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Happy birthday Milwaukee's Karl gets cake, good news from Cassell
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The Milwaukee Bucks celebrated coach George Karl's 50th birthday Saturday with a big cake and good news on guard Sam Cassell's sore ribs. Cassell, injured in Game 2 of the Bucks' Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Charlotte Hornets, said there's no way he'll miss Game 4 on Sunday. "I'd have to have a gunshot wound to my head not to play," Cassell said. "I'll take the pain." That was great news for Karl, who is hoping for more scoring from the veteran guard. Milwaukee has a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, and Cassell has yet to give the Bucks an offensive outburst. Cassell, who averaged 22 points in Milwaukee's first-round playoff win over Orlando, is averaging just 13.3 against the Hornets and Karl thinks the sore ribs have played a part in that. But he said he expects Cassell to play through the pain on Sunday. "Sam is Sam; he's a competitor, and he knows as well as anybody right now how important Game 4 is," Karl said. "You can tell he's not shooting the ball well, and if you go back to Game 3, some of his second-half shots were very iffy. But I believe he'll be fine." With Cassell promising to play, Karl could focus solely on the Hornets on Saturday and forget about his birthday. "Fortunately, I'm in the playoffs, so I won't have to think about it too much," Karl said. "But I think sometime midsummer I'll think 'I'm 50 years old' and probably cry a little bit. "But right now I'm more worried about the Charlotte Hornets and my team and bouncing back." The Bucks still took a little time to celebrate with their coach, wheeling out a cake at the end of practice and forcing the Milwaukee rookies to serenade Karl with a chorus of "Happy Birthday." Center Scott Williams playfully pretended he was going to smash it in Karl's face, but thought better of it. "I probably would have benched Scottie for that," Karl said. Karl declined to make a wish, saying he made one Friday night during a small party thrown for him. "The only thing I really want is not to have to come back to Charlotte," he said. The Bucks can make that happen with two consecutive wins. The series shifts back to Milwaukee for Game 5, and two wins could lock it up for the Bucks and send them to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1986. But the Hornets have no intention of going back to Milwaukee down 3-1. "We must win Game 4; there's no way around that," Charlotte coach Paul Silas said. "It's a must-win game; we have to have it to stay in this series and we think if we execute and play the way we did in Game 3, we can win it." The Hornets have been feeling pretty good about themselves since their 102-92 victory in Game 3, even if forward Derrick Coleman isn't. Coleman missed his second consecutive day of practice with a strained lower back, but Silas said he expects him to at least dress for the game on Sunday. Coleman sat out Game 3 after injuring his back in Game 2. "This is the playoffs; you play with pain," Silas said. "The only thing that should keep you out is if you can't walk. If you can walk, you can play."
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