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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
BOSTON (AP) -- Gary Payton and his Seattle teammates probably wish the snowstorm in Boston had never let up.
After being forced to remain in Milwaukee because of the weather
in Boston, the SuperSonics' seven-game winning streak ended with a
111-86 loss to the Celtics on Friday night.
|  | | Employee No. 8, Antoine Walker, drives toward two of his 21 points. |
The Sonics didn't arrive in Boston until noon Friday.
"It snowed, they got in late on a back-to-back game and we got
the benefit of that," Celtics coach Rick Pitino said. "We'll take
our wins any way we can."
Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce each scored 21 points to lead
Boston to its first four-game winning streak since Dec. 23, 1997,
Pitino's first season as coach. Seattle suffered its second-worst
defeat of the season and lost for the first time in seven road
contests.
"If you're going to lose, you might as well get blown out,"
said Seattle coach Paul Westphal. "It's happened to us a few times
this year. We just couldn't find anything that worked."
Boston jumped out to a 10-point first-quarter lead and led the
entire game against one of the league's hottest teams.
The Sonics cut the deficit from 15 to six midway through the
second quarter on Ruben Patterson's layup, but that was as close as
they would get. The Celtics responded with a 17-4 run capped by
Vitaly Potapenko's short jumper that made it 56-37.
Boston went into halftime with a 20-point lead after Walker
swished a 30-foot heave at the buzzer.
"We're just in a nice groove right now and we caught a tired
team tonight," Walker said. "We tried to double-team Gary Payton as much as possible and it was just a big win for us."
The Celtics continued to put on the pressure in the second half.
Walker scored six of the team's first 10 points and Kenny Anderson
connected on a 3-pointer that gave the Celtics a 71-45 advantage
with 8:45 remaining in the third quarter.
Westphal sat his starters in the fourth quarter, and the Sonics
couldn't get closer than 25 the rest of the game.
"They jumped on us early and we didn't respond and we payed for
it," Payton said. "This is a young team that's still learning. We
won the fourth quarter, but believe me, we're not happy about
that."
Anderson finished with 19 points and five assists while Danny
Fortson had his best game as a Celtic, scoring seven points and
grabbing a team-high 13 rebounds. Boston outrebounded Seattle,
60-42.
The Sonics also shot just 38 percent from the field, including
coming up empty on all eight of their 3-point attempts.
"We play better against the better teams because we're nervous
about getting embarrassed by them," Anderson said. "Believe me,
even though we had a big lead we were nervous at halftime."
Boston (19-20) moved to one game shy of the .500 mark and
improved to 15-6 at home this season.
Vin Baker led the Sonics with 19 points and Payton added 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
It was the Sonics' first loss since Jan. 8 against the Los
Angeles Lakers.
Game notes
Celtics guard Calbert Cheaney missed the game to be with
his wife, Yvette, who went into labor . ... Boston forward Eric
Williams missed the game with a sore right knee. ... Payton's
streak of hitting at least one 3-pointer ended at 40 games. ...
Payton, as usual, trash-talked with the opposition. After the first
quarter, he was yelling at Walker and during play minutes later was
going at it with Fortson. ... Pierce suffered a contusion to his
left eye early in the third quarter when he was poked by Patterson.
He later returned. ... This was the first meeting between the teams
since the 1997-98 season. ... Portland defeated the Sonics 107-81
on Dec. 16.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Seattle Clubhouse
Boston Clubhouse
RECAPS
Boston 111
Seattle 86
Washington 123
Indiana 113
Miami 101
Atlanta 79
Phoenix 101
Denver 99
Golden State 115
Cleveland 103
Minnesota 95
LA Clippers 89
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