Details: When: Tuesday, May 10th Where: SBC Center, San Antonio Time (Seattle): 6:30 P.M. TV: TNT, Fox Sports Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (0-1) </font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen* Rashard Lewis Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="DarkSlateGray">San Antonio (1-0)</font> Tony Parker Brent Barry Bruce Bowen Tim Duncan Nazr Mohammed Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> *Ray Allen: Sprained ankle, probable. Vlad Radmanovic: Sprained ankle, ruled out. <font color="navy"><font color="DarkSlateGray">San Antonio</font> </font> None. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]Well, Game One was not exactly the way the Supes wanted to start the series. A 22 point loss and injuries to Vlad Radmanovic and Ray Allen, while Tony Parker did what he wanted running the show. Without Allen, Rashard Lewis was bullied by Bruce Bowen, and his performance suffered as a result. Ray Should play, but Vlad looks set to sit out at least the next two or three games. Still, it could be worse - all the Spurs have done is taken a home game lead. [/list] <ul> [*]Tony Parker is where the Sonics will look to stop the Spurs, so look for Antonio Daniels to log more minutes. Daniels has been one of the only players in Seattle's line-up to take their regular season form into the playoffs, and Parker gave Luke Ridnour fits in the first game. [/list] * Useful playoff stat of the day: The Sonics have never won a playoff series after going 0-2 down. They are none for six in that regard. Quotable: "Vlade is Vlade and he's an awesome player. I'm Damien Wilkins. I'm just me and hopefully that's good enough" - Damien Wilkins, as he prepares to take Radmanovic's spot in the rotation. Random Family Guy Quote Peter (after Lois tells him he's childish): "If I'm a child that means you're a pedophile, and I dont have to stand here and take this from a pervert." All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
The biggest game of the season. We can not go back to Seattle down 2-Love. That would mean that we would have to beat San Antonio 4 out of the next 5 games to win the series, and I don't think that there is a team in this league that can do that. For us to win this series we have to win a game @ San Antonio. Vlad is done for the series. I don't think that his loss is as big as it is being advertised. Contrary to popular opinion there is only one player on our team that I think think is irreplaceable, and that is Sweet Lew. As soft as he has been in the postseason, he is the only player on our roster that can present mismatches both on the perimeter and the post. He just needs to step up. No one knows the extent of Ray's injury. Even if he is available to play, who knows what contributions that he is going to be able to make on both ends. I've been waiting for Flip to get an opportunity this entire season. There is no bigger stage for him to play well than there is right now. He looked tremendously out of sync in Game One, but I know that he recognizes the opportunity that he may get tonight, and I don't expect him to play as poorly as he did offensively tonight. Everyone needs to step up. The only players that I've been consistently happy with in this postseason has been Ray, AD, and Nick. Jerome has had his moments but he defense has been atrocious at times. Reggie doesn't seem to have the same energy, Danny is going to renamed Danny Fouls-ton, Vlad wasn't particularly productive anyway at either end, and Damien Wilkins isn't built for this yet. The weight of this season falls on the shoulders of the healthy Sonics. We have proven the prognosticators wrong throughout the season. Here is another opportunity to silence our critics. Ron Murray to the rescue, fam.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">As soft as he has been in the postseason, he is the only player on our roster that can present mismatches both on the perimeter and the post. He just needs to step up. </div> I think this game/series will tell us a lot about whether Rashard is just one of many nice players in this league, or a guy ready to take the next step to perennial All-Star type player.
I was impressed with Damien Wilkins in the few games I've seen him. He doesn't have the versatility that Rad had, but he is more athletic and slightly better on defense. Seattle might not win this game, but they have to at least make it close. They have to go back to Seattle knowing that they can play against this Spurs team. If the Spurs blow them out again in game 2, then I'm afraid it could mean a sweep (by the way, the same can be said for my Mavs against the Suns in game 2).
Defense on Parker. Lewis needs to be AGGRESSIVE. The refs need to take the target off Danny's back. He has almost as many fouls this post season as he has minutes played.
