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Sonics-Kings: 56k | 300k  |
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Playing their first game at ARCO Arena in nearly two weeks and coming off a 5-1 road trip, the Kings posted their fifth consecutive home win and improved to a league-leading 33-6 at home.
"This is a game you always have to worry about because you don't know how the players are going to get into it," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "They played well tonight. We only had one day between the trip and the game and it's hard to get into. We came in mentally prepared."
Sacramento split its first two games of the trip and then concluded the trek with wins at Indiana, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia. In their final four games, the Kings limited opponents to 93.5 points and 41 percent from the field.
On Tuesday, Sacramento took a 51-39 lead into the locker room and never let its lead slip below 11 points in the third quarter. Midway through the fourth period, the Kings used a 12-1 spurt run to extend its lead to 94-72 with 6:48 remaining.
"This team understands what we have in front of us," Sacramento guard Doug Christie said. "We want to go out there every night and put forth a crazy effort. We just want to go out there and play hard until we get subbed out. I think that's how we did it the remainder of the road trip and tonight, I just tried to get a hand up on Ray's (Allen) shots tonight."
"It's almost kind of bad time to play them with them coming off the road and playing so well," Allen said. "Their fans miss them and they want to come home and get back re-acquainted. "The first team they had in this building was us and they showed their fans a good time."
Peja Stojakovic added 18 points and Bibby chipped in 15 for the Kings (57-22), who shot 51 percent (40-of-78) from the field and pulled within one game of Dallas and San Antonio for the NBA's best record.
Facing a virtual must-win situation in every game, Seattle (38-39) fell three games behind Phoenix for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
"Sacramento played liked they were on a mission," Supersonics coach Nate McMillan said. "We never had any control over this game. They set the tone from the start and never lost control of this game and had full control for 48 minutes."
Ray Allen and Predrag Drobnjak paced the Sonics with 22 points apiece. But Christie limited Allen to just eight after the first quarter and Drobnjak was held scoreless in the final period.
Seattle, which was coming off a pair of dramatic wins over Utah and the Los Angeles Clippers, stayed with the Kings for most of the first half. But it missed four 3-pointers in a span of 2:21 as Sacramento took a 47-36 lead on Mike Bibby's finger roll with 92 seconds remaining.
The Sonics never recovered in the second half. In the third period, they shot under 41 percent (9-of-22) and the Kings shot 73 percent (11-of-15) and took a 78-63 lead into the final quarter.
"I thought we started out the game well and the game kind of got out of control," Allen said. "Sacramento is a good team and the small little mistakes that we make on the floor, they take advantage of. If you don't do the little things to spoil their runs, they're going to feed off all the mistakes that you make."
Seattle got within 11 points on two occasions. Allen's final basket sliced the deficit to 82-71 with 8:49 to go, but seven seconds later, Jimmy Jackson's 3-pointer sparked the decisive run, finishing off the Sonics.