Sonics Get Home-Court Edge Over Houston The Hardaway -- Seattle Loses Finale, But So Do Rockets

OAKLAND - Already suffering from a bum right knee, he took a hard bump to his right thigh early in the contest. The best of his teammates had been sidelined weeks ago with injuries not that much worse. His team had been ousted from the playoff picture a week and a half ago.

Despite all that, Golden State's Tim Hardaway was as smug as his nickname - Bug.

If the Seattle SuperSonics were entertaining any thoughts of ending the second-most successful regular season in club history on a positive note, Hardaway dashed them early in the fourth quarter.

Three straight times, he took a Sonic on the wing, gave them his renowned, UTEP-two-step move, limped and grimaced his way into a trio of defenders and deposited the ball into the hoop, as if it belonged there all along.

With nothing but pride on the line, Hardaway scored a season-high 41 points to help squelch the Sonics 119-109 before 15,025 here yesterday. And if he didn't exactly prove he is the best basketball player on this planet, he at least proved he is the best without a playoff series to worry about.

"I think he wanted to beat us," Sonic Coach George Karl said, "and in a lot of ways, he was the reason we lost."

How did Hardaway beat them? Let us count the ways: In addition to the second-highest scoring output of his NBA career, he dished out 18 assists, snared seven rebounds, collected two steals and a block in 45 minutes. He also repeated history, in a way.

Three years ago, Hardaway scored a last-second layup on the last day of the season to knock the Sonics out of the playoffs, in favor of the Houston Rockets. Yesterday, in losing a season finale to the Warriors for the third time in four years, the Sonics missed an opportunity to clinch the home-court advantage in a possible second-round matchup against - further irony - the Rockets.

Houston later obliged, losing 119-117 in overtime last night to San Antonio. So the Sonics, by virtue of a 3-1 regular-season series advantage, will have home-court advantage against the Rockets, should the two meet in the second round.

"I didn't know if they needed the win, or whatever," said Hardaway, downplaying his gadfly history with the Sonics. "I just wanted to play hard, play well. We lost to them four straight times. We just wanted to win one.

"Basically, I tried to take over the game, from beginning to end."

Whatever his reasons, it was obvious Hardaway had it in for the Sonics. He scored seven points as the Warriors rolled up an early 15-6 lead, and had 15 in the opening period. The Sonics managed to lead only three times, briefly near the end of the first quarter and at the beginning of the second.

Hardaway finished the season with averages of 21.5 points and 10.6 assists per game, becoming just the fifth player in NBA history to average 20 or more points and 10 or more assists in two consecutive seasons. Kevin Johnson, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas were the others.

Eddie Johnson, who led the Sonics yesterday with 22 points, said, "We knew Hardaway was going to come out and be an offensive threat, regardless of what happened. Even if he started out two for 20, he was going to keep shooting. He made some unbelievable shots. A lot of times, he had three guys all over him, and he still made them."

The Warriors needed every drop they could wring out of Hardaway. They ended the season with four top players - Chris Mullin, Sarunas Marciulionis, Billy Owens and Chris Gatling - sidelined with injuries. The ravaged Warriors finished with a 33-49 record after dashing through last season at 55-47.

Things evened out a bit when Nate McMillan (right knee bruise) and Ricky Pierce (sinus infection) could not answer the bell for Seattle, and even further when Gary Payton was slowed by a hyperextended and badly bruised right shoulder. Payton, the Oakland native who had two impressive fast-break slams in the game, hurt his shoulder while crashing into a blind-side pick by Byron Houston, burly Warrior forward, in the second quarter.

By then, however, it was obvious that home-court advantage in the second round was too abstract a goal to motivate the 55-27 Sonics, who otherwise had little to play for. Hardaway and the Warriors, on the other hand, had nothing to save themselves for.

"They knew that tomorrow they could go to Hawaii and cool out," McMillan said. "We knew that tomorrow we are going back to work."

--------------------------------- SONIC REPORT --------------------------------- NOTES MCMILLAN DECRIES INJURIOUS FOUL

Seattle's Nate McMillan still is upset about the flagrant foul committed by the Lakers' Vlade Divac that left him with a badly bruised right knee. McMillan accompanied the team here in anticipation of playing, but the pain was too much. He was replaced in the lineup by Vincent Askew.

"He went at me - point blank," McMillan said of Divac, who was ejected for the play. "In talking to some of their players, their coach (Randy Pfund) made some comments about taking guys out if they go to the hole. He (Divac) didn't even try to block the shot."

Coach George Karl said Gary Payton, who suffered a bruised shoulder in yesterday's game, may be held back in early workouts. Ricky Pierce, who missed a second game with a sinus infection, is expected to be available for practice today. Eddie Johnson got kicked in the leg, but didn't think it was serious. The Sonics will practice twice today and tomorrow, then once a day until Friday's series opener against the Utah Jazz at the Coliseum.

-- Some 900 tickets remained this morning for Friday's game, and 1,100 tickets for Sunday. Call Ticketmaster. All home playoff games can be viewed through pay-per-view on cable. First-round games cost $21.95 in advance or $26.95 on game day, and are available by calling your cable distributor. Road games will be televised by KIRO-TV, Channel 7.