday, and this was the second game under new coach Frank Johnson, the first with some preparation. But the Suns are an average team not because of their coaching, but because of their talent.
They basically have point guard Stephon Marbury and forward Shawn Marion as weapons, and everybody else is a complementary piece. And against a Sonics team that is playing unselfish, inspired basketball since power forward Vin Baker went down with three dislocated toes, Marbury (28 points) and Marion (17 points, 16 rebounds) are not enough.
Brent Barry continued to play an all-around good game, totaling 18 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Rashard Lewis had 18 points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Payton was off, scoring 16 points and doling out five assists, but Predrag Drobnjak picked up the slack for the third consecutive game, scoring 15 points off the bench. The hot Sonics shot 55.4 percent, the second consecutive game they have made 55 percent.
“We’ve just been together (since Baker got hurt),” Payton said. “We have been one big team. We are doing our thing where everybody is just together. Everybody is not worried about who is going to get the shots, we are not worried about should the ball go to this person or that person, it just comes in the flow of the game.
“We’ve got balanced scoring. Some nights I am not going to have good nights. As long as we can keep doing that and everybody knows they have to contribute and knows they have to step up and hit shots, that’s a good basketball team. That’s the way we are playing right now.”
If they could sing that way, they’d have a barbershop quintet.
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