Warriors Win Battle In Seattle 98-91
The last time Golden State beat Seattle, Chris Webber was playing, Don Nelson coaching and the Warriors were on their way to the playoffs.
"This is a totally different team now," said Muggsy Bogues, after Golden State stunned the Supersonics 98-91 Thursday night, snapping a 12-game losing streak to the Supersonics and nine-game overall losing streak.
No players on the current Warrior roster were on the team that beat Seattle 121-100 on Jan. 14, 1994. But Sonics coach George Karl was more worried about a different kind of history.
"We have a history of playing games like this against teams that aren't playoff teams," Karl said. "Golden State embarrassed us. This loss hurt us."
The loss dropped the Sonics one game behind the Chicago Bulls for the best record in the league. They also are percentage points behind Utah for the top spot in the Western Conference.
"We expected to just show up and win," said Seattle' Detlef Schrempf, "but we're just not good enough to do that."
Golden State stretched a 71-65 lead after three quarters to 83-70 after Todd Fuller's turnaround jumper with 7:45 remaining.
Seattle cut it to 92-87 after two Gary Payton free throws with 2:20 to play, but the Warriors sliced over a minute off the clock on their next possession, extended by a kicking violation on Seattle.
After Jason Caffey missed a desperation jumper with the shot clock about to expire, Jimmy Jackson charged in for the offensive rebound and dished a no-look pass to Clarence Weatherspoon, whose dunk gave the Warriors a 94-87 lead with 1:14 to play.
Seattle never had the ball trailing by fewer than six points again.
"Tonight the intensity was there ," Weatherspoon said. ``They have a lot of guys who are physical in the middle and can dominate games. We just tried to take it to them and not let them get going inside."
Jackson led the Warriors with 19 points, adding nine assists and seven rebounds. Donyell Marshall scored 16 points with 15 rebounds and a career-high seven assists, while Weatherspoon had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Schrempf paced Seattle with 21 points. Vin Baker had 15 points and 14 rebounds, but was just 6-for-18 from the field.
Golden State outrebounded Seattle had 58-38, including 23 on the offensive board.
After trailing for most of the first half, Seattle took its first lead, 43-42, on Schrempf's short jumper with 1:54 left and maintained a 48-47 halftime lead.
An early surge by the Warriors saw them ahead by 11 late in the first quarter, when a running jumper by Muggsy Bogues made it 24-13 with 1:46 left.
The Sonics then outscored the Warriors 7-0 over the final 91 seconds, trailing just 24-20 when Dale Ellis converted a lay-in to close the quarter.
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