Van Exel and the Magician's 10 assists, 3 of which were during Zhang Hao's fast breaks, leaving only 7 from regular organized offense.
Under such circumstances, despite Van Exel scoring 26 points, Zhang Hao scoring 17 points, Doug Christie scoring 21 points with 1 assist and 2 steals, and Jason Williams relying on 4 offensive rebounds to score 10 points with 8 rebounds... the team only scored 90 points!
On the other hand, the Lakers' defense was actually decent. Del Harris's targeted arrangements were quite effective, reducing the number of shots by the SuperSonics' core players. However, it couldn't stop Payton from making 7 out of 12 shots and 6 out of 6 free throws to score 23 points, and Kemp from making 6 out of 8 to score 18 points.
In the end, the score was fixed at 90 to 97, with the Lakers losing to the SuperSonics by 7 points.
