May 24, 2000
Metro/Sports
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Suspect arrested as Wolves grapple with loss
The M innesota T im berw olves are
trying to focus on M alik S ealy ’s life
and not the w rong-w ay and possibly
drunken driver who ended it.
“ If being angry brought back Malik
Sealy, 1 think w e’d all be angry,” vice
W ednesday to present the case to
the H ennepin C o u n ty A tto rn ey ’s
O ffice for formal charges.
Investigators said Phengsene was
driving the w rong w ay on H ighw ay
100 early Saturday m orning w hen his
pickup sm ashed into S ealy ’s sport
u tility tru ck in th e M in n eap o lis
suburb o f St. Louis Park, fatally
injuring the popular player who was
retu rn in g from te am m ate K evin
G arnett’s 24th birthday celebration.
An em ergency w orker reported that
Phengsene, w ho w as convicted o f
drunken driving in Des M oines, Iowa,
three years ago, sm elled o f alcohol as
he was extricated from the wreckage.
Blood tests are pending.
M cHale said the team was trying to
rem em ber the good tim es such as
Sealy’s buzzer-beating basket against
Indiana this season, the first gam e
w inning bucket o f his career.
“ W e w a tc h e d th e sh o t a g a in s t
Indiana w hen he banked it in and h e’s
on the floor and h e ’s got his hands
raised and h e’s kicking his legs,”
M cH ale said, sm iling. “ I think th a t’s
president K evin M cH ale said. “ But
nothing anybody’s going to do or
say right now is going to change the
events o f 4 a.m. on M ay 20. T hat’s
w ritten in stone.”
O n M onday, the State Patrol arrested
Souksangouane Phengsene, 43, o f
M inneapolis, w ho rem ained under
guard at H ennepin C ounty M edical
C enter, w here h e’s being treated for
se rio u s in ju rie s from th e crash.
I n v e s tig a to r s h a v e u n til n o o n
the way I’ll always remember him, just
the smile. And the interview s and the
intelligence.”
M cHale insisted the team held no
anim osity for Phengsene.
“Y ou can be angry at a lot o f things,”
M cH ale said. “ W hat good does that
d o ?”
T he Timberwolves are planning to fly
to the funeral Friday on the cam pus o f
St. John’s, where Sealy starred before
being drafted by the Indiana Pacers
Malik Sealy
A ssociated P ress
Page B3
Reversal leaves Lakers facing ‘atmetest’
in 1992.
A ll th e p la y e rs e x c e p t R a sh o
N esterovic, w ho has returned to
Slovenia, are expected to attend.
On M onday, Tim berw olves coach
Flip Saunders attended a m em orial
cerem ony for Bill M usselman, w ho
coached him at the University o f
M innesota in the 1970s and served as
the W olves’ first coach.
Saunders broke dow n as a prayer at
that service was said for Sealy, w ho
is survived by his newlywed wife,
Lisa, and their 3-year-old son, M alik
Remington.
“ I had a tough tim e today,” Saunders
said. “ But I think it’s going to be that
w ay for a while. It’s going to be like
that for our players for a while.”
Sealy w as com ing o ff the best season
o f his eight-year N BA career, and he
w as a big part o f their franchise-best
50-32 record.
“ I hear people say w e had a great
year, 50 wins. But that doesn’t matter.
Because no matter what, thisyearw ill
go dow n as a loss,” Saunders said.
Lisa Sealy released a statement saying
the fam ily was deeply moved by the
sym pathy o f the Tim berw olves, the
NBA, friends and the public. Shesaid
the family was “thankful to know that
M alik was loved by so m any.”
Sealy was one o f the more affable and
intelligent players in pro sports.
He had parts in com m ercials and
m o v ie s a n d w as a s u c c e s s fu l
busin essm an . He played for the
Pacers, Clippers and Pistons before
finding a niche with the W olves
A ssociated P ress
There was no need forhack-a-Shaq
tactics M onday night at the Staples
Center.
