Payton Leads Sonics Past Bullets By 18

How well is Gary Payton playing? Let Chris Webber count the ways.

“Gary Payton is the man and the leader of that team,” Webber said after watching Payton’s 27 points and 11 assists lead Seattle to a 118-100 victory over Washington Saturday night.

“I’m not disrespecting great players like (Shawn) Kemp and Hersey (Hawkins),” Webber added. “But when you’ve got a man like Gary Payton, it’s 94 feet of pressure.”

Kemp and Hawkins had outstanding nights, too. Kemp added 18 points and 15 rebounds, while Hawkins scored 22 points.

The Sonics made it 13 straight victories against the Bullets. The last Washington win over Seattle came March 3, 1989.

Juwan Howard scored 21 points and Gheorghe Muresan had 20 to lead the Bullets, who lost their third straight game, all on the road.

“I thought the matchup with Gary and (Robert) Pack was really important,” Sonics coach George Karl said. “Pack penetrated us early, but as the game went on Gary definitely had the better night.”

Payton leads the NBA in steals and assists.

“Gary’s playing great, he’s playing All-Star basketball,” Hawkins said. “He’s playing great defense and he’s shooting the ball well.”

The Sonics outrebounded the Bullets 58-39.

Seattle, winning for the fourth time in five games, turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 75-53 advantage by scoring the first 12 points of the third quarter.

Payton scored seven points during the run with a 3-pointer, a 15-footer and two free throws. Washington didn’t get its first basket of the second half until Howard sank a turnaround 5-footer with 4:57 gone in the third quarter.

The Bullets lost Calbert Cheaney 3:54 into the second half when he fell hard to the floor on the back of his head while trying to defend against a driving Payton. Cheaney spent the rest of the game in the Washington dressing room.

Although Cheaney hit his head, his right knee was what kept him from returning to the game.