Sonics Stumble At Home Jackson’s Foul Shot Lifts Pacers, Snaps Seattle’s Win Streak At Key Arena

Reggie Miller talks to his teammates as well as opponents. Mark Jackson was listening.

“Reggie was telling me to be aggressive and take my shot,” Jackson said after sinking the winning free throw with seven-tenths of a second left to give the Indiana Pacers a 102-101 victory over Seattle on Tuesday night.

With the SuperSonics focusing their defense on Miller, Jackson had eight of Indiana’s last 13 points.

“They were doubling and tripling Reggie so I wanted to keep them honest down the stretch,” the Pacers point guard said. “I don’t consider their defense a knock on me. That’s just a compliment to Reggie.”

The Pacers beat the Sonics for the second time this season and broke a three-game Seattle winning streak. It was the Sonics’ first loss in six home games this season.

Miller led Indiana with 28 points, including a 14-footer with 18 seconds left that tied the score at 101. Gary Payton paced the Sonics with 24.

Jackson drove the length of the floor after picking up a ball that Payton lost with 5.8 seconds left and was fouled by Nate McMillan as he drove to the basket. Jackson made the first free throw and missed the second.

Jackson finished with 14 points. Also scoring 14 for the Pacers were Dale Davis and Ricky Pierce, a former Sonics player. For the Sonics, foul-troubled Shawn Kemp scored 17 points in 17 minutes and Detlef Schrempf had 16.

The Sonics led 96-89 after Hersey Hawkins hit a 5-footer with 3:39 to go. Then Jackson went to work.

With 3:21 left, he made a 5-footer and added a 17-footer with 1:58 to go to cut Seattle’s lead to 96-93. Payton made a free throw with 1:39 after being fouled by Antonio Davis, but missed his second free throw attempt.

Jackson’s 10-foot driving basket and his free throw with 1:23 on the clock cut the Sonics’ lead to 97-96.

After Schrempf made an open 17-footer with 58.9 seconds, Pierce sank a 3 with 49 seconds left to tie the score at 99. Vincent Askew’s layup put the Sonics back in front with 30.7 seconds left before Miller’s final basket.

“We just wanted to win, but it was nice to hit a big shot against your old teammates,” Pierce said.