Details: When: Tuesday, May 17th Where: SBC Center, San Antonio Time (Seattle): 6:30 P.M. TV: TNT Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (2-2) </font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis* Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="darkslategray">San Antonio (2-2)</font> Tony Parker Brent Barry Bruce Bowen Tim Duncan Nazr Mohammed Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> *Rashard Lewis: Sprained toe, questionable. Vlad Radmanovic: Sprained ankle, ruled out. <font color="navy"><font color="darkslategray">San Antonio</font> </font> None. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]The Sonics used stellar defense and hot hands from Ray Allen, Antonio Daniels, and Cool Hand Luke to stifle the Spurs at the key. With the series knotted at 2-2, it's now anyone's series. [/list] <ul> [*]Rashard Lewis is a game-time decision for this game and many believe that the Sonics must have him back in order to take an extremely hard win away from the Spurs on their own court. [/list]* Useful playoff stat of the day: <font face="Arial">Luke Ridnour was 7/7 for 15 points in the 3rd period in game 4. </font> Quotable: "I've heard so many people saying to replace him in the lineup after the first two games. Luke is the future for this franchise as far as running the point guard. He is a competitor and competes every single night, that's the one thing I love about him." - Nate McMillan Random Family Guy Quote [On the game show Password] Host: This one for Peter Griffin and Tony Randle. Announcer: The password is "flaming". Peter: You... Tony: Actor. Peter: You... Tony: Tony? Peter: You... All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
I've finally got a telecast of this one. Have to get on top early, and the set the tone in front of their home crowd. We're not coming back if we go down double figures.
And they say Reggie Evans flops? I'm not sure what annoys me more - Manu's playacting, or the fact that the referees still buy it. That foul on Wilkins was an absolute joke (the elbow, not the flagrant). Fortson's reputation is a joke too. He does his job by grabbing the rebound, Horry gives him no space to land, and he gets a foul called on him, ridiculous. Anyway, the positives: We stuck with them for most of the game, just that five minute period after halftime where Ginobili and Mohammed killed us. Luke was brilliant on Parker (who got most of his points in junktime) and Wilkins again impressed. Homecourt advantage was really pumping, though. The amount of 50/50 calls that went against the Supes, the amount of shots that rimmed in and out was amazing. We just couldn't string together anything, apart from that run before 1/2 time. Outplayed, but enough to suggest we should get them back in Seattle and force a Game Seven.
I don't mean to sound pessimistic...I think the Sonics CAN win tomorrow, but I don't think they will. I think the Spurs do NOT want to go back to Texas for Game 7. They are experienced enough as a team to know that they have the Sonics back on their heels and they need to give them a good, solid shove to knock them on their tails. I don't think the Sonics believe they can win a game 7 in San Antonio, so I don't know that they will bring everything they need to game 6. The crowd at the Key will make it tough, but it will come down to whether Nate makes a good adjustment to Ginobli/Nazr and the difficulties they caused us, whether the officials let them play physical down low, and whether another shooter besides Ray gets going. Someone needs to hit some outside/midrange jumpers or the Spurs are going to lock down the paint all night long. James has to stay out of foul trouble. Reggie is just not being effective at either end in this series. They have too much size out there. They outrebounded us on the key possessions because they are just too big. I don't think Reggie is sharp enough to start. I think Nick or Danny need to start in Game 6 to set the tone. The guards were looking to dish on penetration and/or double teams last night and Reggie got the ball too many times and didn't know what to do with it. He hit that one quick left handed hook, but every other time he got the ball he took too much time and their defense is too tall, smart and strong for him to be successful. Even though it will wreck my bracket, here's hoping Ray, AD and Nate convince the young'uns they CAN win a game 7 in Texas and that they fight like their careers, not just their season, are on the line.
