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C8 Sports | | SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2019 2 R and he’s not saying a word, but he’s breathing audibly, his eyes are like bloodshot and he’s just doing this thing with his hands. “He used to use stickum, which wasn’t legal, but he hid it under his wrist. So he had his hands going, breathing heavily. And the rest of us were kind of looking around like, ‘OK, this is what intensity looks like when you are getting ready for an elimination game.’ There is a guy who has been there, has won champion- ships. I think it had a big impact on everybody like, ‘OK, get your- self ready because here is what needs to get done, and this is how you do it.’ ’’ The shot T he fired-up Sonics took a 55-50 lead at the half. But the Suns’ corona- tion seemed on track as they went on a big run to start the third quarter, taking an eight-point lead into the fourth and still lead- ing by six with a little more than sevenminutes remaining. The Sonics never let the lead get out of hand, and in the final minutes they strung together one last rally. Sikma snapped out of his slump and hit 7 of 11 shots in the game andWilkens made a key tactical decision, switching burly forward Lonnie Shelton (instead of John Johnson) to defend standout Suns small for- wardWalter Davis in the final quarter. WhenWilliams made a jumper with 52 seconds remaining, the Sonics finally had the lead at 106-105— their first lead of the fourth quarter. Shelton forced Davis into a travel with 41 seconds to play. Williams missed on the other end and the ball went off the Sonics, and the Suns had possession and a chance to win with 16 seconds remaining. Davis missed an 18-footer, again under heavy defense from Shelton. But the ball glanced off Sikma’s hands out of bounds. With one second remaining, the Suns still had a chance. The Suns wanted the ball to go to Paul Westphal or Davis. But they were covered, and Don Buse threw the inbounds pass to Heard, who turned and shot as from veteran power forward Paul Silas, then 35 years old and with two rings won with the Celtics. “I still have this visual of him in the locker room,’’ Walker said. “He was just kind of sitting in this chair in the middle — the locker rooms were tiny in those days — paragraph in a Seattle Times story previewing the game that stated “a near miracle is neces- sary today to avoid the end’’ of the season. InWalker’s view, the Sonics had already received all they needed to get ready for a battle is as big as any in franchise histo- ry — and thus, all of Seattle sports. Gus Williams’ famous toss of the ball to the rafters in Landover almost three weeks later never happens if the Sonics don’t find a way to beat a Suns team that hadn’t lost at home in 10 weeks — and with a fourth quarter in which they held the lead only once. The road to Phoenix A fter losing in Game 7 of the Finals at home to Washington the year before, the Sonics were a popular pick to win it all in 1979. Certain- ly, Walker says, that was the only goal the teamhad. But it was hardly a smooth ride. Center MarvinWebster was lost in the summer to the New York Knicks as a free agent, and one of his replacements, Tom LaGarde, suffered a season-end- ing knee injury after playing only 23 games. Dealing with injuries and players in new roles, the Sonics lost six straight games in December. But by the time the playoffs rolled around, the Sonics were rolling, finishing with the second- best record in the NBA and best in theWestern Conference. They plowed through the Los Angeles Lakers (the year before they draftedMagic Johnson) in the conference semifinals. That brought on the Suns. When they won the first two games at home by 15 and six points, most of the Sonics figured they’d go to Phoenix and split and come home and win in five and head to the Finals and a hoped- for rematch withWashington. Forward John Johnson told re- porters after the Game 2 win that he didn’t think Phoenix could play any better than it already had. A funny thing happened early in Game 3—Suns star center Alvan Adams suffered an ankle injury that looked like it might knock himout weeks (he would actually miss three games). That figured to be all the Sonics need- ed to coast to an easy series win. Instead, it proved a stunning change in the series’ fortunes and gave Sikma the biggest mental challenge of what is officially a Hall of Fame career after his election earlier this year. Into Adams’ role stepped 6-7 rookie Joel Kramer, who would average only 3.8 points in a five- year career in which he started only four games. But Kramer was a vastly more physical player than Adams, and that seemed to throw off Sikma, who suddenly couldn’t hit a shot. “He had had some success against me, and I don’t know if I ever inmy career felt as much pressure to kind of get it going as I did during times in that series,’’ Sikma said. He would shoot just 23% in Games 3, 4 and 5. The first two of those games were losses in Phoe- nix that set up a seemingly pivot- al Game 5 on a Friday night at the Kingdome. After the Sonics had built a sizable lead early, the Suns pressed, and Sikma still couldn’t hit —he went 3 of 13 and scored just nine points. The Suns out- scored the Sonics 33-25 in the final quarter for a 99-93 win and needed only to beat the Sonics at home roughly 36 hours later to head to the NBA Finals. “You lose Game 5 at home and you’re like, ‘really?’ ’’ Walker said. “But I don’t remember any sense of panic or anything. We were a calm team, and Lenny (Wilkens) was a calm coach. But obviously there was lots to worry about. The odds weren’t good for us.’’ A Mother’s Day setup? I n fact, heading to Phoenix, the Sonics appeared destined to be on the wrong side of NBA history. To that point, only four times had an NBA team taken a 2-0 lead and lost the series. Entering the 2019 season, teams that took a 2-0 lead in a playoff series were 262-20. After losing Game 5 at home to go down 3-2, the Sonics’ odds were among the lowest they could be. In NBA playoff history, a team that wins Game 5 to go up 3-2 takes the series 83%of the time. “This is hard to believe,’’ John Johnson told Sports Illustrated. Throw in going on the road— Phoenix had won 16 consecutive games at home — and, well, it was hard to argue with the lead < Sonics FROM C1 MA T T MC V A Y / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S , 1 9 7 9 The Seattle locker room was a sea of smiles after the Sonics held off the Phoenix Suns to keep their title hopes alive. From left: Gus Wil- liams, Fred Brown and Wally Walker. Seattle Times’ sports covers from before and after the May 13th game show how the Sonics had their backs against the wall against the Suns in the Western Conference Finals. Sikma lunged to get a hand in his face. “I contested it,’’ Sikma said. “But you just never know.’’ “I thought it was good,’’ Silas said in the next day’s Seattle Times. “When it went over the basket, I was the happiest man in the world.’’ Sikma remembers feeling the weight of the world off his shoul- ders —his mysterious slump finally over and the Sonics head- ing home with hopes still alive. “I think I grew a lot from that experience,’’ Sikma said. “And it weighed heavy. But we hung together as a team. And I just remember how big that one was, especially since I think we felt the most pressure in that series.’’ Sikma would go on to play one of the best games of his career four days later, scoring 33 points — the most he would ever score in 102 career playoff games — and grab 11 rebounds as the Sonics won Game 7 at the King- dome 114-110 (a furious late rally made the score look a little closer than it was) to advance to the Finals for a second consecu- tive year. From there it was a relative breeze, with the four straight wins over Washington to take the title after an opening-game loss on the road. Williams appeared a few days later on the cover of Sports Illus- trated commemorating the first major professional sports title for a Seattle team in the modern era. But toWilliams, there was no bigger moment than that day in Phoenix. “Game 6,’’ Williams said in an interview years later when asked for the definingmemory of his Sonics career. “To win that game on the road, it was a great feeling and it just seemed like we were destined to do it.” Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. On Twitter: @bcondotta Sikma remembers feeling the weight of the world off his shoulders — his mysterious slump finally over and Seattle heading home with hopes still alive. FROM THE SPORTS FRONT