After blowing three second-half leads in a week at home, the Seattle SuperSonics wanted to ensure that they would build an insurmountable lead tonight against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland. After blowing a 21-point lead on Sunday against Phoenix, the Warriors never got a chance tonight, as the Sonics dominated to the tune of a 113-87 final.

Golden State won the opening tip, but after that everything came up green and gold. Playing without starting power forward Vin Baker, a gametime scratch due to a sore neck, the Sonics moved Art Long over and inserted Jerome James into the center spot. The move worked beautifully, as Long and James combined to give the Sonics an inside presence which neutralized the Warriors' size advantage, and allowed the league's worst rebounding team to tie the league's best in this category, at least for one night.

As well, Seattle clamped down defensively, forcing Golden State to the perimeter in the early going, where they struggled all night, making just 2 of 10 from beyond the arc. The Sonics led 11-2 before the Warriors knew what hit them, and barely recovered when the Sonics went on a 13-0 run that left them up by 23 points, 36-13, midway through the second quarter. Many of the points came off turnovers, as the Sonics forced 17 on the game and recorded 12 steals.

The Sonics got a pleasantly surprising lift from their two rookies, Vladimir Radmanovic and Earl Watson, who have struggled of late. Radmanovic entered the game and paid immediate positive dividends. First, he took away an offensive rebound and was fouled, making both free throws. He and Watson then hooked up on a fast break dunk. A play later, Radmanovic made a jumper from the corner. Three shots, six points, Sonic domination. Watson finished with four assists in his 19 minutes and notched up the defensive intensity, while Radmanovic went on to set a new career-high with 19 points and also added nine rebounds despite going to the locker room after a violent collision with Brent Barry.

The Warriors' offense 'heated up' to get them to 37 points at the end of the half, leaving the Sonics in the eery position of holding the exact same halftime lead (22 points) as they had during their last visit to Oakland, when they struggled in the second half and had to go to overtime to dispatch of the pesky Warriors.

However, this time the Sonics had all the motivation they needed to play hard in the second half provided by their embarrassing fourth-quarter meltdown against Chicago on Saturday which saw them go from up 13 to down six at game's end.

Seattle came out for the third quarter motivated, and the triumvirate of Barry, Rashard Lewis, and Gary Payton kept them going offensively. The backcourt of Barry and Payton, who both have ties to the Bay Area from their youth, combined for 41 points and 13 assists. Lewis, who stumped during the homestand, rebounded by making a superb 10 of 12 shot attempts, finishing with 25 points.

Defensively, the Sonics were able to successfully contain Golden State star Antawn Jamison all night. Jamison made just 1 of 7 attempts from the field and scored 7 points. As a team, the Warriors shot 42.3% on the evening.

By the fourth quarter, Seattle coach Nate McMillan was able to take advantage of the sizable lead to rest his starters for tomorrow night's game with Phoenix. The reserves, led by Radmanovic, continued to pour it on, extending the advantage as large as 34 points. There would be no second half failure tonight, instead the Sonics got little-used big man Olumide Oyedeji into the game for his first action in over two weeks.