I didn't get to see the game and I guess I won't watch the tape But reading the papers and checking the box score, it looks like their role guys stepped up and ours not so much, kind of like what Magic said as far role players and home games. As far as the game, I don't think you make adjustments for Muhammed, or even Ginobli for that matter. When you have someone like Duncan you have to pick your poison - Muhammed's going to be open, I don't know if he got his points on post ups or put backs, I'd wager he found some seams due to penetration and off double teams from Duncan. Ginobli got to the line 17 times plus he was hitting 3's. Not much you can do unless you want to run 2 guys at him like they were doing to Ray (I read). Except Ray's passing out to Damien, Luke and AD. And looking at the stats it didn't look like they took advantage. Positives: Fortson looked like he was all over the glass, Duncan and Parker were kept in check and we shot 46% on road against the best defensive team in the league - and this is without 2 of our top 3 scorers. Negatives: only 12 A's and didn't force any turnovers. Game 6 prognosis - good if we have Rashard but I heard his toe hurts If not it will be a struggle as I would be suprised if Pop lets his guys come out flat as a pancake again, and if Luke and Damien have repeat Game 4 performances. All this analysis without seeing the game
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Roland Hood:</div><div class="quote_post">I didn't get to see the game and I guess I won't watch the tape But reading the papers and checking the box score, it looks like their role guys stepped up and ours not so much, kind of like what Magic said as far role players and home games. As far as the game, I don't think you make adjustments for Muhammed, or even Ginobli for that matter. When you have someone like Duncan you have to pick your poison - Muhammed's going to be open, I don't know if he got his points on post ups or put backs, I'd wager he found some seams due to penetration and off double teams from Duncan. Ginobli got to the line 17 times plus he was hitting 3's. Not much you can do unless you want to run 2 guys at him like they were doing to Ray (I read). Except Ray's passing out to Damien, Luke and AD. And looking at the stats it didn't look like they took advantage. Positives: Fortson looked like he was all over the glass, Duncan and Parker were kept in check and we shot 46% on road against the best defensive team in the league - and this is without 2 of our top 3 scorers. Negatives: only 12 A's and didn't force any turnovers. Game 6 prognosis - good if we have Rashard but I heard his toe hurts If not it will be a struggle as I would be suprised if Pop lets his guys come out flat as a pancake again, and if Luke and Damien have repeat Game 4 performances. All this analysis without seeing the game </div> No major adjustments for Muhammed, he was open because of sloppy interior defense, mostly by Reggie. He kept doubling Duncan, but rather ineffectively and let the pass get to Nazr. Other dunks were just stepping to the right spot when the Supes closed out penetration. I think Reggie is a liability when Nazr and Duncan are in the game. He doesn't react quickly enough and is leaving holes in the defense. Ginobli needs to be guarded tighter at the perimeter in the beginning of the game with the bigs ready to close out. Leave Parker and Bowen if needed, Bowen's best 3 is from the corner and Parker is best from the top of the key. Outside of those spots the guards should sag early to keep Ginobli from getting the early 3's. He earned some of his early free throws, but by the end he was getting calls for falling 3 feet back when his fingers got brushed after his release on his jumper. That is the officials fault, they will do better in the next game unless you believe conspiracy theories that the league wants the Spurs and the Heat in the Finals.
Not to hate on the guy, but Manu doesnt exactly pull games like this on a consistent basis. He was knocking down shots that he tends to miss in the average game. Not to say it's luck or whatever, but the guy had a particularly great game, that's all. Ray disappeared in the second half (actually he wasnt really there for the first quarter either); made me wonder though that he became so passive after dominating in the 2nd quarter.
For whatever reason, Ray is not trusting anyone and AD is trying to assume Ray's role when Ray is resting. We've won this year with pick and roll offense and ball movement. In Game Five I could have sworn I saw over half of the possessions being one pass (or less) then shots. We only look to get the ball to our bigs in pick and roll situations and too many other people who are off the ball are standing around. Granted we have a free lance offense where we don't run many sets, but I'd like to see someone other than Ray or AD try to make plays. Game four we won with our five big men combining for 13 points. That will not ever happen again. In game five we didn't share the ball either. That is why we have so many scoring droughts. It's a credit to San Antonio defense, but at the same time it's a discredit to other Sonics that Ray and AD feel as if they have to do it on their own. Sweet Lew being brittle doesn't help things either, but if we are going to extend this series to seven games we have to find a way to increase our assists and get some easy baskets.
