For one brief, shining moment, all seemed well in the KeyArena as the clock ticked ever closer towards the end of the fourth quarter. After a lackluster second half had all but negated the Seattle SuperSonics' strong first half play, they suddenly found the energy they had been bereft of.

The insertion of rookie Vladimir Radmanovic paid immediate dividends, as he lit a fire under a Sonic offense that had been colder than the snowy weather outside. First, Radmanovic found a cutting Gary Payton under the hoop for an easy layup that cut Portland's lead to two. The next trip down, fellow foreigner Peja Drobnjak ran the offense from the top of the key to perfection, hitting Radmanovic for a textbook jumper from the right wing to knot it up at 77 all. Thirty seconds later, Payton ran a fast break to perfection, slicing through the heart of the Blazer defense for a layup that rolled through to the delight of the near-sellout crowd.

Portland coach Maurice Cheeks signaled for timeout, the fans cheered the up-tempo song, and life was good.

As quickly as it had arrived, however, the illusion was dashed by a precise Portland offense and an aggressive defense that confounded the Sonics to no end on each side of the court. Point man Damon Stoudamire wasted little time in finding Rasheed Wallace alone at the top of the key for a three pointer which sent the lead back to Portland. After the teams traded scores, Stoudamire made another find, an open Derek Anderson in the left corner. His triple attempt too found nothing but net, and the Sonics were suddenly on the defensive, down four with two and a half minutes to go. They would cut the lead to two again on a Desmond Mason jumper, but were incapable of stopping the Blazers, who ran off six more points before a meaningless Payton three served as a tourniquet, making for a 92-86 final.

Despite the advantage of homecourt, the Sonics had simply been outplayed by Portland down the stretch.

It seemed clear throughout much of the second quarter that the game's end would be insignificant, as the Sonics looked to be running away with things when a 10-0 run put them up 16 as halftime approached. After a timeout, Portland regrouped behind the steady veteran hand of Scottie Pippen, who scored or assisted on four of the next five Portland makes. Even more rapidly than the Sonics had run up their 10-0 spell, the Blazers neutralized it with a 12-0 run of their own.

Pippen could control the offense; what he could not control was his displeasure with the refs. A foul called against him drew Pippen's ire, and he drew two technical fouls before any teammate could intervene. Suddenly, Portland had not only lost their best player thus far, but also the momentum. Just minutes later, the Blazers picked up another technical, their fourth of the half -- Dale Davis had drawn one for arguing a foul call and throwing the ball earlier -- when the usual suspect, Rasheed Wallace, went momentarily berserk over a personal foul he picked up. All told, the Sonics scored four points in just four seconds of game time, allowing them to return their lead to a seemingly secure 10 at halftime.

By the resumption of play, however, the Blazers had refocused while the Sonics appeared to lose theirs. Portland's Cheeks intelligently forced the Sonics into a halfcourt game, a style the Blazers are far more adept at than the Sonics. The move also took the crowd out of the game; they sat in stunned silence as Portland ran off 11 straight points to start the period and take the lead for the first time since the first quarter.

Myriad factors explained the Sonics' offensive impotence in the third quarter. Payton, named earlier in the day to the All-Star team as a reserve, was Seattle's primary offensive weapon, leading with 27 points, but was listless in the third quarter, failing to score. Their top post player, Vin Baker, was hampered by a bruised shoulder before leaving for good four minutes into the third. Barry (3 of 10) and Rashard Lewis (5 of 12) struggled with their shooting. And the Sonics' three centers, Jerome James, Art Long, and Drobnjak, combined to shoot just 3 of 11.

On the other end, Baker's absence and Cheeks' willingness to make Seattle coach Nate McMillan match him by playing big instead of playing into his hands with a smaller lineup allowed monster games for both Wallace and center Dale Davis. Davis looked like an All-Star, taking advantage of slow Sonic rotations off double-teams to make 9 of 10 shots, score 20 points, and grab a game-high 14 rebounds. Wallace chipped in 16 and 13 of his own accord.

All that meant that Portland cut Seattle's lead to one after three quarters, and established a margin of their own by opening the final period with three straight baskets. The Sonics still had a minute and a half of good play left in them, but that was not nearly enough, as their successful 3-1 east coast road trip went by the wayside.