Raptors Win, Carter Hurt

With Vince Carter sitting, Alvin Williams stepped up for the Toronto Raptors.

Williams scored the winning basket with 0.1 seconds left as the Toronto Raptors overcame a late injury to Carter to beat the Seattle SuperSonics 94-92 Sunday.

Carter, who had a game-high 23 points, collided with teammate Morris Peterson trying to prevent Rashard Lewis' dunk with 1:30 left and had to be helped off the floor with a bruised right calf.

"I'm a little sore right now. I'll have to rest it a while and see how it feels," said Carter, who had ice wrapped on it after the game but is not expected to miss any games. "It should be OK."

After Vin Baker knotted the score at 92 on a layup with 14 seconds remaining, Mark Jackson brought the ball up the court and missed a tough drive to the basket. Kevin Willis missed the tip-in and Williams came flying in from the key to put down the winner sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Peterson had a career-high 22 oints in his first start since leading Michigan State to the NCAA championship last year. The rookie's previous high was 18 against Chicago.

"I was a little nervous. Anybody would have been for their first NBA (start), but the guys made me feel comfortable out there," said Peterson, who was averaging seven points in 16.7 minutes entering the game. "I wanted to come out and play with some fire and get the crowd into it."

Willis had 16 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high six blocked shots to help push Seattle's losing streak to a season-high four games.

Charles Oakley, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, also had a career-high six blocked shots as Toronto had a 18-4 edge over Seattle.

"That was a great effort from everyone. We were looking for them when they came to the basket," Willis said.

Lewis led Seattle with 21 points, Baker added 20 and Ruben Patterson had 18 points. Gary Payton was limited to 13 points on 6-for-20 shooting.

"We are so slow getting into the offense, they were able to see it and trap it," Seattle coach Nate McMillan said. "A couple of times we got into our offense with 10 seconds left and they weren't even pressuring us. The bottom line is you've got to play within the system and we're not doing that."

Patrick Ewing needed just five points to reach 24,000 in his career, but was shutout on 0-for-4 shooting in 14 minutes.

Seattle, down by 14 points in the second quarter, fought back to 82-80 four minutes into the fourth quarter on Baker's hook shot, but Toronto strung off eight straight points to go up 10 with 5:17 remaining.

Carter led the Raptors to an early 12-point lead in the first quarter, hitting an alley-oop and a 3-pointer off pretty passes from Mark Jackson.

"It was a tough loss for us because we fought our way through," Baker said. "Mo Peterson was definitely the x-factor for them."

The Sonics fought back in the second with Brent Barry's 3-pointer giving Seattle its first lead of the game, 48-47, but Carter and Corliss Williamson's baskets gave Toronto a 50-47 lead at the half.

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