When teams have their big men at full strength, defending Shaquille O'Neal is as difficult as trying to push a Mack truck ? or the Los Angeles Lakers behemoth ? with your bare hands.
Before the tipoff last night, Seattle knew it would be without starting center Calvin Booth. And Booth's replacement, Antonio Harvey, had spent the past nine games on the injured list with tendinitis.

The notoriously late Lakers fans risked missing the deciding moments early on, right? Not exactly. Like the recent meetings between these teams, convention was thrown out the window as the Sonics won 104-93 to get back to their winning ways against the Lakers.

"There's a lot of mysteries in the world," said Vin Baker, who played his best game of the season with 27 points and nine rebounds. "We haven't played well against other teams....

"I'm not taking anything away from our team. If we play well, we're capable of beating any team in this league. It just so happens we beat the world champions tonight."

Seattle snapped a four-game losing streak and a five-game skid on the road.

"We needed a win badly," said Coach Nate McMillan, whose Sonics play the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center tonight. "It's not a do-or-die situation but it just seemed like forever the last time we won a game."