Now, how about som e CPR for the
Los A ngeles Lakers?
Shaquille O ’Neal was m issing free
throws, all right, but it had little
bearing on theTrail B lazers’ 106-77
victory over the Los Angeles Lakers
to even the best-of-seven W estern
Conference finals 1 -1.
The Blazers seized control with a 20-
0 third-quarter run, punished the
Lakers the rest o f the way, and left
o w n e r P aul A lle n , s ittin g at
courtside, with a nodding smile at
gam e’s end.
“T hat’sone,” Allen said. “It is going
to be a tough series. It will be good
to be hom e for the next two gam es.”
The Blazers had lost 17 consecutive
playoff road gam es to the Lakers
dating to the 1977 cham pionship
season. Beyond that, the Lakers
were 42-5 at hom e this season,
including 6-0 in the playoffs.
It d id n ’t m atter M onday. T he
Blazers blanketed ShaquilleO ’Neal,
shut dow n Kobe Bryant and made
their 109-94 G am e 1 loss a distance
memory, handing the Lakers their
most one-sided loss o f the season.
We w ere bad; they were good,”
said O ’Neal, who scored 14ofhis 23
points in the fourth quarter. “(The
Blazers) didn’t make any adjustments;
we ju st relied on jum pers too much.
They were packing it in on me, daring
our shooters to shoot.”
Just like Saturday. This tim e, though,
the Lakers w ere m issing. They shot
39.1 percent from the field, including
6 o f 23 from three-point range.
The Blazers led only48-45. then broke
it open by outscoring the Lakers 28-
8 in the third quarter. T he Blazers
used a huge advantage at the free-
throw line (35-17) and won the second-
h alf rebounding battle 26-12. They
even got three third-quarter three-
pointers from Rasheed W allace, who
had been 8 for 50 from three-point
range in the regular season.
“That was quite a gam e by Portland,"
Los A ngeles coach Phil Jackson said.
“They d id n ’t shoot that well, but
they had a gam e plan that worked wel 1
against us. T hey pounded the ball in,
drove it to the hoop, created foul
situations and put us on our heels.
W e played on our heels in the second
half. “They played great defense —
you can ’t take anything aw ay from
them — but our offense execution
was poor. W e got a little ragged there
in the third quarter. But their defense
in that third quarter was great.”
Jackson said the Lakers played an
“awful” first half.
“ I went i nto the locker room and said,
‘ If that is as good as they can do with
us playing that poorly, and they are
only on top by three points ... we
surely can play a much better second
half.’ We came out and played
w orse.”
O ’Neal finished with 23 points and
12 rebounds in 39 minutes, but he
had just nine points through three
quarters and was 5 o f 17 from the
free-throw line. A rvydas Sabonis
and Brian Grant had defensive
coverage, and Scottie Pippen came
with help every tim e the ball went in
deep.
Pippen also went to the basket hard,
getting 21 points and 11 rebounds.
He m ade nine o f his 12 free throws.
“ Scottie hurt us m ore w ith his
offense than his defense,” Jackson
said. “Then, in the second half, it
was W allace who got untouchable
for a bit. That really bombed us.”
Bryant, who had 13 points in the
opener, was 2 for 9 from the field and
finished with 12 points. Already, he
had an eye on Friday’s Game3 at the
Rose Garden.
“That place is going to be rock and
ro llin ’,” Bryant said. "W e will be
ready. This makes it a little more fun.
It’s all about challenges. It’s about
o b stacles.”
The Lakers made one for themselves
M onday night. “ We won all our
hom e gam es in the first two rounds
oftheplayoffs,” 0 ’Neal said. “Now
we have our hands full. This is going
to be a true test for us.”
The next streak: Tiger takes aim at Byron Calkins caps his career with third straighttitle
J
s*
T iger W oods’ streak o f consecutive PGA T our victories
ended at six in San Diego. A nother streak ended in
G erm any w hen, for the first tim e in 16 tournam ents
w orldw ide. W oods failed to win after having at least a
share o f the 54-hole lead.
