RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- These aren't the same Los Angeles Clippers
the Seattle SuperSonics are accustomed to. Gary Payton and his
teammates nearly found that out the hard way.
Payton scored 25 points and Rashard Lewis added five of his 13 points on free throws in the final minute as the SuperSonics outlasted the Clippers 86-83 Saturday night.
"The Clippers are a real energetic team and they come out and play hard the whole game, even if they don't win," Lewis said. "None of us were shooting the ball well, including myself. But we played good on the defensive end and made them turn the ball over
an enormous amount of times, and that's what won the game."
Lamar Odom had 27 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers, who were trying for their third straight victory -- which would have matched their longest winning streak last season.
"Our defense was sensational tonight," said Seattle coach Paul
Westphal, whose team forced the young Clippers into 30 turnovers.
"We shot 34 percent from the field, 20 percent from threes and 63
percent from the line. So we didn't win this with skills. We won it
with hard work."
Trailing by nine with less than four minutes left, the Clippers
rallied. Tyrone Nesby's 3-pointer trimmed Seattle's lead to 78-76
with 2:13 left.
"They have a lot of talent on that team and they play hard,"
echoed Patrick Ewing, who finished with 16 points and 10 recounds. "They play very good defense and they believe in themselves. They're very athletic and they can jump. They made us take tough
shots."
When asked if he'd ever seen a team shoot 34.4 percent for an
entire game and win, the former Knicks center grinned and said,
"Yeah -- New York."
Payton sank one of two from the line to make the score 82-80.
Nesby's 3-point shot hit the back rim, and Lewis sank two free
throws for a 84-80 lead with 9.6 seconds left.
Eric Piatkowski hit a 3-pointer with 5.3 seconds left, but Lewis
calmly sank two more from the line.
"You have to execute down the stretch, especially when it comes
down to free throws, or it can cost you the game," Lewis said.
Piatkowski tried a desperation 3-point shot that fell short as
time expired, and the Clippers protested to no avail that
Piatkowski was fouled on the shot.
The Clippers, who had allowed fewer than 80 points in their
previous four games, made only one jumper in the first 4:26 of the
fourth quarter. But they sank nine of their first 10 free throws
during a 13-7 run that sliced an eight-point deficit to 71-69 with
7:11 remaining.
The Sonics, aided by rookie Darius Miles' two missed free
throws, ran off the next seven points to take a 78-69 lead,
matching their biggest of the game to that point.
"Inexperience plays a big part, especially finishing games at
the end," Odom said. "We knew what we wanted to do, get the ball
in my hands, have me draw as many people as I could so that
somebody could make the open shot."
Payton led Seattle's first-half scoring with 15 points despite
missing nine shots. The Sonics took the lead for good with a 9-0
run that gave them a 35-26 advantage with 5:53 left in the half.
"We didn't play our kind of basketball in the first half," Odom said. "We played lackadaisical around the boards and I didn't see anybody dive for the ball."
The highlight of the half for the Staples Center crowd of 12,271
came in the final seconds of the second quarter when Nesby snuck up
on Ewing's blind side and stripped him of the ball at the top of the key before racing the length of the court for a tomahawk dunk.
Guard Jeff McInnis, one of the Clippers' most reliable shooters, sat out the final 21½ minutes because of a bruised right knee that has bothered him since Thursday's victory at Vancouver.
Game notes
Jim Todd, who coached the Clippers for the final 37 games
last season after the firing of Chris Ford, is on the mend after
undergoing prostate cancer surgery a couple of weeks ago. ... The
Clippers placed F Brian Skinner on the injured list because of a sprained right ankle and activated rookie F Zendon Hamilton.
Skinner was limited to 33 games last season because of a sprained
left ankle. ... The Sonics have beaten the Clippers six straight
times in Los Angeles and 12 of 13 altogether. The only loss during
that stretch was the 1999-2000 regular-season finale at Key Arena,
which prevented the Clippers from ending the campaign with an
18-game losing streak. ... Payton played in his 797th game with the
Sonics, passing assistant coach Nate McMillan for second place on
the franchise list. He is still 166 behind Fred Brown.
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NBA Scoreboard
Seattle Clubhouse
LA Clippers Clubhouse
RECAPS
Toronto 111
Milwaukee 102
Washington 109
Boston 89
Minnesota 94
Atlanta 84
Miami 86
Portland 80
New Jersey 97
Indiana 92
Houston 94
Phoenix 89
Denver 87
LA Lakers 86
Utah 109
Chicago 64
Dallas 91
Vancouver 88
Seattle 86
LA Clippers 83
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