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Allen leads Sonics over Cavaliers for second straight win

Jan 17, 2007 - 7:12 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- After the best game of his career, Ray Allen had a tough act to follow, but he still put on a show.

Allen had 22 points and 11 assists and Chris Wilcox collected 16 points and 12 rebounds as the Seattle SuperSonics played unselfishly in a 101-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers for their second straight win.

Nick Collison had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the SuperSonics, who have ridden Allen to impressive performances in their last two contests after dropping a season-high six games.

"It's just two games," Collison said. "It's like when we lose we say it's just one game. We need to play the next one the same way to win. It's good for the psyche and gives us some confidence. We have some rest now and it helps us keep positive going into games."

Seattle coach Bob Hill pointed to a switch to zone defense as a catalyst for the victory.

"The zone we put in probably won the game for us because everytime (Cavaliers superstar) LeBron (James) drove we couldn't get close enough to smell him or we'd foul him" Hill said. "It was a terrific win, and we just have to keep winning every game at home."

The coach also lauded Collison's efforts.

"Nick is playing basketball now like everybody in the organization anticipated him playing," Hill said. "The guy has played well and made so many sacrifices."

On Friday, Allen scored a career-high 54 points in an overtime win over Utah. Averaging a career-best 25.8 points, Allen recorded the second-highest scoring game in franchise history.

Four days later, however, Allen made his impact in a different manner. He shot just 6-of-22 from the field and 2-of-10 from the arc, but became a playmaker, setting up his teammates for easy shots.

"We just tried to be as aggressive as we could on the defensive end," James said. "(Allen) was able to give the ball up; I think he had 11 assists but I think defensively as a team, we did a great job on Allen."

Trailing, 87-82, with 5:10 remaining, Seattle went on a decisive 8-1 run to secure the victory. Collison's short jumper capped the spurt to make it 90-87 and the Sonics would not trail again.

James scored 30 points for the Cavaliers, who shot just 41 percent (32-of-78) to drop to 2-2 on their current seven-game road trip.

"We're not disappointed, I think we played well," James said. "We played well enough to win and they played well enough to win. When you shoot 18 percent (from the arc), it's going to be tough. They did a good job executing down the stretch."

Cleveland will play at Portland, Denver and Golden State to finish out the road trip.