Allen paces Sonics past Hawks

Rashard Lewis posted 25 points and 10 rebounds for Seattle, which snapped a seven-game road losing streak. Chris Wilcox scored 16 points while Luke Ridnour notched 15 points and 12 assists for Seattle, which ended its longest road slide since losing eight straight from November 24-December 22, 1991.

"Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen were really special, and I think everybody got a chance to see now what Wilcox is going to bring to our team," Seattle coach Bob Hill said. "Wilcox, to me anyway, is someone you can raise your eyebrow about."

Al Harrington scored 24 points for Atlanta, which lost its second straight game. Josh Childress scored 20 points, and Joe Johnson notched 18 points and 11 boards. Marvin Williams netted 17 points, while Josh Smith added 14.

"It’s been a long time since we’ve won, period," Allen said. "Just winning a game is paramount around here. We haven’t played that poorly, we just haven’t put together four quarters. Tonight we were wavering a little bit but we hung with it. I liked the fight that we had out there, and that carried us through."

Lewis scored a jumper in the lane with 1:20 remaining to give Seattle a 110-105 lead. After Harrington scored a free throw with 1 minute on the clock, Smith hit a three with 40.3 seconds left to cut Atlanta’s deficit to 110-109. Ridnour scored a jumper from the right wing with 18.7 seconds on the clock, however, to put the Sonics up 112-109.

Johnson missed a three to tie the game with 10 seconds left. After the Sonics threw an errant inbound pass, they recovered possession on a jump ball between Williams and Lewis. Allen scored a pair of free throws with 1.2 seconds on the clock to seal the win for Seattle.

Seattle led 30-26 after the first quarter. The Hawks outscored the Sonics by six points in the second quarter, and took a 61-59 lead into halftime.

Ridnour hit Wilcox on an alley-oop slam with 4.7 seconds remaining in the third quarter to cut Seattle’s deficit to 87-86 heading into the fourth.

"He [Allen] made some big shots," Smith said. "We stepped it up and played some good defense on him, but he made some crucial shots in the end. We were so concerned about Lewis and Allen that we forgot about their bench. They came in and made some big plays and big shots."

The SuperSonics continued a six-game road trip, and have won just two of their last 10 games overall.

"We sorely needed to win a game," Hill said. "That was a team win. I thought we really got a lot of good performances from a lot of people. We got stops, we’re not a great defensive team but the team we had on the court at the end did what they needed to get the stops. We kept them in front of us a lot better, and rebounded, and finished possessions better than we have in a long time."

The Hawks’ dropped their fifth game in seven tries and snapped a three-game winning streak at Philips Arena. Atlanta is 11-15 at home this season.

Game Notes

Seattle has won five straight versus Atlanta and six of the last seven meetings. The Sonics posted a 99-91 win in the first matchup on February 10th. Seattle, which is 11-4 in the last 15 meetings with the Hawks, has won three in a row in Atlanta and six of its last seven trips to Philips Arena.