Sonics' unlucky 13

With his mother there, and seemingly half of the arena filled with family and friends, Marvin Williams, the Bremerton native, looked as if he would struggle in his Northwest homecoming.

Early in the first quarter, the Atlanta Hawks forward raced to the rim for a layup before Sonics guard Earl Watson ripped the ball from his hands. As Watson fell out of bounds, he bounced the ball off Williams, who stumbled awkwardly to the floor.

Minutes later, Williams had another fast-break layup thwarted when Johan Petro raced from behind and swatted the shot just before it reached the glass.

For the rest of Friday's game, however, Williams outran, out-hustled and overwhelmed the Sonics into a 99-90 defeat.

The loss extended Seattle's losing streak to 13, which is a record for a season and ties the overall streak, set during the final five games last season and the first eight this season.

"My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball," said Williams, who finished with a career-high 33 points on 12-for-20 shooting, seven rebounds and three steals.

Williams said point guard Anthony Johnson "saw that I was kind of hot, so he kept running plays for me and I was able to convert."

He added, "I think it was a good game for me. I think I could have defended a little bit better."

The way the Sonics shot the ball in the first half, Atlanta didn't need to play much defense. Seattle converted just 30.4 percent from the field (14 of 46) and trailed 52-31 at intermission. The 31 points were a season low for first-half points.

"Some nights you make shots and some nights you don't," Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "If they're getting good shots, what can you say? Guys were getting good shots, but when good shots don't go, you have to do something else."

The Sonics (9-34) didn't have an alternative plan against the Hawks, who play a gambling style of defense in which players are interchangeable. Atlanta quickly showed the 13,647 at KeyArena why it entered the game third in the NBA in blocked shots and eighth in steals.

Hawks forward Josh Smith registered two of his five blocks in the first three minutes when he rejected shots from Kevin Durant and Earl Watson.

"I don't think their length bothered us because we had open shots, and we just missed them," said Durant, who converted 7 of 21 shots for 17 points. "But they are an athletic team. They like to get up and down the court and tonight we just couldn't stop them."

Williams was in the middle of most of the mayhem, but he received plenty of help from a starting lineup in which everyone scored in double figures. Smith finished with 14 points and Joe Johnson had 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Rookie Al Horford had 10 points and 16 rebounds and Anthony Johnson chipped in 10 points and five assists. Reserve Josh Childress also had 13 points.

"When you're not scoring, you got to play better defense than what we played," said Chris Wilcox, who returned to the starting lineup and led Seattle with 18 points and seven rebounds. "I just want to help this team get a win. We need a win badly."

The Sonics hadn't won since Dec. 29, but they were enthusiastic after an impressive effort in their previous game. However, any momentum gained from a hard-fought and narrow defeat to Houston on Wednesday quickly dissipated in the first quarter amid a flurry of Hawks dunks and fast-break layups.

The Sonics made a run early in the fourth when center Johan Petro grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled the length of the court and flushed a dunk over Hawks center Zaza Pachulia despite being fouled. Petro connected on the ensuing free throw to make the score 81-67.

Williams punctuated his record-breaking night in the final minute when he stole a pass and raced for an uncontested dunk, which ended Seattle's comeback attempt.

"They're struggling right now, and I know exactly how they feel," Williams said. "I was there at one point. They just have to keep working hard and get better and things will come together for them."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com