SEATTLE – The Seattle SuperSonics were without All-Star point guard Gary Payton again Saturday night.
Team officials said Payton should be available for Seattle's
home game Monday against Vancouver. He is expected to make his
seventh All-Star Game appearance next weekend as a Western
Conference reserve.
Payton, who served a one-game suspension 15 days ago, suffered a strained abdominal muscle Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls.
Payton did not travel with the team late Friday afternoon to Salt Lake City, where the Sonics played the Jazz on Saturday.
Payton didn't practice Friday and was undergoing treatment. Sonics trainers would not give specifics, but said Payton did not have an MRI test.
Payton wasn't available for comment, and coach Nate McMillan said the seven-time All-Star does not like to discuss injuries. McMillan said he talked to Payton about resting his body so the injury doesn't become worse.
"For so long he's been supporting that body with other muscles, so one slip -- he slipped twice last night -- and you can pull something," McMillan said. "It looked pretty painful."
Payton missed most of the first quarter of Thursday's 97-91 win, and stayed on the floor for more than a minute in the second quarter, clutching his midsection.
Television replays showed him slipping after maneuvering behind Bryce Drew to the basket with about 5:40 left in the half. He also had slipped in the first quarter.
Payton, who leads the team in scoring at 22.8 points per game,
played a season-low nine minutes.
McMillan said Emanual Davis will start for Payton. Davis played
37 minutes Thursday, scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting with two
3-pointers. He also passed for five assists, grabbed four rebounds
and made three steals.
The Sonics are already without forward Ruben Patterson, who will
miss his second straight game Saturday while serving a
league-imposed three-game suspension after being convicted of
assault earlier this week in his hometown of Cleveland.
Payton, 32, missed the Sonics' 98-93 home loss to Minnesota on
Jan. 19 when McMillan handed him a one-game suspension for a locker
room incident after a loss two days earlier to Phoenix. Without
saying what Payton did, Sonics officials said the suspension
involved "conduct detrimental to the team."
Before that game, Payton had only missed two other games in his 11 NBA seasons. He sat out March 15, 1996, when he was suspended by the league for head-butting Joe Wolf and Jan. 14, 1992, due to a chest contusion.
Payton was slowed in December and early January by a strained groin, but he did not miss any games because of injury.
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