Knicks 97 - Supersonics 80

By CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Basketball Writer
December 10, 2002

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Knicks turned back the clock Tuesday night and played with some of the toughness they've been missing in recent seasons.

Allan Houston scored 25 points, Kurt Thomas had 22 and New York's point guards combined for 24 in a 97-80 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday night.
 
 
The Knicks snapped a three-game losing streak with surprising ease against the Sonics, who were the less physical team. Thomas even mixed in a little extracurricular activity at the end, confronting Vladimir Radmanovic as the teams left the court.

``He gave me a little shot at the end, and I wanted him to know I didn't appreciate it -- whatever his name is,'' Thomas said.

Seattle was without its second-leading scorer as Rashard Lewis served a one-game suspension for throwing a punch, and the Sonics missed him on both ends.

Gary Payton scored 20 points but had only four assists -- more than six below his league-leading average, while Radmanovic added 17 points and Desmond Mason, making his first start of the season, had 12.

``We really got pushed around out there and got taken out of what we wanted to do by the physical play,'' Seattle coach Nate McMillian said. ``We knew we had to be physical with these guys, but Thomas just dominated the game when he was in.''

Thomas shot 10-for-16, while Howard Eisley and Charlie Ward scored 12 points each for the Knicks on a night when Latrell Sprewell struggled and scored only nine points.

New York took a double-digit lead in the second quarter and held onto it for most of the rest of the game, turning back Seattle's push in the fourth quarter when the Sonics twice pulled within seven.

Calvin Booth had a chance to cut the deficit to five but missed two free throws with 6:30 left. Houston then hit a turnaround and Thomas made a 6-footer to get the lead back up to 11, 84-73.

Consecutive 3-pointers by Ward later in the quarter got the lead up to 14.

Chaney praised his team for its perimeter defense against Seattle's shooters, along with a balanced offensive attack despite recent comments by Sprewell and Houston expressing a desire to get more shots.

Chaney also highlighted the poise his team showed down the stretch to go along with toughness that was there for all 48 minutes.

``We haven't seen that in quite awhile. Our guys really muscled up and were a little tougher than we usually are,'' Chaney said.

Payton had only one assist when the third quarter ended with the Sonics trailing 71-59, but he tripled that total in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter as Seattle made its run.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Radmanovic and Payton made it 77-71 and forced the Knicks to call timeout, but Ward hit a 3-pointer on New York's next possession to prevent the Sonics from keeping the momentum.

Houston scored 14 and Thomas 12 in the first half, which ended with the Knicks ahead 46-35. Coming off a 51-percent shooting performance in their previous game against Miami, the Sonics shot only 34.1 percent in the first half and 37.5 percent for the game.

``This one was kind of like being at a dance club and there's disco on but you're dancing to salsa music. There was absolutely no rhythm to what we were doing, and we never caught on. It was a very strange game,'' Seattle's BrentBarry said.

Notes

The game was Chaney's 82nd since taking over following Jeff Van Gundy's surprise resignation a year ago. His record over that span is 26-56. ``I don't assess it as a full season because it's not,'' Chaney said. ``I only go by my assessment of this year, and we're getting there.'' ... The Sonics placed C Jerome James on the injured list, partly to clear the way for the expected return of C Vitaly Potapenko, perhaps by the end of the road trip, following offseason knee surgery. ... Seattle hasn't won at Madison Square Garden since Nov. 24, 1996. ... The Knicks are 2-0 against teams from the Pacific Divisionand 0-6 against teams from their own division, the Atlantic.

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