Since March 11, when they trudged down south on a moribund four-game losing streak, the Sonics have upended Los Angeles, Portland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Golden State, and Philadelphia, in just that order. It's been a strong, consistent run full of flashy moments and a number of powerful individual performances; the victory over the Bucks was so delightful to watch, such a galloping romp of a basketball game, that I've shelved the videotape for posterity. Now, over the next two weeks, Seattle hosts five consecutive home games, and if the Sonics can take down the testy Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, they have a decent shot at extending their winning streak to at least nine games; they face Houston on Saturday and Cleveland on March 26. The Timberwolves are also sandwiched in there somewhere. That'll be the game to watch. Minnesota has been giving the Sonics fits this year. In the fantastically remote chance the Sonics land a playoff spot, this is the team they'll have to squeeze past.What's distinguished the Sonics' play of late can be broken down into two distinct yet intertwining, symbiotic levels. As a team, Seattle has been running the floor with more frequency and more aggression. The Sonics' outlet passes have been quick and snappy; they've been sailing back on defense and contesting every shot; and they've been exhausting and dismantling defenses with their manic fast breaks. With the Sonics, such amalgamated quickness and pep automatically lead to a better defensive front, and the Sonics' defense over the last six games has been both crushing and agile. They've been closing down on shooters, taking away air space, rotating and trapping more deftly, and generally swarming the lanes. All this, in turn, has channeled right back into intensity at the Sonics' end of the court: snappy passing, constant picks, perpetual movement off the ball.

The Sonics are notorious for playing at their best only when their backs are against the wall, which is certainly the case now. Perhaps the collective psychological impact of being mired at the ass-end of their division all season--watching their playoff chances recede on the horizon--has had a liberating effect. Even if it were possible to measure such a thing, it still wouldn't account fully for their recent streak. It's one thing to knock off teams like Portland and Milwaukee; the Sonics have always been good at hauling down the giants. It's another thing to beat the Warriors and the Bulls when your tendency is to flop against weaker teams, sinking just a notch below their level. That Seattle swept the good, the bad, and the ugly alike into the loss column last week has more to do with consistency, focus, and team dynamics than any sort of negative capability or motivational desperation. It may well be that the Sonics have finally--and just a little too late--cohered.

So on one level, the Sonics appear to have solidified themselves as a totality, as a whole team--to have hammered out something more formidable than the mere sum of their individual parts. And on another, more distinct yet entirely related level, there is the combined play of Patrick Ewing and Gary Payton, whirring like a dynamo inside the greater machine. Ewing, one of the few Sonics not to sustain a debilitating injury this year, has been coming on strong, giving the Sonics a necessary kick-start in the early minutes of games; Payton, along with his still upward-evolving talents as a point guard, has been exhibiting a quality of personal balance and positive intensity that is beginning to resemble something like leadership. Most importantly, the stylistic and charismatic force of these two players has served to integrate the team, to elevate its play. And that, then, is how everything comes full circle: from team to player back to team. That's how you win six games in a row.

rick@thestranger.com