This used to be little more than a basketball backwater, a frozen wasteland of puckheads that once every decade or so would produce a hoopster of some renown by little more than happenstance or a quirk of breeding.

But as we evolve from a society where young Frank Mahovlich-wannabes would nestle on to the couch next to dear, old dad each Saturday night to await the dulcet tones of Ward Cornell or Foster Hewitt to thrill them, so too has changed our dependence on hockey as our sole winter sports pursuit.

We may still want to be more like Mario than Mike and The Big O is more recognizable as a decrepit stadium in Montreal or an overweight ex-Raptor than one of basketball's greatest players of all time, but times are indeed changing.

It was the perfect time for a little ugliness, a little hack-and-whack and walk-it-up, pound-it-inside, shoot-free-throws-all-night kind of ugliness that can turn a basketball game into something akin to mud wrestling.

But nooooo, the weary Toronto Raptors would have none of that, they wouldn't realize that strategy was so necessary here Saturday night.

They'd go on jacking up three-pointers, launching jumpers with about 18 seconds left on the shot clock and then watching the well-rested Seattle SuperSonics run past them like quarterhorses chasing Clydesdales.

And in a not-so-shocking turn of events, the Raptors had their heads handed to them at the Key Arena, dropping a 101-75 decision that really wasn't even as close as that.

The Raptors need a Childs to lead them.

The injury-riddled Raptors should have veteran guard Chris Childs back on Wednesday. To say they've missed him would be a vast understatement.

"I guess it's my decision," Childs said when asked if he would be ready for the Raptors' next game, Wednesday in Portland against the Trail Blazers. Childs has been on the injured list since Dec. 20 because of soreness in his right ankle and Achilles tendon, but he has sat out the mandatory five games and is eligible to rejoin the active roster.

"We have a few more days of practice and it hasn't caused me a lot of problems (recently)," Childs said. "If it's healthy enough, I'll sit down with my trainer and coach and see what we can come up with. It's getting better because the swelling doesn't come back. I'm looking at Portland, but we'll wait and see."

The Raptors are in dire need of the attitude, defence and minutes that Childs can provide.

With six days before their next game, the Seattle SuperSonics should have everybody back from injuries the next time they play.

But the way things are going now, they may not want to fiddle with their chemistry.

Using a solid team performance, the Sonics won their sixth consecutive game with a convincing 101-75 victory over the Vince Carter-less Toronto Raptors before a sellout crowd at KeyArena on Saturday night.

The Raptors lost Carter, one of the top five players in the league, when he strained his left shoulder in a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.

"They did what they were supposed to do. They played well, they took advantage of us," Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens said. "It was like running in sand."

It was the 11th time this season the Sonics have played a team that was missing its star player, and they continued to take advantage of it, stringing together the current second-best winning streak in the league, behind Dallas' nine-gamer.

That does not take into account that every team that comes into KeyArena these days seems as if it has played the night before, or is on the end of a long road trip. Perhaps that is the reason that of the six victories, five have come by double digits, two by at least 20 points.

"That happened to us early in the year," guard Gary Payton said. "That's just basketball. We can't worry about that. We have to worry about when we go out on the floor, doing what we need to do to get us better. And that is what we have been doing."

The schedule continues to favor Seattle when the Sonics return from the New Year's break - Philadelphia comes to town to finish a six-game, 12-day trip.

That game concludes a stretch of games in which Seattle played six of seven games at home and with plenty of rest. After the Sixers game, the Sonics play nine of 13 games on the road in 26 days, a string of games that will go a long way in determining their fate in the race for a playoff berth.

"We don't want to settle for being mediocre," Sonics guard Brent Barry said. "We know January is going to be tough. We just have to regroup after New Year's, take some aspirin on the 1st and get ready for a tough month."

They should do it with the services of centers Calvin Booth and Jerome James, both of whom have been practicing and seem on pace to return.

But in improving to 16-15 and moving into a tie with the Utah Jazz for the eighth-best record in the Western Conference, the Sonics had more than enough firepower Saturday night.

Vin Baker helped spoil Wilkens' return to the city where he played and coached with 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting and six rebounds.

Ever since Baker suffered partially torn ligaments in his right thumb earlier this month, he has played extremely well.

He dominated the Raptors' Antonio Davis inside, and held Davis, an All-Star last season, to six points and five rebounds.

"He's played well," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. "I think he has played his best basketball the last two weeks for this team probably since the first year he got here. He is getting low in the paint, and he is finishing."

Payton followed up his 43-point outburst Thursday with a solid 18-point, 11-assist, six-rebound effort in a season-low 32 minutes. And Rashard Lewis, whose lip is still fat after catching an elbow Thursday, had 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

The Raptors kept the game close through one quarter, riding the play of Morris Peterson and Keon Clark, trailing by four points after 12 minutes.

But the Sonics exploded thereafter, starting the second quarter with a 21-8 run that helped send Seattle to the locker room with a 57-36 lead, Toronto's largest halftime deficit of the season.

By the end of the game, Seattle's bench players were on the floor and its starters were on the bench, leading a throng of cheers for some unconventional showtime.

On one play, lumbering forward Predrag Drobnjak executed a reverse layup that brought the crowd to its feet.

Then, he grabbed a rebound at the other end, dribbled the length of the floor and dished off a no-look pass to Shammond Williams. Williams then threw a no-looker to Olumide Oyedeji, but the Nigerian had a nightmare, missing a point-blank layup.

