Supersonics Whip Knicks

Now that the Chicago Bulls have lost, there’s a new hottest team in the league.

The Seattle SuperSonics played the part well Sunday night.

The Sonics won their 11th consecutive game and their eighth straight on the road with a 102-92 victory over the slumping New York Knicks.

“Tonight was the most solid basketball game we’ve played in a while. They broke us down a little in the first half, but in the second half I thought our defense wore them out,” coach George Karl said. “Right now we’re playing very good basketball, but we’re not finished yet.”

The Sonics’ trapping defense forced Patrick Ewing into a 2-for-15 shooting night and caused the Knicks to turn the ball over 21 times - almost equaling their league-leading average of 21.8 per game.

Five players scored in double figures for Seattle. Shawn Kemp scored 22, Detlef Schrempf had 17, Gary Payton had 16 points and 11 assists, Sam Perkins made five 3-pointers and scored 15 points and Hersey Hawkins also had 15.

“We only come in here once a year, so you want to leave a lasting impression,” Hawkins said.

That they did. The victory came on the fourth stop of a 10-day, six-game road trip, but the Sonics didn’t show even a hint of fatigue while looking every bit as good as the Seattle team that won 64 games last season and made it to the NBA Finals.

“They (the Knicks) had played last night and they were trying to run with us, and I thought we would have a chance to wear them out,” Karl said. “Our team was pretty confident of what we wanted to do.”

John Starks, Allan Houston and Chris Childs led New York with 13 points each. Patrick Ewing shot just 2-for-15 and scored eight points, only the 32nd time in his career that he has failed to score in double digits.

SuperSonics 102, Knicks 92

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Schrempf 32 5-12 7-7 1-5 5 1 17 Kemp 34 7-13 8-11 0-8 2 4 22 McIlvaine 26 2-3 0-0 3-4 0 2 4 Hawkins 31 4-8 6-7 1-4 2 3 15 Payton 36 6-13 3-4 1-5 11 2 16 Stewart 17 2-5 0-0 1-1 0 2 4 Perkins 23 6-8 0-0 0-3 2 1 15 Ehlo 18 2-4 1-2 1-1 1 1 7 Snow 12 1-2 0-0 0-2 1 3 2 Wingate 4 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Graham 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0 Harvey 3 0-2 0-0 0-1 0 1 0 Totals 240 35-73 25-31 8-34 24 22 102 Percentages: FG .479, FT .806.

3-Point Goals: 7-19, .368 (Perkins 3-4, Ehlo 2-2, Hawkins 1-4, Payton 1-5, Schrempf 0-2, Stewart 0-2).

Team Rebounds: 7.

Blocked shots: 6 (McIlvaine 4, Schrempf, Harvey).

Turnovers: 15 (Kemp 5, Payton 4, Hawkins 2, Stewart, Perkins, Snow, Graham).

Steals: 7 (Kemp 2, Schrempf, McIlvaine, Hawkins, Payton, Ehlo).

Technical fouls: None.

Illegal defense: None.

FG FT Reb NEW YORK Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Johnson 27 4-10 2-2 4-6 0 3 10 Oakley 26 4-5 3-3 3-7 4 5 11 Ewing 32 2-15 4-4 2-8 3 3 8 Houston 35 4-10 3-3 1-5 3 3 13 Childs 26 4-7 4-4 0-1 4 3 13 Starks 28 4-9 1-2 1-2 3 2 13 B.Williams 24 4-6 2-2 3-7 0 4 10 Brooks 7 1-1 2-2 0-1 2 1 5 Wallace 25 3-9 3-4 0-5 0 0 9 McCarty 10 0-2 0-0 0-3 0 2 0 Totals 240 30-74 24-26 14-45 19 26 92 Percentages: FG .405, FT .923.

3-Point Goals: 8-17, .471 (Starks 4-6, Houston 2-5, Brooks 1-1, Childs 1-4, Oakley 0-1).

Team Rebounds: 4.

Blocked shots: 5 (Ewing 2, Wallace 2, McCarty) Turnovers: 21 (Childs 4, Starks 4, Wallace 4, Ewing 3, Houston 2, B.Williams 2, Brooks, McCarty).

Steals: 5 (Oakley, Ewing, B.Williams, Brooks, McCarty).

Technical fouls: illegal defense, 10:04 third; illegal defense, 4:08 fourth.

Illegal defense: 1.

Seattle 24 25 36 17 - 102

New York 23 24 23 22 - 92

A-19,763 (19,763). T-2:10.