SACRAMENTO, CALIF. ? The Seattle SuperSonics got the message from their mourning coach that they desperately needed to scrap and hustle.
After being booed at home a night earlier, Ronald Murray needed little motivation to work harder. Neither did his teammates following a 19-point beating by San Antonio.
Murray scored a season-high 23 points in place of ill leading scorer Ray Allen to lead the Sonics to an impressive 106-101 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.
This was an important win for the Northwest Division-leading Sonics, who had lost four of seven and are dealing with the absence of coach Nate McMillan following the death of his mother.
McMillan’s lone complaint about the loss to the Spurs was that his players hadn’t gone hard enough to loose balls and the boards. Reggie Evans’ 15 rebounds told the story that this was a different night completely.
“Guys came out and gave it today — the effort I knew they had in them,” fill-in head coach Dwane Casey said. “That’s the way we’ve got to play. We can’t play like we’re the hunted. We have to play like we’re the hunter. That’s what got us here.”
Rashard Lewis added 24 points, and the Sonics finished with six players in double figures to end a four-game losing streak at Arco Arena. Seattle hadn’t won in Sacramento since Feb. 17, 2002.
Allen missed his second straight game with the flu, but Murray came in and played much bigger than his 4.6 points-per-game average.
“I knew I had a bad game yesterday,” Murray said of his 5-for-17, 13-point performance. “I didn’t let that get me down. I told them tonight I’d have a better game.”
Mike Bibby had 25 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Darius Songaila added a career-high 19 points and seven rebounds for the undermanned Kings, but Sacramento missed key chances late. Cuttino Mobley had 18 points and five assists as Sacramento again played without star forwards Peja Stojakovic and Chris Webber.
Stojakovic has back spasms and missed his fourth straight game. Webber has a sore left knee, which was surgically repaired last season.
The Sonics whipped the Kings 108-78 in Seattle in November, one of Sacramento’s two season-worst, 30-point defeats.
Neither team is at full strength now because of injuries — and neither looked like a top team in the Western Conference. Both came in at 30-13, but this game featured too many fouls to allow players to get into any kind of a flow.
There were nearly more technicals in the third quarter — five — than there were nice plays.
Allen, Seattle’s All-Star guard, saw a team doctor Tuesday and didn’t travel to Sacramento, but the Sonics hope he’ll be healthy enough to play Saturday at home against Charlotte.
The Kings trailed 82-75 going into the fourth quarter, but kept chipping away at Seattle’s lead. Bibby’s long jumper with 4:58 left tied it at 93. The teams traded leads late, with Vladimir Radmanovic’s layin with 1:15 left giving Seattle a 98-97 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“There were a couple times when hustle plays came into effect at the end of the game that might have pushed it over the edge for us,” Bibby said. “We’ve got to forget about it.”
Casey coached his second straight game. McMillan is scheduled to rejoin the team for practice Sunday following his mother’s funeral in North Carolina. The memorial service is Friday, but McMillan will miss Saturday’s game. Jeanette Tyson, 62, died last Sunday.
“This game tonight was for Nate and his family,” Casey said.
The Kings jumped out to a 20-9 lead in the first quarter, but the Sonics quickly found their rhythm and got back in it. Seattle shot 50 percent in the first half to 39.8 percent for the Kings, and the Sonics led 50-49 at the break.
Notes: Before the game, the Kings exercised their one-year option on coach Rick Adelman’s contract, keeping him in the fold through next season. Even though Adelman has taken the Kings to the playoffs every year since coming to Sacramento in 1998, owners Joe and Gavin Maloof waited to see how the team started this season before deciding whether to pick up his option for 2005-06. … Seattle’s Jerome James was ejected with 9:01 left in the third quarter after picking up his second technical foul for arguing a blocking foul called against him. James and Bibby exchanged words moments earlier on the other end and each was hit with a T. Sacramento’s Brad Miller got a technical at 7:37, then Seattle’s Danny Fortson was hit with one just more than a minute later. Early in the fourth quarter, Kings F Michael Bradley got a flagrant foul on Fortson. “We lost our composure again in that third quarter,” Adelman said. “You’ve got to stay in the game.” … The Kings attempted a season-high 30 3-pointers. … Raiders coach Norv Turner watched from courtside.
