Pierce and Payton Shoot SuperSonics to Series Lead

Ricky Pierce scored 24 points and Gary Payton added a playoff career-high 23 as the Seattle SuperSonics beat Houston, 120-95, Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in a Western Conference semifinal series.

The SuperSonics, who have all three of their victories at home, can wrap up the best-of-seven series Thursday at Houston. Game 7, if necessary, will be played Saturday in Seattle.

Seattle Coach George Karl said the SuperSonics knew they couldn’t afford to lose Game 5 because of the way they played at Houston.

Payton bounced back after scoring 10 points in the two Houston games.

“I wanted to establish myself early by pushing the ball and doing other things,” Payton said after surpassing his playoff high of 22 points set in Game 2 of the series. Shawn Kemp added 19 points and 12 rebounds for the SuperSonics.

Hakeem Olajuwon had 26 points and 14 rebounds for Houston, but had no blocked shots after getting 22 shots in the first four games of the series. Vernon Maxwell, averaging 17.5 points, was limited to six points on two-for-13 shooting.

Seattle’s starting backcourt, Pierce and Payton, outscored Houston’s starting backcourt of Maxwell and Kenny Smith, 47-18.

Houston’s Scott Brooks and Seattle’s Nate McMillan were ejected after a pushing match with 42.7 seconds to play in the third quarter. Brooks said McMillan started the skirmish by elbowing him in the face as he was driving to the basket. “That wasn’t intelligent on his part,” Brooks said. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”

Said McMillan: “I’m not sure what happened.”