O K , h e’s human.
But with each tournam ent, W oods creeps closer to a
record that has stood for m ore than 50 years — Byron
N elson’s streak o f 113 tour events w ithout m issing the
cut.
W oods is not even halfw ay there — 48 going into the
M em orial. But considering he has m issed only one true
cut in his career, the only thing that figures to stop him
is injury.
If W oods w ere to keep pace with his current schedule
— and continue to m ake the cut — he w ould tie
N elson’s mark around the 2003 U.S. O pen.
T he “cut w atch” has been issued tw ice this year.
W oods w as on the bubble on the back nine o f the Buick
Invitational, squeezed in and had a share o f the lead Sunday
before finishing second to Phil Mickelson.
He w as on the cut line again tw o week ago in the Nelson
Classic, m ade it w ith three strokes to spare, then w ent 67-63
on the w eekend and finished one stroke out o f a playoff.
W oods never paid too m uch attention to the winning streak
because a) it spanned tw o seasons and b) he failed to win a
European tour event during that stretch.
W hy is this streak so special?
“ It m eans that even when y o u ’re playing bad, y o u ’re still
fighting and you have the m ental tenacity to hang in there on
those bad days and get it around w here you m ake cuts,”
W oods said. “ I ’m not going to dog it out there. T h at’sju st not
m y style.”
W oods counts his streak at 52, dating to the 1997 Canadian
O pen in M ontreal, the only 36-hole cut he missed. The PGA
T o u r’s num ber o f 48 dates to Pebble Beach in 1998, where
W oods w ithdrew instead o f returning seven m onths later in
A ugust to com plete 54 holes.
W oods w as at 4-over 148 after two rounds and would have
needed a 65 to m ake the cut.
T r a i l B la z e rs from page 1
Los A ngeles is 43-6 at home.
W a lla ce , w h o drew h is se co n d
technical in G am e 1 for glaring at
referee Ron G arretson, said he had no
special m otivation M onday night.
“ I’m just going out there and playing,”
W allace said. “ My preparation for
this gam e w asn ’t any different than
G am e I.”
W allace had 11 points and five
rebounds in the third quarter, w hen
the Blazers outscored Los A ngeles
28-8, tying the Lakers’ playofflow for
that quarter and ju st tw o short o f the
N BA record-low for a third quarter,
set by A tlanta against B oston on
May 6,1986.
“T he first h a lf was just aw ful and we
w ere only dow n by three points,”
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We
certainly could play a better second
h alf was my m essage to the team at
halftim e, and we went out and played
w orse.” Scottie Pippen had 2 1 points
and 11 rebounds for Portland. He
scored 17 points in the first hal f as the
Blazers took a tenuous 48-45 lead.
Sm ith scored 24 for the Blazers, who
are 3-3 against Los A ngeles this
season and the only team to win twice
on the L akers’ court.
“M y m indset w as to attack,” Pippen
said, “establish that w e w eren’t going
to be a jum p-shooting team .”
The Lakers m ade just tw o o f 15 shots
in th e th ird q u a r te r an d w e re
outrebounded 14-5, even though
O ’Neal played the entire 12 m inutes.
Bryant said it w as the best defense,
and the w orst quarter, the Lakers
experienced all season.
Brian Shaw ’s 3-pointercut Portland’s
lead to 56-51 w ith six m inutes left in
»
the third, but it would be the L akers'
last field goal o f the quarter.
S m ith 's inside basket started the run
and W allace's third 3-pointer ended
it, putting the Blazers ahead 76-51
w ith 8.5 seconds left in the quarter.
“T hey pressed the ball and drove to
th e h o o p an d p u t us in fo u l
situations,” Jackson said. “They had
us back on our heels.”
B ryant’s two free throw s with 1.3
seconds allow ed the Lakers to avoid
tying the NBA p layoff record for
lowest-scoring third quarter and made
it 76-53 going into the fourth.
