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Bobcats look to avoid fifth straight loss

Mar 4, 2007 - 4:46 PM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Coach Bernie Bickerstaff and the Charlotte Bobcats are in the funk they would like to get out of as quickly as possible.

The undermanned Bobcats will try to avoid their season-high fifth straight defeat when they visit the Seattle SuperSonics on Sunday.

Charlotte fell to 0-3 on its current six-game West Coast trip with Thursday's 127-90 thrashing at Portland.

Some of the Bobcats' recent struggles can be tied to the absence of power forward Emeka Okafor, who has missed the last three games with a calf injury. Okafor is averaging 14.9 points and a team-leading 11.7 rebounds.

The Bobcats miss the 6-10 Okafor's presence on the defensive end. In the loss to Portland, they started small forward Gerald Wallace at power forward and were beaten on the boards, 45-31, while allowing the Trail Blazers to shoot 58 percent from the field.

Seattle also enters Sunday's matchup with injury issues as All-Star guard Ray Allen will be a game-time decision. Allen sat out Thursday's 77-75 triumph over the Los Angeles Clippers with a bone spur in his left ankle that has his contemplating season-ending surgery.

"We'll just see how it goes the next couple of days because if it does not get any better, I could have surgery sooner," said Allen, who is eighth in the NBA at 26.4 points per game.

Against the Clippers, Rashard Lewis had 31 points and seven rebounds and Chris Wilcox 12 and 13 as they picked up the slack and helped the SuperSonics to their fourth consecutive home win.

Seattle has not won five in a row at home since rolling off nine straight to start the 2004-05 campaign.