Bulls' late push sends Sonics to fourth loss in row

With Ray Allen's jump shot uncharacteristically off Friday night, and the remaining crew of perimeter players hesitant to shoot, the Sonics once again suffered.

This is nothing new. The Sonics lack a second scoring threat in the late minutes and no one stepped to the forefront when Allen missed shot after shot in the clutch against the Chicago Bulls at KeyArena.

The result was a fourth consecutive loss, 107-101, as Andres Nocioni scored five consecutive points during a 7-0 Chicago run and the Sonics went without a field goal for 3 minutes, 17 minutes down the stretch.

Seattle is proving to be good enough to push the NBA's better teams to the brink, but it always seems to fall apart when it counts. It was the same thing Wednesday in Houston, and last month against Denver, Miami, Phoenix and Houston.

Rocky Balboa returned to his native Philadelphia a hero after losing a 15-round decision to Apollo Creed in their first fight (of the "Rocky" movie series, of course). But no one celebrates a close loss in the NBA. The Sonics are an angry bunch right now, unable to climb out of the losing doldrums for more than a game or two.

Even Allen, usually reflective following defeats, was left unsure of the solution, but he was unhappy with the defense in the fourth quarter.

"Really it's the small plays on defense that we don't execute," he said. "Nocioni goes to the basket and we foul him. I don't blame one particular person, it's just as a team defensively, we have to adjust and get to those spots because that's where we lose games."

The issue down the stretch is becoming increasingly evident. Opposing teams are spreading the floor and going one-on-one to the paint, drawing fouls and scoring from the free-throw line. The Sonics, meanwhile, have no one who can take a defense one-on-one and get to the rim or the free-throw line, unless you include Allen, who is 41st in the league in free-throw attempts.

With no player to get to the free-throw line or force defenses to double-team, the Sonics are relegated to swinging the ball around, hoping for a defensive breakdown. If the opposing team stays in its spot, the Sonics force a contested jumper or a runner with three men jumping at the ball, hence the consistent droughts down the stretch.

"It's the same thing every game," said the Sonics' Nick Collison, who finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. "There's just a lack of execution. We're not getting good enough shots, relying on jump shots too much. It's too hard for us to score the way we're playing right now. We're just relying on beating our man one-on-one and the defense is just there waiting to help."

The defeat was even more disheartening given Seattle's series of runs to stay close in the second half. The Sonics led 97-95 after a Collison three-point play and had numerous chances to keep the game even, but Allen, who missed 19 shots, couldn't convert.

Meanwhile, Earl Watson, who did most of the ball-handling and was allowed to shoot from the perimeter, did not score in the fourth quarter. Watson finished 2-for-10 from the field and is 45-for-145 (31 percent) in his past 15 games.

The Sonics made just 10 of 26 shots in the fourth quarter and attempted just four free throws, compared to 16 for Chicago. It's a recurring theme.

Luke Ridnour, who had been ridiculed for his lack of offense in the past month, aided a 10-0 Sonics run with consecutive 3-pointers to tie the score at 83 with 8:22 left.

But for the umpteenth time Friday, the Bulls took what appeared to be a commanding lead after Nocioni converted a bank shot for a 95-89 lead with 4:26 remaining. Allen responded with a 3-pointer, Damien Wilkins added a fast-break dunk and Collison gave the Sonics a brief lead with his three-point play.

The Sonics, however, scored just four more points, three of those on a garbage-time Wilkins 3-pointer with 6 seconds left.

"It's kind of like the same thing," Sonics coach Bob Hill said. "We go to Dallas and in the fourth quarter, we can't get it done. We go to Houston and it's the same thing. This is the second-best defensive team in the NBA and we didn't have any trouble scoring until the fourth quarter."