Ray Allen came through with his usual clutch shooting, and second-year center Robert Swift left his coach and teammates impressed.

Allen scored 35 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, and Swift added 14 points and 12 rebounds as the Seattle SuperSonics held off the New Jersey Nets 113-104 on Saturday night.

``I told him, 'What you did tonight, we expect that of you from here on out,''' Allen said about his postgame conversation with Swift.

Since Swift was inserted into the starting lineup last Sunday at Phoenix, Seattle is 3-1 and Swift has averaged 10 points and nine rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Nets are headed in the other direction. New Jersey finished its road trip 0-4 and has lost seven of the last eight on the road. The only win in that stretch came at Philadelphia on Jan. 18.

Richard Jefferson led the Nets with a season-high 36 points, but New Jersey couldn't rally from a big deficit for the second straight night, despite Vince Carter's return from a sore back.

The Nets trailed Seattle by 15 in the third quarter and were down 20 to Portland on Friday night before losing 88-83.

``We just couldn't put together any stop,'' Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. ``They scored on all their crucial possessions.''

Luke Ridnour continued his outstanding play in coach Bob Hill's system. Ridnour missed Thursday's game against Dallas with a sprained left knee, but scored 20 points and handed out 13 assists on Saturday, his sixth double-double of the season.

Ridnour was averaging 18 points in his last seven games and has topped 20 points in four of the last eight.

``(Hill's) system has been better. We're getting the ball out and running more and that always helps,'' Ridnour said.

The Nets were within 93-92 after two free throws from Carter with 5:35 left. Johan Petro followed Ridnour's miss with a dunk and Allen sandwiched a jumper and 3-pointer around Jefferson's miss for a 100-94 Seattle lead.

New Jersey got within four, but Ridnour's three-point play with 2:42 left put Seattle back ahead 105-98. Carter scored six straight trying to keep the Nets close, but Allen added a jumper and two free throws, before Carter turned the ball over with 52 seconds left and the Nets down 109-102.

Carter finished with 29 points on 11 of 19 shooting after missing Friday's game with a sore back. Nenad Krstic had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, but Jason Kidd struggled, shooting 1-of-10 and finished with five points.

``I was just trying to be aggressive and get to the hole,'' said Carter, who scored 10 in the fourth quarter.

Rashard Lewis scored 15 and Vladimir Radmanovic added 11 points for Seattle. He missed Thursday's game with a sprained right foot.

It was the contributions from Petro and Swift that proved important. The two combined for 22 points and 18 rebounds.

``That's by far the best our two 7-footers have played. When they have 22 points and 18 rebounds we have to all be proud of that kind of production,'' Hill said. ``And that was against a good team.''

Carter hurt his lower back Monday in an 89-78 loss to Utah and reaggravated it in a 90-77 loss Wednesday to the Los Angeles Clippers.

He started and played very well in the first half. He scored on his first attempt when Swift was called for goaltending. He then made a fallaway 19-footer and shot 6-of-8 in the first half.

Against the Clippers, Carter hit just one shot from the field to finish with a season-low three points. He left the game with 2:25 to go in the third quarter.

``The first two minutes were the toughest,'' Carter said. ``I was tired.''

Seattle pushed its lead to 10 starting the second half, trying to put away the fatigued Nets. Jefferson scored on a three-point play with 8:46 left in the third, but Seattle went on a 10-2 run, capped by Swift beating the Nets downcourt for a transition layup and a 72-57 lead with 5:52 left in the third.

With Allen and Lewis resting, New Jersey made a run with its starters on the floor. The Nets closed the quarter on a 14-7 spurt to get within 83-76 after three.

Allen Iverson and the rest of the 76ers are used to the boos that followed nearly every New Jersey basket in the fourth quarter.

What they haven't heard too much of was an earful from their easygoing coach, Maurice Cheeks.

Vince Carter scored 31 points and had 10 assists to lead the streaking Nets to a 101-90 win over the sliding 76ers on Wednesday night.

The Atlantic Division standings show the Nets with a four-game lead over the second-place Sixers. The gap, though, seems considerably wider considering New Jersey has won 12 of 15 while Philadelphia has lost seven of 10.

``We knew it was important for us to keep them behind us,'' said Cliff Robinson, who had 15 points for the Nets.

Cheeks finally had enough of watching his team ignore basic defensive principles and fail to sustain a full effort, and did all the talking during a roughly 30-minute postgame team meeting. Cheeks was typically mellow when he finally met the media, saying the Sixers were a ``work in progress'' that would eventually become the type of team that can make some noise in the East.

``It's us trying to stay together, which we will, and to keep working to figuring out how to win games,'' Cheeks said. ``There are a lot of things we've got to work on.''

Iverson led the Sixers with 36 points and Chris Webber had 15.

``The most I got out of it was that guys need to take a challenge to make this team better,'' Iverson said. ``He talked about during this bad time that we're going through right now that it was important for everybody to stick together.''

Iverson came up limping late in the fourth quarter when he appeared to knock knees with Jason Collins on a driving layup. Iverson hobbled around the court, rubbed his right leg, but remained in the game. Cheeks said Iverson was fine.

Much like how the Sixers collapsed in their embarrassing 104-76 loss to Washington on Monday, they again put up little fight in the fourth quarter.

The Nets got a pair of jumpers from Robinson and a 3 from Richard Jefferson during a 10-0 spurt that opened the fourth and gave them an 86-69 lead.

The home crowd started booing and heading for the exits. After making only two baskets in the first three quarters, Webber hit a 3-pointer and a 16-footer on consecutive possessions that helped pull the Sixers within eight.

Carter pushed back the Sixers with a couple of jumpers and the Nets cruised from there. Jefferson had 20 points and 16 rebounds, and Nenad Krstic had 16.

``That was a good win against a divisional rival on the road,'' Nets coach Lawrence Frank said.

Iverson had attempted only 12 shots and scored eight points in the first two quarters before he finally got going after the Nets used a 10-0 run to take a 60-46 lead in the third.

Iverson scored 11 straight points and had 19 of Philadelphia's 27 points in the third to cut the deficit to 77-69. Iverson complained after Monday's loss that he wasn't sure about his role on the team and what he could do to help the Sixers win.

Cheeks shrugged off Iverson's complaint and said before the game he had no reason to speak with his star point guard about his place on the team.

Iverson joked that Cheeks always needed during his seven seasons as a Sixers assistant to be prodded by former coach Larry Brown to speak up in the huddle or after practice. That quiet assistant has morphed into much more vocal coach. Iverson described Cheeks as ``angry, and he had every right to be.''

``I've been seeing a different side basically all year long,'' Iverson said. ``His demeanor is totally different from being an assistant coach and the Maurice Cheeks that I got to know throughout the years of him being here. I expect it because he has a different role now.''

Cheeks shuffled the starting lineup, hoping for some sort of combination that would instill a much needed defensive toughness. He benched 3-point threat Kyle Korver in favor of the more defensively adept John Salmons, but nothing changed. The Nets scored 30 points and shot 52 percent in the first quarter.

Michael Bradley did grab a season-high 10 rebounds in 17 minutes - more than double his usual playing time.

``It's always easy when you get beat to beat ourselves up,'' Cheeks said. ``We're going to keep trying, keep working.''