Lakers Shoot Seattle’s Lights Out : NBA playoffs:L.A. surges to 81-73 lead before power fails, then hangs on to win, 84-82, after Ceballos makes key three-point basket.
TACOMA, Wash. — In search of light at the end of the tunnel, the Lakers instead got darkness Saturday afternoon, the kind that would almost have made their season fade to black. The kind that made them wonder.
Accident of nature or nice timing? Had this been Boston Garden, that would have been a no-contest. But here they were in the Tacoma Dome, in the midst of a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter to take control of Game 2 against the Seattle SuperSonics, when a power outage caused a 24-minute delay, which in turn caused the Lakers to lose their momentum.
That’s all they lost, though. The Lakers threw the switch back on just in time, holding off a late Seattle charge for an 84-82 victory that evened the best-of-five series heading into Game 3 Monday night at the Forum.
Lights out occurred at 2:51 p.m., with 4:11 left in the game, just as Shawn Kemp went to the line with his team trailing, 81-73. The emergency generators that kept some concession stands and other areas illuminated saved the building from being pitch black, but it was clearly too dark to play.
So everyone on the floor--and the crowd of 14,681--waited. Nine minutes later, the public address announcer said the problem, caused by lightning that triggered a power surge somewhere outside the building and knocked out electricity within a five-block radius, had been corrected. Thirteen minutes after that, players who were shooting baskets returned to their benches. Then, finally, the game resumed at 3:15 p.m.
The Lakers joined in at about 3:22. By then, the SuperSonics had gotten the two free throws by Kemp, a layup by Sam Perkins and two more free throws by Detlef Schrempf, all of which moved Seattle to within two at 81-79 with 2:51 to play. Talk about power outages.
“I knew we wouldn’t be ready,†Laker Nick Van Exel said. “I knew they would come back and make a game. But I didn’t think it would be that close.â€
Coach Del Harris said: “You never know. They might have done the same thing if the lights had stayed on. Naturally, you’d rather continue to play when things are going well. But, hey, it’s one of those things. It’s an old Indiana trick--once you start getting behind, the lights gotta go out. That’s all there is to it.â€
Harris smiled when he said it. His players didn’t.
“If it never happened before and then all of the sudden it happens in the first round of the playoffs, it makes you go, ‘Hmmmmm,’ †Van Exel said.
“I’m serious. You never know. I’m serious.â€
Vlade Divac, asked if he thought it was an accident, said: “Maybe.â€
Anyway, what happened next, they said, was entirely intentional. Flu-ridden Cedric Ceballos, in the process of scoring the final eight points and a game-high 25 for the Lakers after being shut down with two points in Game 1, hit his second consecutive three-point shot, this time with Kemp running at him. The lead was 84-79 with 1:11 left.
But when Perkins followed with a three-pointer of his own with 1:01 remaining, Seattle was back within two points. That was nothing. The real trouble for the Lakers came soon after when Ceballos’ pass to Anthony Peeler near the top of the key was intercepted by Nate McMillan with about 16 seconds to go, giving the SuperSonics the ball with plenty of time to go for a tie or victory.
Seeing no fastbreak opportunities, they called time out with 10.5 seconds left. The SuperSonics came out with Kemp, Schrempf and Gary Payton, three all-stars, and a dangerous outside threat in Perkins. So who got the final shot, a three-pointer with the game on the line?
It was McMillan, one of the team leaders and a defensive specialist, but all of 41.8% overall during the regular season. His attempt with about two seconds remaining--after several others had touched the ball and Payton was unable to back in on Van Exel--hit the front of the rim.
“Nate had an open one,†Seattle Coach George Karl said. “I thought it was a good play, a wide-open three to win it.â€
It was a fitting conclusion to a day when Seattle shot a season-low 31.8%, including 16.7% in the fourth quarter, and, despite the momentary rally, scored only 11 points in the final period.
That was all the Lakers, hardly an offensive machine themselves while going the final five minutes with only the three-pointer by Ceballos, needed to go home 1-1 instead of 0-2 with elimination 48 minutes away.
They had survived. They had seen the light.
Laker Notes
Cedric Ceballos made six of nine three-point shots and, after making one of 10 overall Thursday night, finished with nine of 18 overall this time. “I didn’t really have to have a good game,†he said. “I just wanted to help my team as much as possible. Anything to try to get this win, to get something out of here, I tried to do.†Coach Del Harris said: “Not that I have any crystal ball or ESP, but I think I did say that, knowing Cedric, he would come back big for this game. He’s just one of the best competitive athletes I’ve ever seen. This guy is a tremendous competitor. It was just predictable he would come back.†Ceballos tied a Laker playoff record for three-point shots made and attempted. Michael Cooper also made six on June 4, 1987, and Cooper and Nick Van Exel had both tried nine. . . . Shawn Kemp led the SuperSonics with 22 points and 12 rebounds. . . . Harris stayed with his Game 1 starting lineup.
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