Shawn Kemp goes to the basket against Hakeem Olajuwon during the Sonics' 104-103 victory at Houston 13 years ago Tuesday. Kemp had 16 points and 18 rebounds, and Olajuwon finished with 36 points and 12 boards.

Despite their 32-12 record, the SuperSonics took the floor at Houston's Summit in a bit of a funk.

It was Saturday, Feb. 3, 1996, and Seattle was two days removed from a desultory performance that ended in a 103-100 loss to the Mavericks at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

Suffice it to say the Sonics coach George Karl did not wake up on Groundhog’s Day in a festive mood. The night before, following his team’s loss to the 15-27 Mavericks, Karl wondered aloud about the leadership skills of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.

"I think we're very childish on some of our coolness toward teams with poor records," Karl said. "It always hurts us. It has hurt us for four years and the majority of the responsibility falls on Gary and Shawn to give us direction and toughness instead of coolness.

"We are improving in that area, but after you lose you feel like, 'Did we lose it? Or did they win it?' I feel we lost it. And a lot of losses this year we gave away. It drives me crazy."

On the docket in Houston for Seattle were Hakeem Olajuwon and the 30-16 Rockets, who were coming off back-to-back NBA championships.

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Payton responded with toughness, scoring a season-high 32 points and burying a 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds left in overtime to help the Sonics nail down a thrilling victory before a crowd of 16,285 at The Summit.

(Usless arena trivia: The Summit, which was completed in 1975 for a cost of $27 million, is now home to the central campus of the Lakewood Church, the evangelical megachurch run by Joel Osteen. It is the largest church in the United States, with 43,000 in weekly attendance. The former Summit can accommodate 16,000 of those frenzied worshipers. It became the Compaq Center in 1998, when Houston’s Compaq computers ponied up $900,000 for a five-year deal. By the end of five years, the Rockets had left for the $202 million Toyota Center.)

Once a basketball temple, the 16,000-seat Lakewood Church Central Campus opened for worship on July 16, 2005, following a $75 million renovation project.

But back to the ballgame. Hersey Hawkins scored 22 points for the Sonics, who overcame a 13-point deficit midway through the third quarter and then shot 5-of-8 in overtime to put away the Rockets.

"It was big," said Kemp, who grabbed 18 rebounds and scored 16 points on 4-of-12 shooting. "After what happened in Dallas it's good to come out and redeem ourselves a little bit."

Karl was happy, too.

"I've always said this team has a great resolve to it," he said.

Karl had reason to be happy. The game marked a springboard of sorts for Seattle, which would reel off a franchise-best 14 consecutive victories and not lose again for more than a month.

Former University of Washington guard Eldridge Recasner was a problem for the Sonics all night, drilling 6 of 10 3-pointers and scoring 20 points. Olajuwon led all scorers with 36 points.

The Sonics, who trailed 60-47 in the third quarter, ran off 13 straight points spanning in the last 1:52 of the quarter and the first 1:40 of the fourth quarter - seven points by Payton and six by Detlef Schrempf – to forge a tie for the first time at 73.

Sam Perkins sank a 3-pointer with 2:49 left to give Seattle an 89-87 lead, and the two teams jockeyed back and forth on the way to overtime.