Salt Lake City ? Rashard Lewis scored 22 points, Ray Allen added 19 and the Seattle SuperSonics ended an eight-game losing streak at Utah with a 98-88 victory over the Jazz on Monday night.
Clinging to a 73-72 lead going into the fourth period, the Sonics went on a 14-5 run capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic.
While the Sonics scored with long-range shots, the Jazz forced up shots to beat the clock or gave the ball away. The Jazz had a season-high 25 turnovers which Seattle turned into 23 points. The Sonics went 13-of-14 from the line in the fourth quarter to clinch the win.
The Sonics had lost eight straight and 11 of 12 at Utah. Seattle last beat the Jazz in Utah on Feb. 1, 2000, a 104-96 victory.
Luke Ridnour scored 11 points, while Ronald Murray and Danny Fortson each had 10 for Seattle.
Matt Harpring scored 22 points and Raja Bell and Carlos Boozer had 16 points each for the Jazz.
Lewis, who has struggled when facing Andrei Kirilenko, got plenty of open shots because Kirilenko is still out with a sprained knee. The Jazz are 3-11 since Kirilenko was injured.
Boozer had 14 rebounds but committed eight turnovers for the Jazz, who lost four of five games on their pre-Christmas road trip and are 6-7 at home this season.
A study in contrasts, the Sonics are usually best when they are able to freelance while the Jazz run a set play on nearly every possession and rely on precise execution. But Utah’s offense repeatedly sputtered down the stretch as it shot 6-of-23 in the final period and stretched its streak of sub-.500 games to 11.
After the game was tied at 52 at halftime, Boozer’s dunk punctuated a 12-1 run that gave Utah a 66-58 lead.
The Sonics came right back and reclaimed the lead by scoring 13 straight points, including Ridnour’s 3-pointer that made it 71-66 with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Notes: Fortson got a technical foul after pushing and yelling at Mehmet Okur after a scramble under the basket in the second quarter. … Seattle is 10-1 in back-to-back games this season after going 17-27 last season. The Sonics play Philadelphia on Tuesday. … Antonio Daniels, Seattle’s leading scorer off the bench with a 12.2 average, didn’t make the trip due to acute tonsillitis. … Carlos Arroyo, formerly Utah’s starting point guard, has played less and less since an on-court argument with coach Jerry Sloan and didn t get into the game until late in the third quarter. He went scoreless.
