OAKLAND, Calif. – With five victories in eight days, the Seattle SuperSonics finally have begun to resemble a playoff team.

Ruben Patterson scored six of his 20 points in the final minutes as the Sonics held off the Golden State Warriors 104-99 Sunday night for their fifth straight win.

One of the league's hottest teams, Seattle plays 10 of its final 13 games at home, including six straight beginning Monday night against Philadelphia. But the Sonics face an uphill climb to avoid missing the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

Sunday's victory still left them in 10th place in the West, four games behind eighth-place Minnesota.

"We're not out of the picture," said Patrick Ewing, who had 12 points and three blocks, including a crucial rejection of Chris Porter's jumper with 48 seconds left.

"We just have to continue to win. We have some more games against the teams that are right above us, so we have to make sure that when we play them, we get them."

With Larry Hughes, Marc Jackson, Bob Sura – three-fifths of their starting lineup – and Paul McPherson in street clothes with injuries, the Warriors dressed the NBA-minimum eight players. Still, the undermanned Warriors gave the Sonics an unlikely challenge before losing their 10th straight game.

Antawn Jamison had 24 points as the Warriors lost for the 17th time in 18 games.

"No matter how close you play the first three quarters, it doesn't matter if you get blown out or if you lose by two or three points," Jamison said. "Every day, the numbers get greater and greater on the "L" column. It's just frustrating. You just wish you could run away and hope for the madness to stop."

Golden State led 95-93 with 2½ minutes to play, but Patterson hit a jumper and converted a three-point play. After two Golden State misses, Gary Payton hit a running layup with 30 seconds left, then stole the Warriors' inbounds pass.

"We weren't as sharp as I would like us to be, but the execution was there late in the fourth quarter," Seattle coach Nate McMillan said. "Our traps were really aggressive and took them out of what they wanted to do."

Payton, an Oakland native who waved to his mother in the crowd several times, had 19 points and seven assists as Seattle earned its seventh straight win over Golden State and the 19th in the teams' last 21 meetings.

Rashard Lewis had 19 points and eight rebounds in Seattle's balanced attack. Brent Barry added 13 points.

"We finally started executing at the end," Lewis said. "We waited until the last few minutes to decide to play defense."

Golden State looked good in the first half, with 13 points from Mookie Blaylock and a 16-2 run in the first quarter. But Seattle was even better, shooting 59 percent and going 6-of-8 on 3-point attempts.

Blaylock had 21 points and 15 assists for the Warriors, who outrebounded Seattle 54-39. Chris Porter tied his career-high with 20 points, while Adam Keefe started and hit the first 3-pointer of his career, finishing with nine points.

The Warriors have lost eight straight at home and haven't won at the Oakland Arena since Feb. 7. That may explain why the crowd barely stirred in the fourth quarter when Blaylock, Jamison and Porter each made several tough shots to keep the Warriors ahead.

"We did tell the guys that they were wearing down," McMillan said. "I could see Mookie really looking for wind, and Jamison was breathing kind of hard. We wanted to keep as much pressure on them as possible."

Game notes
Evander Holyfield watched from the front row in a seat next to the head of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP. San Francisco 49ers receiver Terrell Owens also saw the game. ... Danny Fortson, Chris Mills and Chris Mullin also sat in street clothes on the Warriors' bench. ... Payton's 19 points gave him 14,992 in his career.

Send this story to a friend