PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 21 (Ticker) -- The hot-shooting Seattle SuperSonics shot down the Philadelphia 76ers' hopes of reaching .500.

Facing the league's best defensive team, the Sonics shot a franchise-record 66 percent from the field and coasted to a 109-98 victory.

The final was not as close as the score indicated as Seattle led by as many as 22 points early in the final period. The Sonics finished 41-of-62 from the field, including 8-of-13 from 3-point range.

Philadelphia allowed only one of its first 39 opponents to shoot better than 50 percent, but the Sixers had no answers for the Sonics.

It was a far cry from the teams' earlier meeting, when the Sixers posted an 87-77 win in Seattle on January 4.

NBA.comTV highlights from Sonics-Sixers: 56k | 300k Gary Payton swoops in for two of his 28 points against the Sixers. Jesse Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

"I thought we did a good job executing our offense, setting better screens than we did in the first game (against the Sixers) and moving the ball to the open shooter," Seattle coach Nate McMillan said. "But I always look at the defensive end of the floor. I thought we played solid defense and kept those guys out of the paint for the most part.

Gary Payton scored 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting and handed out 11 assists for Seattle. Vin Baker added 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting, while Rashard Lewis hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points.

"We were in a rhythm with everybody shooting the ball well," Payton said. "I think we executed and then just concentrated on making our shots. We did a good job executing today. The first time we played them, we could not make a bucket. Today, we executed and did the right things."

The Sonics committed 20 turnovers, including eight by Payton, that the Sixers converted into 23 points. But Seattle overcame its sloppy ballhandling with deadly shooting.

"We couldn't guard them," Philadelphia coach Larry Brown said. "We started the game off with the Sonics 12-for-16 and we're down, 26-20. I wasn't feeling bad, but we couldn't guard them the whole game."

Having won four straight and seven of their previous nine, the Sixers (19-21) have been showing signs of turning things around following a 12-18 start. But the loss ended Philadelphia's hopes of hitting the midpoint of the season over .500.

Allen Iverson tried to rally the Sixers after Philadelphia's disastrous third quarter, but it was too little, too late. Iverson scored 38 points and hit a 3-pointer with 8:54 remaining in the contest to go over the 10,000-point mark in career scoring.

"We knew Iverson was going to get his points," Payton said. "He is going to get a lot of opportunities to score, we just had to make sure the other guys had big games. That is what we usually do. We shut down the star player and then the other guys have big games and we have problems. But today we did what we had to do. We did not play him (Iverson) as well as we wanted to, but we played everyone else well."

The Sonics broke open the contest by outscoring the Sixers, 36-20, in the third quarter and took an 85-65 lead into the final quarter.

The Sonics shot a stunning 82 percent in the third quarter, making 14-of-17 shots. In the earlier meeting, Seattle managed only 14 points in the third period and shot 32 percent.

"It's hard not to get frustrated because you play good defense on certain plays and they still make shots," Iverson said. "They just had one of those nights. They shot 64 percent in the first half and we were only down four. That says a lot about us as a team."

Through three quarters Monday, the Sonics shot 70 percent (35-of-50), threatening the NBA mark of 70.7 percent set by the San Antonio Spurs at Dallas on April 16, 1983.

Seattle cooled off slightly in the final period, but still bettered the previous team mark of 64.9 percent set against the Houston Rockets on April 13, 1996.

After eight lead changes in a four-minute stretch, Lewis hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Sonics a 49-45 halftime lead.

With the Sixers trailing 57-52, Baker's jumper with 9:05 left in the third quarter, ignited a 7-0 spurt, and the Sonics never looked back. McMillan was not happy with the way his club closed out the contest, but the outcome was not in doubt.

"They really hurt us in the paint last game and we wanted to keep (Speedy) Claxton, (Eric) Snow and Iverson out of the paint," McMillan said. "I thought today we did that and we were able to get stops."

Brent Barry's 3-pointer gave Seattle a 104-87 cushion with 2:46 to play. Matt Harpring made two foul shots to get the deficit under 10 with 32 seconds left, then converted a technical against Desmond Mason to make it 106-98.

After Payton made 1-of-2 from the line, Philadelphia's hopes for a miracle finish ended when Raja Bell missed a 3-pointer with 20 seconds.

Harpring and Dikembe Mutombo scored 13 points apiece for the Sixers, who shot 44 percent (25-of-79).

Mason contributed 16 points off the bench and Barry added 10 for the Sonics, who opened a four-game road trip.