SEATTLE — With LeBron James out nursing a right ankle sprain, the Seattle SuperSonics finished off a sweep of last year’s NBA Finalists.
Chris Wilcox scored Seattle’s first 10 points, Kevin Durant had 12 of his 24 in the first quarter, and the SuperSonics held off a late Cleveland surge to beat the James-less Cavaliers 101-95 on Thursday night.
Two nights after snapping their franchise-record, 14-game losing streak by beating the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs — without Tony Parker — the Sonics took out the Eastern Conference champ Cavs.
Of course, this win isn’t as impressive since James, the NBA’s leading scorer at 30.1 points per game, sat on the bench in a brown blazer and jeans.
James sprained his right ankle late in the second quarter of Wednesday night’s win over Portland. The injury didn’t keep James on the sideline, as he scored 17 fourth-quarter points, including the game-winning layup to extend the Cavs’ road win streak to five games, their longest since the 1998 season.
For much of Thursday night, that streak appeared destined for a crashing end. Wilcox gave Seattle a 10-4 lead and the Sonics led by double digits less than six minutes in. The lead grew to 22 in the first half and the Sonics led by 17 entering the fourth quarter.
That’s when the Cavs finally awakened, using a 20-6 run to close to 91-88 with 2:51 left on Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ pair of free throws. But Durant, who’d been scoreless in the fourth quarter, scored four straight and Kurt Thomas’ driving left-handed layup pushed the lead back to 97-88 with 1:35 left.
That seemed enough of a cushion, but Daniel Gibson’s 3-pointer and Larry Hughes’ layup off Earl Watson’s bad turnover pulled the Cavs back within 99-95 with 37 seconds left. Luke Ridnour’s shot in the lane was blocked by Dwayne Jones, but Gibson was called for an offensive foul at the other end on his driving layup. Ridnour then hit two free throws with 7.8 seconds left.
Hughes scored 28 points and Ilgauskas added 17. The Cavs return home for four of the next seven games before the All-Star Break.

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