Details: When: Wednesday, April 13th Where: Key ena, Seattle Time (Seattle): 7:30 P.M. TV: Fox Sports, League Pass Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (50-27) </font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Damien Wilkins Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="navy">Dallas (53-24)</font> Jason Terry Michael Finley Josh Howard Dirk Nowitski Erick Dampier Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Mateen Cleaves: Sprained thumb, ruled out. Vladimir Radmanovic: Stress fracture in leg, ruled out. Rashard Lewis: Bruised foot, questionable. Danny Fortson: Bruised shoulder, questionable. Antonio Daniels: Sore knee, questionable. <font color="navy">Dallas </font> DJ Mbenga: Strained hamstring, ruled out. Pavel Podkolzine: Knee cartilage injury, ruled out. Tariq Abdul-Wahad: Knee tendinitis, ruled out. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]Still need one more win to clinch the inaugural Northwest division title. Rashard Lewis, Antonio Daniels, and Danny Fortson participated in practice last night so there is an outside chance that we may see our wounded warriors lace up their shoes and play some minutes. [/list] <ul> [*]The Mavs are on a four-game winning streak...the Sonics have lost 5 straight. Dallas absolutely dominated San Antonio a few games back. Let's change some fortune tonight, eh? [/list]* Useful/less Tekken 5 quote of the day: "Power is not the same as strength. Until you realize this, you will not defeat me." - Wang Jinrei Quotable: "We just go out there and play basketball. Whoever is out on the court, that?s who is out there. We can?t be concerned about who is not there; we've go to do what we've got to do out on the court." - Flip Murray Random Family Guy Quote Head Scout: You've got three days to earn a badge. Peter: Three days! That's tomorrow! We gotta get going. All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
Lewis back in the starting line-up, and AD and Fort look to be lining up too. Dallas may be just a bit too hot though.
Dallas is getting numbers on every one of our misses. Again, the new, mature Jerome James plays a whole lot like the old one.
The Mavs will be a dangerous team in the playoffs, particularly as Avery has them playing defense now.
I'm hoping for a Seattle win just so they could clinch the Northwest and maybe cause the Nuggets to lose some motivation and drop a few games. All comes around to hoping for a Houston/Seattle matchup.
Denver won't lose motivation, George Karl wants the Sonics more than anything. Down a point at the half, Lewis has looked nice and aggressive, despite his shot being off, while Ray lit it up to end the first half.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post">Denver won't lose motivation, George Karl wants the Sonics more than anything. Down a point at the half, Lewis has looked nice and aggressive, despite his shot being off, while Ray lit it up to end the first half.</div> Guess so. Either way, I guess Seattle would have a tough time against Houston or Denver. Both teams have proven their ability to compete against the Sonics and both are riding on winning streaks while the Sonics have been ice cold this month. I'd have my money on the 3/6 matchup in the West being the one most likely to be an upset.
the only good thing I see is that with Lew, AD and Fortson back and playing as well as they did tonight....they should clinch against the Hornets on Friday. They will be HUNGRY and frustrated by the 6 game losing streak. Is the schedule correct that there is NO tv coverage of the Wolves game on Sunday, not even NBA League Pass?
Games like this frustrate the hell out of me. Dallas played to the level of their competition tonight. We didn't do anything as a team to be as close as we were tonight, outside of offensive rebounding by Evans and James. Dallas wanted to give us the game, we just didn't want to take it. The more I watch Nate, the more I'm leaning towards him finding another job next season. He is the most passive aggressive coach I've ever seen. Our offense tonight was absolutely atrocious. I don't think I've ever seen a team shoot more bad shots than I saw tonight. AD shot selection, horrible--especially considering that it was his first game back. Sweet Lew was rusty. Even the shots they Ray Allen hit were bad. Ridnour's shot selection was bad. Wilkins had some costly turnovers. The only person who could get a high percentage shot got completely frozen out in the fourth. I completely understand why Jerome James was upset in the fourth quarter at Antonio Daniels. He was being guarded by Keith Van Horn. Keith Van Horn!!! And AD didn't pass him the ball as if to say he wasn't important enough to get a touch down the stretch of the game. Watch that storyline. Nate's rotation again was terrible. Three guys who have had significant time off were all on the court for long stretches in the fourth quarter. Both Fortson and Lewis looked rusty and AD must have lost his brain along with his cartilage in his knee. Jerome should have gotten more minutes in the second half and Nate didn't look in Flip's direction in the second half despite the fact that the Sonics went on a run when he was in the game (and Flip made an emphasis to incorporate his teammates). Like I said in an earlier post we need to win more than just one game. One game secures the Northwest division but we could still lose out on home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs if both the Rockets and the Kings continue to win. Losing six in a row is one thing, but we are starting to look like we lost our edge. It's an absolute shame that the Sonics have pointing the past two weeks at Friday's game against the worst team in the Western Conference, the New Orleans Hornets, as the must win game to secure the division. It is time for some of our guys to start earning their pay checks and stop looking for excuses. Everyone on our roster that gets significant playing time is active, with the exception of Radmanovic, so I'm interested to see what the excuse will be for tonight's loss. Win a muthaf**kin game, goddammit!
I'll admit that I secretly wanted the Sonics to lose tonight, as I am going to Friday's game and I would like to see the clinch the division in person. We need to win all of our remaining games. As many have already said, it's best to enter the playoffs with momentum. I also want Vlad to be back in the lineup for at least the last two games before the playoffs. After tonight we all know that simply having guys back doesn't help if they are out of practice.