Welp, the same old story. No defense, no scoring outside of Ray and Shard, Big Game James reverting back to Fat Slow James, and the Sonics getting completely outclassed by the Spurs. The transition D must get better, Parker and Ginobili are killing us. We have the personnel to have a strong transition game and Nate needs to get his troops to utilize this or else we'll be swept.
This team will go nowhere until Rashard steps up and stamps his authority on this series. They have the best perimeter defender in the game outside of Artest, yet at the same time we have two of the most lethal perimeter scorers in the league - when they are performing. The loss of Vlad hurts, but this series will be over in four unless Rashard rediscovers his aggression at the Key. They've held serve at home, and they will come out all guns blazing trying to steal game three. This team has surprised us all season, are there any surprises left?
Didn't get to see this, but looking at the box score, a few things jump out at me: -Ginobili, Parker, and Duncan combine for 75 points. At some point, you have to key in on these guys and let the others try to beat you. The Spurs' other 9 guys shot 38% from the field. Add in the big three, and the team shot 53% as a whole. -Duncan only took 3 free throws while attempting 20 field goals. When a guy has only one glaring weakness, your best bet is to try to exploit it.
Would love to use Danny's six fouls on Duncan, but this is a guy that gets called for fouling the hardwood when he checks into the game.
5 games to get 4. There is no way that we are going to win this series if we can't keep the Spurs under 100 points. Our defense is poor, we are force feeding the ball to Sweet Lew, and we aren't getting high percentage shots. The Spurs are the best team in the league, hands down. If we are going to have any success in this series we are going to have to play our A game and hope that the Spurs are off of their games. The Spurs only have one prolific scorer in Duncan. All of the other guys are capable of exploding, but not on a consistent basis. If I were Nate I'd play Timmy straight up and trap all ball screens with Parker/Ginobli. You can't let all three of those guys get off consistently. I thought that Flip did a good job defensively last night, but again he couldn't buy a basket. It wasn't for lack of trying, but it is time for him to start producing. The Spurs did what they were supposed to do, and now it is time for the Sonics to do the same. Will it be two or three games at the remaining at the Key. Everyone is quick to write us off. It is time for all of these impending free agents (sans Ray/AD) to improve their market value. It ain't over, fam. Don't never give, don't never give.
What was with all the one on one play by the Sonics guards? Were they trying to be Parker and Ginobli? Flip, Ray and AD all had WAY too many possessions where the ball never left their hands and then they threw up a bad shot. What happened to team play with screens and pick and rolls? When AD finally tried to pass to the big off a pick and roll he hit him in the back of the head because no one thought the guards were ever going to pass!!! Every time they gave the ball to Lewis in the post he made something happen. Despite this, they didn't try to post him up the whole 1st quarter, and seldom thereafter. In the 3rd he had 8 straight points in the post followed by eight minutes where he either didn't touch the ball or got it on the perimeter and jacked up another missed 3. Are they watching a different game than me? Reggie needs to play the whole game like he played the 3rd quarter. He and Nick changed the game for the shooters. Nick needs to play more...he just did a lot of smart things out there. The refs blew a whistle on Danny for a defensive foul against a player that was practically on the other end of the court from him. It was clearly someone elses foul, but Danny had just entered the game and the refs got excited and put their whistles in the mouths right away and got their fingers ready to indicate #21. They didn't want to embarrass themselves and admit they could have gotten mixed up in their excitement.
Monster coming to Seattle Sorry Sonics fans but the MONSTER is coming to Seattle to put you out of your misery, it'll all be over by Sunday. Spurs are functioning on all cylinders and your bench isn't deep enough and you don't have the D! JTex
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JTex:</div><div class="quote_post">Sorry Sonics fans but the MONSTER is coming to Seattle to put you out of your misery, it'll all be over by Sunday. Spurs are functioning on all cylinders and your bench isn't deep enough and you don't have the D! JTex</div> Stop trolling. Especially here.
