Details: When: Sunday, January 9th Where: Key Arena, Seattle Time (Seattle): 5:00 TV: Fox Sports, League Pass Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (23-8)</font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="Red">Miami (27-8)</font> Damon Jones Dwyane Wade Eddie Jones Udonis Haslem Shaquille O'Neal Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Mateen Cleaves: Strained shoulder, ruled out. Casanova Swift: Strained hip, ruled out. Damien Wilkins: Knee tendinitis, ruled out. <font color="red">Miami</font> Malik Allen: Back spasms, ruled out. Jerome Beasley: Strained lower back, ruled out. Dorrell Wright: Abdominal strain, ruled out. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]After ending the Heat's 14 game winning streak, the Sonics return home after a 3-2 road trip to try and complete the season sweep. They come off their first losing streak of the season, with consecutive losses to Orlando and Washington. The Heat on the other hand have not missed a beat after losing to Seattle, and come in an even money bet to extend the Sonics' losing streak to three games. [/list] <ul> [*]Reggie Evans should return for this one, and will be welcomed back with aplomb. He will again team with Danny Fortson to try and clog the middle and give Seattle a strong match-up on the boards, against the might of Shaquille O'Neal and Udonis Haslem. An interesting side note will be the battle between Fortson and O'Neal, with the former sending some words through the media at the big fella, and it will be sure to spark some fire in Shaq's considerable girth. [/list] <ul> [*]All-Star Watch: Despite the loss to Washington, Rashard did his All-Star chances no harm with a monster game of 35 points and 11 rebounds. Although he took a backseat role to Ray in the victory over Miami last time around, he has advantages in almost every area against veteran Eddie Jones. [/list] <ul> [*]Flip Watch: [/list] <div align="center"><u>Random Family Guy Quote</u></div> Peter: Hey, what's his name? Al Gore: Dick Army. Peter: Ahahahahahahaha! No seriously, what is it? Gore: Dick Army. Peter: Ahahahaha! Hey Dick, what's your wife's name, Vagina Coastguard? All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post"> Flip Watch: </div> Don't never give... don't never give.
Hilarious stuff. As for the game, it's going to beat difficult to beat a team like Miami twice. We did pwn the Spurs twice though but it all depends what type of outing we'll get from the Supes. If the bench comes out to play and Reggie Evans returns to his hardnosed form, we should win. I have all the faith in the world that our perimeter players can keep up with Wade and we dwarf them in comparison at the other positions. Shaq will get his for sure but if we can limit him to not scoring 3/4 the team's points it shouldn't matter. Hopefully the Sonics can get a nice return home win here.
Yall are something else. Just like the pic, it's time for Nate to empty the bench. This game is slowly turning into a rivalry. The Sonics are on their first two game losing streak this season and I'm hoping it stops here. I don't want to hear any more excuses from Ray in the papers. "I'm playing bad b/c I've been thinking about my contract situation." Best believe Supersonic, I'm going to get you back for that.
Man, Vladimir and Antonio Daniels are just lifting you guy right now, Radmon has just been hitting those three's, and Daniels aggressiveness to the basket has been great for the Sonics. Damon Jones! Wow. Wow, Radmon, Fortson, Ridnour and Daniels, that was a very good game, but Heat didn't make a FG for what, the last 4 minutes of the 4th quarter, and the Sonics played very well.
IMO our biggest win of the season. They say a team's character and quality is tested in times of adversity. Well, we were coming off two losses for the first time all season, didn't have Reggie again, playing arguably the best team in the league coming in, and down by eight at the half. Could have easily folded, but instead they dug deep, got some huge contributions from the bench, and blew Miami away in the second half. That's the mark of a quality team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">They say a team's character and quality is tested in times of adversity.</div> They ain't ever done give.
Ray and Rashard combined for 29 and the Sonics still win? times really have changed in Seattle. Good win by the Sonics, knocking off the Heat twice in a week. Heat have real problems defending the three and It showed.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllNet:</div><div class="quote_post">Ray and Rashard combined for 29 and the Sonics still win? times really have changed in Seattle. Good win by the Sonics, knocking off the Heat twice in a week. Heat have real problems defending the three and It showed.</div> The bench is something else, I remember before the season started I was really skeptical of Vladimir Radmanovic's role on the team but he has been an offensive force off the pine. He takes it to the hole with power and sits back and drains threes, not much more you could want from a 6'10 Euro.
The Sonics have to figure out how to guard "small ball." We have shown the ability to exploit mismatches and match up well defensively w/ good teams w/ some size. However when you take a look at our losses -- Clippers, Celtics twice, Phoenix, Washington, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Portland only Portland would be considered a big team. We have trouble guarding smaller line ups and until we find a way to take advantage of our height in those situations (instead of our quickness and shooting when we are playing big teams) we are going to continue to struggle w/ guard oriented teams. The wins against the Heat don't surprise me. I'm interested in seeing how well we match up w/ the Nets (at full strength), Knicks, and even teams like the Bucks and the Bulls (small teams w/ good perimeter talent) on the road to see if my theory is some bull. Good coaches will make adjustments in order to be successful. I will not be surprised to see more and more coaches put smaller quicker line ups out there in order to force our front court to defend. But in all actuality I'm more glad that we are playing solid defense in the front court b/c the best teams in the league have great front court players. Our ability to neutralize many of the top post players in this league is a major contributing factor to our great start.
