Details: Who: Seattle Sonics (3-0) vs Atlanta Hawks (1-4*) Where: Key Arena, Seattle When: Sun Nov 9, 6pm TV: Kong *Excluding game vs Portland on 11/8 Projected Lineups: Seattle PG: Brent Barry/Antonio Daniels/Luke Ridnour SG: Ronald Murray/Brent Barry/Richie Frahm SF: Rashard Lewis/Ansu Sesay/Vladimir Radmanovic PF: Vladimir Radmanovic/Reggie Evans/Vitaly Potapenko C: Calvin Booth/Jerome James/Vitaly Potapenko Coached by Nate McMillan Atlanta PG: Dion Glover/Jacque Vaughn/Jason Terry SG: Jason Terry/Boris Diaw-Riffiod/Stephen Jackson SF: Stephen Jackson/Lee Nailon PF: Shareef Abdur-Rahim/Chris Crawford/Nazr Mohammed C: Theo Ratliff/Nazr Mohammed Coached by Terry Stotts Sonic Injury List: Ray Allen: ankle, expected to miss 5-7 more weeks. Nick Collison: shoulder, season. Antonio Daniels: back spasms, likely Blazer Injury List Dan Dickau: achilles tendonitis, on IL Obinna Ekezie: torn right ACL, on IL Alan Henderson: back, questionable Analysis: Complacency will be the issue for Nate McMillan to try and deal with, with the Soncis coming off a big win over Portland to remain the only undefeated team. Atlanta are 1-4 and not playing great basketball, and Co-Captain Alan Henderson adds to their woes with a sore back likely to rule him out. Seattle come into the game with Rashard Lewis, Ronald Murray, Brent Barry and Vladimir Radmanovic all in top form, and will likely have too much firepower for the Hawks to handle. Atlanta will rely on Terry having a big scoring game and Ratliff guarding the centre commandingly to have any chance in this one. Key Factor: Atlanta's offense. Seattle have scored at least 100 points in all three games this year whilst playing great team basketball, and it is unlikely Atlanta have the defense to stop them. Their best hope will be to try and match Seattle on the offensive end, and this will mean Terry and Jackson will have to shoot well from the perimeter. The key to Atlanta is Shareef Abdur-rahim, who will have to overcome the tenacious post defense of Radmanovic and Reggie Evans and have a big game at both ends Key Matchup: Ronald Murray vs Jason Terry Both of these players match up on each other perfectly, two prolific shooting guards in a point guard's body. Murray and Terry both have a knack of getting to the hole, both are nothing special on the defensive end and both are also competent ball handlers and passers, though Terry has the edge in this area. This match-up could turn into your classic shootout, and if either gets hot they could hold the ket to their respective team's fortunes. Terry will try to get open on the perimeter and look for open shots provided by the defense collapsing on Abdur-Rahim and Ratliff, meaning Murray will have to be alert. Murray will look to get to the hole at every opportunity, and will test Terry's perimeter defense. X-Factors: Seattle Reggie Evans - The IOWA product has made a name for himself as a strong rebounder and pesky defender, and he'll likely see 20-25 minutes against the Hawks. His job will be to pester Abdur-Rahim down low on defense, and try and clean the glass to stop Atlanta's strong rebounders in Abdur-Rahim, Ratliff and Mohammed from dominating the boards. Atlanta Nazr Mohammed - Often overlooked, Mohammed is a guy who rebounds extremely well, is a competent scorer on the low block and does the dirty work. He should see time against a weak Seattle interior, and will keep the second unit's interior strong when Abdur-Rahim or Ratliff take a break.
are we that good? you bet Ridnour-i know he can shoot better than he did last night, but he spread the ball well and had a couple sweet moves. Lewis-he seemed to be struggling, but later on he FOUND ways to score and ended up with 21 points on 10-20 shooting. Murray-not only did he score 24 points, but he didn't have to shoot 30 shots to do it like mcgrady or kobe (I don't wanna say Allen). also had couple real nice passes. Barry- This guy is rediculous, but you have to love it. He came out and played a real solid game with 20 points. Radmanovic-he really impressed me last night how he can create his own shot, and 3-6 from downtown. If he can score like this, who needs a post up pf? Evans-he had one rebound for every 2 minutes he played. His offense isn't all that great but but he seems to be good at drawing fouls. Booth-was found open for inside shots, grabbed a couple rebouds and loose balls, but still nothing close to his contract. james-blocked that dunk attempt, but really did nothing much elsewhere. sesay- seems to be playing with more confidence than he has in his yesteryears. frahm-........... potapenko-........... Our main strength is that we have four good scorers (barry, lewis, radman, murray). Our defense is still a question (105 points allowed vs. clippers), but we can throw a defensive player in at any position to slow down someone is taking over. At point gaurd and shooting gaurd: Daniels small forward: Ansu Sesay pf: Evans C: Either one will recieve a facial, but about Potapenko? With all these teams scoreing in the 70's, we just might do something special. We should beat the hawks, and if Shard outplays KG, i see us beating the wolves, too. It will be interesting to see what happens when Allen returns. MY KEY MATCHUP Shard vs. Reef: Both 6-10, both have hops, both can score. Is Shareef the type of player that can slow down Rashard? Or the other way around? This one might be closer than you guys think, but i got my money on Seattle.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kid Canada:</div><div class="quote_post">Dion Glover plays PG?</div> He plays a Brent Barry type of role to allow Terry to play shooting guard on offense, though he usually switches on defense (not against the Sonics though cos they do the same deal). Cigawutwut, I don't think you'll see Reef match-up on Shard, but if Lewis goes down low then he may switch. Atlanta are undersized in this area, they'll have to rely on Stephen Jackson taking Lewis on the perimeter which means the Sonics can either force Jackson to defend Lewis on the post, or switch and make him defend Radman on the perimeter. Either way we should be able to exploit Atlanta's lack of size at the 3
I see Sonics winning of course but I don't think It will be a complete walkover..Buckets will have to add as many points as possible to help out SAR and Terry.He is having a great season..and I feel bad for him losing like he has been.
Murray came out of nowhere! The sonics cleaned up with that trade. I think that the Sonics will handily win this one and end the season higher than the 11th place team in the west, which is where ESPN has them.
Desmond Mason for Ray Allen, Luke Ridnour and Flip Murray - think any Sonic fans are complaining now?! (Dez you know I love ya, but still...)
Man you're all jinxing me! Sonics down 28-20 after 1, Hawks shooting the lights out, Sonics shooting 33% - Lewis has 10
Were up by 17, got it back to 11 now with possession. Hawks still shooting the absolute lights out, we're down to 29% 72% from downtown, why do they gotta pull this crap out now?! **UPDATE: HALFTIME** Atlanta 52 Seattle 36 Atlanta shooting 55% and 72% from downtown Seattle shooting 27% and a brilliant 0% from downtown Terry has 14 points on 4-6 shooting, including 3-4 from downtown Lewis has 12 points on 5-12 shooting, 4 boards and a tech foul Bloody brilliant this is.
:sighs: that was such a horrific night...they were in such a nightmare shooting mode... I swear, Brent Barry was incredibly close to get 3's and so was Radman...but some of them were soooooooo OFF it was sad!
