Best Offense Is Defense for Seattle in Victory

It begins with defense and ends with offense for Seattle, which stayed calm, created havoc in Utah and took care of the Jazz on Wednesday night.

The SuperSonics forced 21 turnovers and survived a fourth-quarter Utah comeback in a 101-93 win at Salt Lake City in only the fourth home loss for the Jazz this season.

“They forced us to turn the ball over, and then they capitalized on the other end,” Utah Coach Jerry Sloan said. “There were whole stretches of the game when we couldn’t get the shot we wanted.”

Seattle scored the first seven points of the period to take a 91-73 lead with 9:45 to play, but the Jazz stormed back with a 14-0 run in less than four minutes. Bryon Russell’s three-point basket cut the SuperSonics’ lead to 91-87 with 5:12 left.

Seattle’s defense shone when it counted most. The SuperSonics led, 97-93, with 1:24 to play when they forced Utah to commit a shot-clock violation. Vin Baker and Gary Payton then made consecutive jump shots to seal the win.

“That was our defense stepping up,” Baker said. “That was what we talked about today--letting our defense create our offense.”

Baker had 28 points, including 20 in the first half, and 10 rebounds for Seattle. Karl Malone led Utah with 27 points and 15 rebounds.

Miami 86, New York 82--Tim Hardaway scored 15 of his 27 points in the final quarter to help the Heat strengthen its hold on first place in the Atlantic Division with a victory at Miami in the first game between the two teams since last season’s stormy seven-game playoff series.

Miami won that series after a fight in Game 5 that led to the suspension of five Knicks and the Heat’s P.J. Brown.

There was no fight Wednesday, but there was an injury. New York lost guard Chris Childs, who suffered a concussion when he was accidentally kneed in the back of the head by Miami’s Eric Murdock. Allan Houston scored 27 points for the Knicks, who outrebounded Miami, 51-32, but shot only 35%.

Boston 104, Washington 102--Antoine Walker, who had taken a spot on the All-Star team from Chris Webber, made a fadeaway jump shot over Webber as time expired to give the Celtics a win at Boston.

With the game tied, 102-102, Boston inbounded the ball to Chauncey Billups, who used up most of the 18.5 remaining seconds before passing to Walker in the middle. He pivoted, jumped backward and put up a high arching shot that swished in as the buzzer sounded.

Indiana 93, Philadelphia 90--Travis Best led the Pacers with 17 points and limited Allen Iverson to six points in an overtime victory at Philadelphia.

Iverson, who appeared to take a shot to the jaw in the fourth quarter, didn’t talk after the game, saying his mouth hurt. He was two for 11 from the floor, with six assists and six rebounds.

Best’s driving layup started a 5-0 run at the beginning of overtime, and the Pacers went on to win for the ninth time in 10 games.

Detroit 91, Orlando 86--Grant Hill had 29 points and 12 rebounds for the Pistons, who led by 11 points in the fourth quarter and blew the lead before taking charge.

Orlando rallied to tie it, 80-80, on Mark Price’s basket with 2:24 to play before Joe Dumars put Detroit ahead with a three-point basket.