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Sonics 113, GRIZZLIES 103
Payton leads Sonics past Vancouver
VANCOUVER (CP) -- When someone showed Gary Payton the Vancouver Grizzlies' marketing pitch at Monday's shootaround, the Seattle SuperSonics' mercurial point guard laughed and said he'd probably score 40 points.
Payton was still laughing that night after doing exactly that and coming within one point of his career high as the Sonics dismantled the Grizzlies 113-103.
"Yeah, I joked about it," Payton said of a local newspaper advertisement proclaiming that Vancouver point guard Mike Bibby "will turn The Glove (Payton's nickname) inside out."
Said Payton: "But when you see stuff like that, I'm not really concerned about it. I just go out and play my game. I'm not averaging twentysomething points for nothing.
"For someone to come out there and say 'they're going to do this' or whatever the campaign is to get people in the stands, then let them do it."
Payton, the only NBA player averaging more than 20 points, six rebounds and six assists a game, broke open a close contest in the third quarter by leading a 21-2 charge after the Grizzlies had taken a 62-60 lead.
"It was something that just happened," he said. "Coach (Paul Westphal) let the ball be in my hands a lot and we (isolated) a lot.
"When coach gives me the opportunity like that he wants me to make something happen."
Payton's performance also included a game-high 11 assists and overshadowed Bryant Reeves's best game for the Grizzlies this season.
Reeves scored 25 first-half points by hitting his first 11 shots, and finished with a season-high 31 points and a game-high 12 rebounds before sitting with foul trouble.
He had been averaging five points a game after coming back from a knee injury that sidelined him five games.
"I just hit my first shot or two and got into an offensive groove and was able to get good shots," said Reeves who finished 13-for-16 from the field. "But it's all for nothing right now, without a win."
The loss was the ninth in a row for the Grizzlies, who are creeping up on the 11-game losing streak that precipitated coach Brian Hill's firing in December.
"I thought he was Shaq there for awhile," Westphal said of Reeves.
"But he came back to earth in the second half and our defence kicked in, particularly in the third quarter and let us get a little bit of a margin. Gary pretty much took care of the rest."
The Sonics had six players in double figures. Ruben Patterson had 15 points, Brent Barry 14, Horace Grant and Rashard Lewis 13 each and Vernon Maxwell 10.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim began 2-for-11 from the field but finished with 17 points after scoring 11 in the fourth period.
He and Dennis Scott, who was 4-for-6 from three-point range for 12 points, helped the Grizzlies close to within four in the fourth quarter after they trailed by as many as 17.
Notes: The teams meet again Thursday in Seattle, Vancouver's last road game before nine in a row at GM Place. ... Seattle's Vin Baker remained out of the lineup with a strained left hamstring. ... The Grizzlies went into the game allowing opponents to shoot 47.3 per cent against them, the highest percentage in the league.
Summary
SEATTLE (113)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Grant 42 6-14 1-2 4-11 2 4 13
Patterson 39 6-11 3-5 5-8 1 5 15
Mccoy 19 1-6 2-3 2-7 1 4 4
B Barry 37 6-8 0-0 1-3 2 2 14
Payton 43 14-27 12-15 0-3 11 3 40
Foster 14 2-4 0-0 0-0 0 3 4
Maxwell 16 3-7 3-5 0-1 0 0 10
Lewis 30 5-9 2-2 2-5 1 0 13
Baker DNP - hamstring injury
Davis DNP - coach's decision
Stepania DNP - coach's decision
Williams DNP - coach's decision
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 240 43-86 23-32 14-38 18 21 113
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.500, FT-.719. 3-Point Goals:
4-13, .308 (B Barry 2-4, Payton 0-3, Maxwell 1-4,
Lewis 1-2). Team rebounds: 9. Blocked shots: 2
(Lewis, Mccoy). Turnovers: 10 (Grant 3, B Barry
2, Maxwell 2, Payton 2, Lewis). Steals: 12 (Grant
3, Payton 3, Lewis 2, Patterson 2, B Barry,
Mccoy).
VANCOUVER (103)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Abdur-rahim 39 5-17 7-7 0-7 3 3 17
Harrington 23 4-6 1-1 2-6 0 3 9
Reeves 34 13-16 5-6 5-12 4 5 31
Bibby 41 6-15 0-0 1-3 9 4 12
Dickerson 37 5-12 2-3 0-3 2 3 12
West 18 1-1 0-0 1-3 3 3 2
Lopez 7 2-3 0-0 1-1 2 3 4
Scott 25 4-8 0-0 0-0 3 2 12
Long 16 2-3 0-0 2-5 1 1 4
Ekezie DNP - coach's decision
Parks DNP - coach's decision
Price DNP - coach's decision
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 240 42-81 15-17 12-40 27 27 103
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.519, FT-.882. 3-Point Goals:
4-15, .267 (Abdur-rahim 0-1, Reeves 0-1, Bibby
0-4, Dickerson 0-3, Scott 4-6). Team rebounds: 6.
Blocked shots: 4 (Abdur-rahim 2, Bibby,
Dickerson). Turnovers: 18 (Reeves 8, Bibby 3,
Harrington 2, West 2, Abdur-rahim, Long). Steals:
7 (Abdur-rahim 2, Bibby 2, Long 2, West).
____________________________________________
Seattle 29 31 32 21 - 113
Vancouver 28 30 22 23 - 103
____________________________________________
Technical fouls: Vancouver 1 (Illegal Defense,
9:19 2nd). Flagrant fouls: None. A: 14,510. T:
2:06. Officials: Ron Garretson, Greg Willard,
Mike Smith.
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