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Iverson struggles again, but Sixers end slide

Nov 16, 2006 - 6:10 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Allen Iverson still hasn't found his shooting stroke. Thankfully that didn't hinder the Philadelphia 76ers.

Iverson scored 28 points as the 76ers ended a three-game losing streak with a 96-90 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

Coming off a 6-of-20 outing in a 108-101 home loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday, Iverson was hoping to turn things around in the opener of a three-game road trip.

However, Iverson struggled again, sinking just 6-of-22 attempts. But the four-time scoring champion got to the foul line and connected on 14-of-16 shots as Philadelphia won its fifth straight here with Iverson in the lineup.

"I used to feel like whenever I struggled it wasn't a fun game," Iverson said. "When you struggle and you still win that says a lot about the guys you are playing with and that helps me in the sense of down the road, when I do struggle, just knowing that we can still win and my teammates are going to pull it together for me."

The Sixers maintained a double-digit lead for much of the second half to survive the Sonics' late surge, which brought them within four with 59 seconds left.

"When you're on the road, teams are going to make runs," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "It happened to us when we were at home against Denver, when we made a little run and had a chance to tie the game. Those things are going to happen, they're going to make runs. The good thing about us is we settled down, we got to the line, we made our foul shots and we closed out the game."

Andre Iguodala had 12 points, nine assists, eight rebounds and three steals for Philadelphia, which ended Seattle's three-game winning streak.

"I just got into a little groove," Iguodala said. "Coach gave me the opportunity tonight to have some things run through me."

Rashard Lewis netted 25 points and grabbed 15 boards and Ray Allen added 22 points for Seattle, which hit just 5-of-21 shots from the arc and only 15-of-23 free throws.

"We just played bad," Sonics coach Bob Hill said. "In the beginning, I thought we were in a hurry. ... I thought we settled for too many threes and didn't get to the foul line. We just played bad. I have no excuses."