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Scrappy Sonics hustle past Bulls

Seattle's Ray Allen, left, avoids Chicago's Eddy Curry to score two points on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Seattle's Ray Allen, left, avoids Chicago's Eddy Curry to score two points on Tuesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

CHICAGO – Reggie Evans helped Seattle adapt its game to beat the Bulls.

Evans grabbed 19 rebounds to spark the SuperSonics to a 99-93 victory over Chicago on Tuesday night.

“Reggie was dynamite. The scrapping, the hustle,” Sonics head coach Nate McMillan said. “We had to win the hustle game against this team. We felt that was the way they would win the game.”

Rashard Lewis scored 30 points, and Ray Allen had 17 points and seven assists for the Sonics, who improved to 22-8 on the road.

Ben Gordon had 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for Chicago. He made two free throws to cut the Sonics’ lead to 93-91 with 50.3 left.

Antonio Daniels then found Nick Collison for an easy basket for the Sonics. After Antonio Davis hit a jumper for Chicago with 25 seconds left, Vladimir Radmanovic made two free throws for a 97-93 lead with 10 seconds left.

Andres Nocioni added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Bulls.

Lewis took advantage of his size to make 11 of 14 field goals while Allen struggled on 5-of-18 shooting.

“He (Lewis) is having a great year, but if we put bigger guys on him he will drive by us and smaller guys he shoots over, so we don’t have a great matchup,” Bulls head coach Scott Skiles said.

Officials called a tight game after the Sonics criticized the officiating in their 100-97 loss to the Bulls on Friday night in Seattle. Chicago committed 37 fouls, a United Center record for one team.

Tyson Chandler wasn’t sure if the officials considered the Sonics’ complaints.

“I don’t know. You would hope not. I know one thing, the game was called in two different styles,” Chandler said.

Allen, one of the more vocal critics Friday, thought the officiating was better.

“I thought it was consistent, at least,” Allen said. “All you ask is the referee be consistent and they were that tonight.”

The Sonics pulled away late when Jerome James beat Chandler on a cut to the basket for an easy dunk and was fouled by Kirk Hinrich. James hit the free throw to convert the three-point play, giving Seattle an 87-81 lead with 4:12 left.

Nocioni cut the Seattle lead to 89-85 on a three-point play, but the Sonics answered with an alley-oop dunk by James from Daniels.

Danny Fortson fouled out in just 6 minutes for Seattle. Chandler and Gordon played limited time for Chicago because of foul trouble.

Trailing 66-54 with 6:50 left in the third quarter, the Sonics closed out the quarter by outscoring the Bulls 20-3. The Bulls didn’t score a field goal the rest of the quarter.

Radmanovic hit a 3 tying the game at 67 and Daniels’ jumper gave Seattle a 74-69 lead with 22.2 seconds left in the third. The Sonics outscored Chicago 28-12 in the quarter.

“I thought they got tired (in the third quarter). We kept bringing in fresh bodies,” Allen said.

Notes

Bulls forward Luol Deng will likely be back next week. Deng has missed seven games since being placed on the injured list with a sprained right ankle. … Sonics guard Ronald Murray had a right hip bruise and didn’t play in the second half.