No preview was done for this game but I'm still interested on our thoughts about it. I didn't get a chance to watch it yet but from the box score it looked like we pretty much were overmatched tonight. That's unfortunate b/c we needed to take advantage of the Duncan-less Spurs. Flip again shot the ball very poorly. I think at one point he was 0-8 and 2-11 but he rallied to lead our team in scoring w/ 17 points. One thing that we all know Flip doesn't lack is confidence. He wasn't going to let his poor shooting percentages from the past two games stop him from being aggressive. Some may say that it hurt the team tonight, but it didn't look like we had the fire power anywhere else that could have helped us get back into the game. It's obvious that Ron and Ray don't work well together and I attribute that solely to Nate. Had Nate tried this year to play both of these guys together I do believe that they would have been able to get a better feel for each other. They didn't play well together last year, mostly b/c Flip became the primary threat late in games. All I know is in the playoffs we are going to need contributions from Flip, and it isn't going to happen w/ Ray on the bench. Something has to give. Jerome James was transparent tonight and we didn't get any type of scoring from Luke either. Damien Wilkins continues to impress and it is going to be interesting what his role is going to be when everyone gets healthy. He is putting himself in a position to get a lucrative contract offer next season. This loss is extremely disappointing b/c that drops us even further back in our pursuit for the number two seed. If we were to match up with the Spurs in the second round, I would think that we'd be best served having home court advantage. Who knows though, considering we do play better on the road.
I saw bits and pieces. Ray was getting harraased by Bown, as usual. Flip didn't look like he was into it, several times he tried to shake 'n bake and put the ball between his legs 1 or 2 times too many and lost the ball or wasted time on the shot clock. Parker absolutely killed us, going around Luke like he was standing still. But our bigs didn't do much to discourage him, either. Potapenko continues to frustrate me with his slow hand reaction - balls come off the rim and he gets a paw on the ball but can't get possesion. The Spurs got some critical extra buckets in that 2nd qtr run that put us down double digits. All in all from the half I saw it just looked like the Spurs were a lot more aggressive and wanted it more than we did. I guess these games happen throughout an NBA season but yeah considering Timmy didn't play it's disappointing we didn't play them tougher.
Regarding our playoff positioning, obviously it's best to have homecourt but really, I don't have much of a preference for who we play. Maybe the Grizz because they're kind of a young team but all the other teams are tough matchups to me (I'm a pessimist, though) - Denver, Houston, Sac, maybe Minny. Denver in particular I don't want to play in the 1st round.
It looks horrible. Season low seven assists, thrashed by a team without Duncan, but I didn't have a lot of confidence going into this one. Best just to put that one well and truly behind this one, although the continued solid play of Nick and Damien is only going to be a positive for the postseason. Plenty of teams will be picking an upset by Houston, Sacramento or even Denver in the first round of the playoffs, no doubt about that. I really want the Kings.
The Spurs are brutally tough to beat on any day. When the Sonics are not at full strength they can't miss a beat anywhere if they want to play on the same court as the spurs. With Vlade, Lew and Danny out, Ray HAD to get 25-30, Flip or Damien HAD to get 20-25 and Luke needed to get 10-15. On top of all that, they needed to shut down the paint early...Parker plays better and shoots better when he gets access to the lane early. He gets dropped on penetration often enough early and he gets more hesitant and his jumper goes astray. I didn't get to see the game...but the box score says that no one came to play until the 4th quarter on offense. Defense only looked HORRIBLE for one quarter. However a team like the Sonics can't be held below 20 pts in 3 quarters of one game and still expect to win with "ok" defense. Welcome to post-season quality basketball. Expect the same toughness from Sac, Houston and Dallas in the coming weeks. If the Sonics can clinch the division I hope they play the bench squads more minutes to give the starters a breather before the REAL post-season. Unfortunately, I don't see Nate taking that approach.
I have plenty of respect for the Sonics and what they have done this year but Jerome James is such a punk. Seriously in the last meeting he regretted not smashing Manu down to the floor on a drive and his goal was to not let him get easy baskets by not to just foul him but clobber him. So what does James do to Manu? Manu is a tough and classy guy so he just got on with his job to help his team win. As for the game, It's good to see the Spurs winning without Duncan..thats 3 straight with two of the last 3 coming against high quailty playoff teams. If someone told me the Spurs would only have two guys in double fiqures in scoring and they still win the game by 13 points I would be shocked. Oh and Ray really need to stop moaning about Bruce everytime they meet. It's getting old now. As much as I dislike Kobe, he at least gives his respect and props to Bruce Bowen's very physical defense.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">No preview was done for this game but I'm still interested on our thoughts about it. I didn't get a chance to watch it yet but from the box score it looked like we pretty much were overmatched tonight. That's unfortunate b/c we needed to take advantage of the Duncan-less Spurs. Flip again shot the ball very poorly. I think at one point he was 0-8 and 2-11 but he rallied to lead our team in scoring w/ 17 points. One thing that we all know Flip doesn't lack is confidence. He wasn't going to let his poor shooting percentages from the past two games stop him from being aggressive. Some may say that it hurt the team tonight, but it didn't look like we had the fire power anywhere else that could have helped us get back into the game. It's obvious that Ron and Ray don't work well together and I attribute that solely to Nate. Had Nate tried this year to play both of these guys together I do believe that they would have been able to get a better feel for each other. They didn't play well together last year, mostly b/c Flip became the primary threat late in games. All I know is in the playoffs we are going to need contributions from Flip, and it isn't going to happen w/ Ray on the bench. Something has to give. Jerome James was transparent tonight and we didn't get any type of scoring from Luke either. Damien Wilkins continues to impress and it is going to be interesting what his role is going to be when everyone gets healthy. He is putting himself in a position to get a lucrative contract offer next season. This loss is extremely disappointing b/c that drops us even further back in our pursuit for the number two seed. If we were to match up with the Spurs in the second round, I would think that we'd be best served having home court advantage. Who knows though, considering we do play better on the road.</div> Flip looked like he didnt even belong in the NBA until the game was pretty much over and he padded his stats some. He looked ridiciously horrible and there is absolutely no reason to think Flip is gonna be getting big minutes anytime soon. Attribute that to Nate all you want.....cuz we all know it couldnt be because Flip played horrible.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post">Plenty of teams will be picking an upset by Houston, Sacramento or even Denver in the first round of the playoffs, no doubt about that.</div> Yep the NBA Fastbreak guys have said as much. Tim Legler especially and I don't totally disagree (can't stand Greg Anthony, though) <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I really want the Kings</div> Same here. If only for the reason that they just don't seem like the well oiled machine offensively that they were with Webber. But from a playoff standpoint they still have experienced guys like Bibby (who always raises his game in the post-season), Peja (who's game goes down ) and Corliss. Defensively they might even be better suited for a 7 game series than they were before. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Oh and Ray really need to stop moaning about Bruce everytime they meet. It's getting old now. As much as I dislike Kobe, he at least gives his respect and props to Bruce Bowen's very physical defense.</div> Concur. There's nothing worse than seeing a soft guy start whining when some guy gets in his grill like Bowen does.