It was about the only thing that went wrong all game.

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* Reach staff writer Frank Hughes at 253-597-8742, ext. 6120, or frank.hughes@mail.tribnet.com

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Sonics 101, Raptors 75

Friday: vs. Philadelphia, 7 p.m., KONG, 950-AM

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SIDEBAR: Game in review

Sonics 101, Raptors 75

KEY STAT - While the Sonics shot 51 percent from the floor, the Raptors missed their first 14 3-point attempts. They finished 4-for-21 from behind the arc. Dell Curry, one of the best shooters in the league, missed all six of his 3s.

STAR OF THE GAME - Predrag Drobnjak may never again have the highlight reel stuff of Saturday night, when he made a reverse layup and then dribbled the length of the court and dished a no-look pass. His 11 points and six boards earn him the honor.

TURNING POINT - In the second quarter, with Toronto's Eric Montross and Carlos Arroyo on the floor, the Sonics went on a 21-8 run to take control of the game.

KEY OBSERVATION - With a free throw at the end of the first quarter, Gary Payton scored his 16,000th career point. He currently is in 70th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list, passing Kiki Vandeweghe. "I never thought about it when I first got to the NBA," Payton said. "When I retire, I'll probably look at it in a different way."

QUOTABLE - "I don't know much about what they have done lately. It's obvious they have a little thing going on offensively and little thing defensively." - Toronto's Keon Clark.

NEXT - Friday, 7 p.m., vs. Philadelphia 76ers, KeyArena.

Twelve minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers is one thing; 48 minutes against the Seattle SuperSonics is quite another.

Attempting to steal another road victory without their leading scorer, the Toronto Raptors weren't lacking in the effort department last night but a combination of fatigue and the skills of a rested, red-hot opponent conspired against any kind of miraculous victory.

The energetic Gary Payton engineered a dominant first half and the Sonics took advantage of a Vince Carter-less Raptor squad to score an easy 101-75 triumph at the Key Arena here as Toronto was unable to replicate its big win over the Lakers of a night earlier.

"They did exactly what they were supposed to do," Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens said of the Sonics. "They came out and jumped on us right from the start of the game. They played really well and took advantage of us being tired."

When Toronto Raptor general manager Glen Grunwald constructed this current roster, one of the things of which he was most proud was the depth he'd amassed.

Lenny Wilkens is pretty happy with his boss these days, too.

With Vince Carter momentarily unavailable and Chris Childs on the shelf until at least Wednesday and Hakeem Olajuwon unavailable until Jan. 8 at the earliest, coach Wilkens needs the excess manpower Grunwald's put together.

"I tell the players all the time, be ready because you never know when we're going to need you," said Wilkens, who really hasn't had his top eight or nine players together and healthy for an extended period all season.

"We're still going to execute and do the things we're capable of."

The players, meanwhile, know that they really won't get a true understanding of how good, or mediocre, this squad might be until everyone gets extended time playing together.

Even after flirting with a triple-double, Alvin Williams can find fault with his own game.

That's just the way the Raptors' starting point guard is wired.

Nonetheless, there's no debate about who provided the electrical jolt for the Raptors on Friday in Los Angeles after marquee player Vince Carter went down with a strained left shoulder.

Williams simply took charge down the stretch, winding up with 17 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, four steals and zero turnovers in the Raptors' 89-86 victory versus the Lakers.

"I've been riding his bus for a long time, trying to get people to understand that Alvin is a very capable player," said Carter, who did not play last night as the Raptors' three-game Western trip continued in Seattle against the SuperSonics. "He's going to shine in due time and he surely did (on Friday)."

As usual, others were more eager to praise Williams than he was to praise himself.

After leading the Cougars to back-to-back NCAA championship game appearances, he topped that by winning consecutive NBA titles with the Rockets, and he came to be known as the Dream somewhere along his special journey into the hearts of Houston sports fans.

And then one day, Olajuwon and his following woke up and the dream was over, the result of a contract dispute that led to a trade to Toronto in the biggest local sports story of 2001, not to mention one of the most regrettable days in Houston sports history.

They talked about working hard and playing defence and maintaining intensity for 48 minutes and then the Toronto Raptors went out and did it.

Holding off the Los Angeles Lakers with Vince Carter in the locker room for the entire fourth quarter, the Raptors scored one of their more impressive victories of the season last night with an 89-86 triumph at the Staples Center.

As Jerome Williams played solid defence on Kobe Bryant for the fourth quarter and the front court of Keon Clark and Antonio Davis was dominant, the Raptors won their fourth game of the last five and began a three-game road trip in fine fashion.

More than any other team in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers realize that championships are neither won nor lost in December.

After finishing the last regular season on an eight-game winning streak and waltzing through a 15-1 post-season, they know full well there is no reason for panic in December.

That's why they aren't fretting that Shaquille O'Neal is on the injured list with an arthritic toe, Kobe Bryant is not himself because of sore right ribs and they lost to Memphis and Golden State in two of their last three games before last night's game against the Raptors. The Lakers were only 6-4 in December ? 4-4 in their last eight games ? after starting the season 14-1.

"We've had a tough stretch for finding our rhythm and knocking down some shots but the shots are there," Bryant said after the Lakers' most recent loss, a 101-90 defeat Wednesday by the Warriors. "They're available to us. It's a matter of being patient and having the confidence to knock them down."