“W e got a little desperate in the
m iddle o f the third quarter,” Jackson
said, indicating he should have cal led
tim eout. “ I take credit for this. I left
them to hang out to dry a little bit too
long and try and find their ow n w ay
back out o f that m orass, and they ju st
couldn’t find their w ay out.”
A ssociated P ress
M ichael Calkins, called by his coach
“arguably the best high school kid to
e v e r p la y te n n is in O r e g o n ,”
com pleted a brilliant career Saturday
with his third Class 4A boys singles
cham pionship.
The Jesuit senior becam e the third
player— and first in more than a half-
century — to win three 4 A boys titles
when he defeated Jon Endrikat o f
North M edford 6-2, 6-1 at Tualatin
H illsT ennisC enter.
C alkins finished his high school
career with 56 consecutive victories
— 17 this season — after losing the
state final as a freshman.
“ Mi ke also scored 3 8 o f a possible 40
points in his four state
tournam ents, which would at least tie
Red Bullet’s trainer
happy with win
A S S « I a I II l P rlss
Joe O rseno was right.
For the better part o f three w eeks, the
trainer o f Red Bullet told anyone who
w ould listen that Kentucky D erby
w inner Fusaichi Pegasus was not
unbeatable.
On Saturday, his lightly raced colt
proved him right. Red Bullet pulled
o ff to a 3 3-4-length victory over
Fusaichi Pegasus in the $1 million
Preakness on Saturday and ended
the $4 m illion co lt’s bid for a Triple
Crown. “I’m excited,glow ing, I feel
real good,” O rseno said. “ I'm not one
to hide my em otions. I’m happy.”
Orseno, who trains privately for Frank
Stronach, perhaps the most influential
m an in racing, decided 30 m inutes
after a 4 1/4 -length loss to Fusaichi
Pegasus in the W ood M emorial to
skip the Derby and get ready for the
Preakness.
“ It ju st seem ed like the right thing to
do for the colt,” O rseno said. “And it
paid o ff today .”
A lthough there w ere m any w ho
b e lie v e d O rs e n o w a s d u c k in g
Fusaichi Pegasus, Orseno simply said
his colt was not experienced enough
to m ove on and needed tim e off. Five
weeks after his only loss, the son o f
Unbridled made it four w ins in five
career starts.
“ T h is w as u n b e lie v a b le ,” said
O rseno, w ho last w eek sad d led
P im lico S pecial w in n er G olden
Missile. “Turning for hom e he put in
the m ove I thought he could put in.
He ju st needed another opportunity
to go out and do it.”
PORTLAND FIRE OPENING NIGHT
the all-tim e record, if not be the all-
tim e record,” Jesuit coach Je ff W ood
said.
Endrikat took a 2-0 lead on Calkins,
then got a close-up look as the
C rusader blew past him to w in 12 of
the next 13 games.
“ I played great today,” said Calkins,
18, who defeated Dustin T aylor o f
Lakeridge 6-3, 6-1 in the m orning
semifinals.
“ W hat can I do?” Endrikat said as he
walked o ff the court. “I’m giving it my
all, playing the best I can, and h e’s
blowing ball after ball by me. You
can ’t beat him when h e’s playing like
that.”
The last to win three boys titles was
Tom M acdonald ofG rant, from 1946
to 1948. The only other three-tim e
w inner was Emery Neale o f Grant
(1937to 1939).
Endrikat, a 17-year-old senior, beat
undefeated Beau Smith ofC leveland
6-3,7-5 in the m orning semifinals.
Jesuit also won the doubles with Jake
Sunshine and Ricky Humphries, and
th e C ru sa d e rs w o n th e ir th ird
consecutive team title, scoring 24
points to more than double the score
on the runner-up teams.
L ak e O sw e g o , L in c o ln , N o rth
Medford and Sheldon shared second
place with 10 each.
T he fourth-seeded Sunshine and
H um phries beat top-seeded Todd
L indbloom and R yan F elker o f
Roseburg 6-2,6-1 in the final.
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