Hornets overcome Sonics in OT

David West had 18 points and 14 rebounds for New Orleans/Oklahoma City, which scored a franchise-low six points in the fourth quarter, but still managed to win its third straight contest. Rasual Butler tallied 16 points and Marc Jackson contributed 13 points and 12 boards for the Hornets, who are 2 1/2 games behind the Clippers for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference.

Chris Paul narrowly missed a triple-double with 11 points, 11 boards and nine assists for the Hornets, who outrebounded the SuperSonics, 55-38.

"We knew we needed to win," Butler said. "We had the opportunity to score the ball at the end of the fourth quarter, but we weren’t getting the job done on the offensive end. So we had the opportunity to regroup in overtime and win it."

Rashard Lewis had 27 points and 10 rebounds for Seattle, which has lost three straight.

Seattle trailed by as many as 15, but forced overtime on Earl Watson’s jumper with 2.3 seconds left. West missed a shot at the buzzer, leaving the game knotted at 84.

The Hornets jumped all over Seattle in the OT, which was started by a Butler three and two free throws from Jackson. After Lewis hit a three, Jackson made two more at the charity stripe.

Lewis then missed a long-distance jumper, and Jackson countered with a three for a 94-87 lead. Lewis couldn’t connect on another three, but Butler sealed the win with another shot from beyond the arc, moving the margin to 10 points with 1:47 left.

Devin Brown scored 14 points for the Hornets.

Damien Wilkins and Watson each had 16 for the Sonics.

Seattle led 21-19 after the opening quarter, but trailed 48-45 at the break. It was 78-64 going into the fourth before falling apart.

"The beginning of the fourth quarter we changed a little bit and we went small," Sonics coach Bob Hill said. "We domed pressed them after makes back to the zone, which kind of disrupted them a little bit, and I thought they got passive, and then we got the momentum."

Game Notes

Lewis was 11-of-30 from the field, including 4-of-13 from beyond the arc...Nick Collison had 11 points for the Sonics.