Details: When: Wednesday, November 10th Where: Key Arena, Seattle Time (Seattle): 7:30 TV: ESPN Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (3-1)</font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="Indigo">Sacramento (1-3)</font> Mike Bibby Doug Christie Peja Stojakovic Chris Webber Brad Miller Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Vitaly Potapenko: Broken hand, ruled out. Ibo Kutluay: Knee tendinitis, ruled out. Flip Murray: Quadricep strain, ruled out. <font color="Indigo">Sacramento</font> Courtney Alexander: Sore foot, unlikely. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]Seattle's first ESPN televised game of the season, against a struggling Sacramento and on the back of a three game winning streak, including wins against San Antonio and in Denver. [/list] <ul> [*]Last season, the Kings took three of the four meetings, with Peja Stojakovic their leading scorer in all four games. This time around Peja is struggling, but is too good a player to stay down for long. [/list] <ul> [*]Chris Webber comes into the game after posting a triple double in his last performance. While Reggie Evans, Jerome James, Danny Fortson and Nick Collison have dealt with Tim Duncan and Kenyon Martin, Webber provides a different type of threat. Seattle can play physical and stop his scoring, but he likes to play on the high-post with Brad Miller, splitting defenses with his passing and leaving room down low for cutters. [/list] <ul> [*]Luke Ridnour is coming off a season-best performance with nine points and 11 assists against Andre Miller, but will have to be on his guard against Mike Bibby. Bibby will keep him honest with his off the ball movement, and Ridnour will need help from Fortson and Evans to stop Bibby getting open looks. [/list] All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
I gave up my tickets to this game, I'm hoping it's a good one so my cousin and his wife can enjoy it I think things look good for the Sonics.. They've played well and the Kings are coming off a game last night. If we hit open shots this should be a cakewalk
If the Sonics play like they have been they should take this one. If they play even slightly worse however, I don't see them winning. I'll say they keep the momentum going with a 100-97 win.
I'm interested to see if Fortson can play more than 20 minutes w/o picking up 5 fouls. Just imagine how effective he could be if he was able to get 30+ minutes. Luke Ridnour has to be able to somewhat contain Bibby/Jackson b/c when they are playing well normally it translates to Kings wins. One good game by Ridnour (by his standards) doesn't convince me that he is ready to turn the corner.
Good start by the 'ics, up double digits at the quarter. Our good friend Lukey Rid with 50c worth of dimes thus far, the 3-point shock and awe campaign continues into the 5th game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting RiverspoonJones:</div><div class="quote_post">Business as usual.</div> Anyone who thought that the Kings were a contender should be eating their words now.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Jurassic:</div><div class="quote_post">Anyone who thought that the Kings were a contender should be eating their words now.</div> Or the Sonics are just that go--no. They still suck. Must...not...believe...hype. That's when they start sucking, when people start saying they're good.
It's very good to be a Sonics fan right now! They are playing like a team - like Detroit last year - and I think that is a big difference. And our bigs are beasts on the boards. We were one of the weakest teams on the boards last year and right now we are outrebounding San Antonio and Sacramento and Denver! Much credit to Sonics from my corner!!!
"I heard the word ?soft? being used to describe this team. I wonder if anybody thinks we?re soft anymore?" - Danny Fortson. Good times to be a Sonics fan at the moment. The Kings looked excellent the night before, with Webber getting a triple double, but anytime you can hold Sactown to under 80 points you're doing a super job. I think what pleased me most about this game was our high scorer was 20, but the team had six guys in double figures, including three of those off the bench. And with Utah losing, I believe we go to the top of our division, although with 77 games to go I'm getting a bit ahead of myself (watch the inevitable slide, happens annually). A huge edge on the boards too, and I think we all know the two reasons for that. Luke Ridnour took on Bibby and B-Jax, and he beat 'em both. Hazaa! <font size="1">Boxscore courtesy of ESPN.</font>
A couple of interesting postgame quotes. Those Kings sure are gracious in defeat... Rick Adelman: "If they want to knock people down and they want to do all that stuff and call it toughness than so be it. That had nothing to do with the way we played. If anything, they were the aggressors and they had a lot of offensive rebounds, but it was mostly our doing." Brad Miller: "They were just grabbing and holding. Not even trying to set picks or nothing. It was just blatantly grabbing. It gets frustrating because when you play the game you don?t teach people to grab and hold all the time but that?s what they were doing tonight. I should have reacted to it better. It?s not physical ? I mean Danny Fortson is physical but the way Reggie Evans was playing, that?s not physical. It?s just grabbing and holding and pushing and shoving and hoping that they don?t call it." Fortson's response: "Those guys play physical too. You might not see as much as (with) me, but they play physical too. I caught some elbows tonight, but I?m not crying and complaining. Basically it?s equal. It?s equal out there." <font size="1">Complete list of post-game quotes courtesy of the official team website. </font>
Brad Miller caught some big elbows last night but still, quit complaining. Apparently the "holding" inside cost the Kings 30 points that would have made up the defecit. If so, then the NBA seriously needs new referees to let that much illegal action go unnoticed .
Brad Miller is just mad that he's on a team that can't get it done in the playoffs, or in the regular season for that matter. The Kings had a horrible offseason, and it's showing. There is no reason why a team with Peja, Bibby, Webber, Miller, and Jackson off the bench should be 1-4 to start. And Supersonic I hope you don't mind my language, but I feel obligated to say that Bobby Jackson is Luke's bitch .
It's getting harder and harder for me not to get optimistic about this team. I'm from Pittsburgh and Danny Fortson is having a Ben Roethlisberger effect on this team. He has transformed this team from being soft to being bullies. Luke Ridnour has played pretty well the past two games. I honestly hope that he can keep this up. Isn't it amazing what a couple of big wins can do for a team (and fan base) confidence?
I know that every season we start out hot and then we burn out and start losing, but the main difference this year is that we are winning by out-rebounding and out-hustling the other teams. We aren't just out-shooting the other teams like the last few seasons. I see a new edge to our team this year. I'm extremely happy with what Fortson is bringing to the table. Now teams are gonna be thinking twice about coming into the paint against the Sonics. We are finally starting to shake off our "soft" reputation. Reggie is also doing a marvelous job. I watched the Kings game and saw how frustrated Brad Miller got because of Fortson's physical play. We need to keep that up. Ray has been great, as usual. Rashard seems to have finally gotten some consistency so far. What is really impressing me about him is that he is actually playing some defense now. He's been great at blocking some shots.
It's really about time with Rashard, there's no reason at all why he can't be an effective defender. He's really long for the three spot, but he still has the athletic ability and lateral quickness to keep up with any small forward in the game. Not to mention those long, long arms.
