Details: When: Friday, March 24th Where: KeyArena, Seattle, WaRshington Time (Seattle): 7:30 P.M. TV: Fox Sports, League Pass Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (46-20) </font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis* Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="darkorange">New York (29-37) </font><font color="indigo"> </font><font color="black">Stephon Marbury</font> <font color="black">Jamal Crawford</font> <font color="black">Malik Rose</font> <font color="black">Tim Thomas</font> <font color="black">Mike Sweetney</font> Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Mateen Cleaves: Sprained thumb, ruled out. Vladimir Radmanovic: Stress fracture in leg, ruled out. Rashard Lewis: Knee, Questionable. <font color="darkorange">New York</font> Penny Hardaway: Strained right hamstring, ruled out. Allan Houston: Patellofemoral arthritis, ruled out. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]Seattle had an unlikely star step up in the Portland game as season ILer Damien Wilkins filled in for Rashard Lewis when he went down and lead the Supes with 21 points including some clutch plays down the stretch that gave the Sonics the win for good. Star shooting guard Ray Allen was back and although was again subpar in the scoring aspect of the game, he collected 8 boards teaming with Reggie Evans and Nick Collison who both had 9 for a solid rebounding effort. The Knicks are coming off of a two game winning streak with wins over San Antonio and Boston. Starbury lead the team versus the Spurs and Seattle native Jamal Crawford stepped up against the Celtics. [/list] <ul> [*]In their last meeting, Reggie Evans had a magnetic performance in the paint, grabbing 16 rebounds. Seattle had most of their scoring come from Rashard Lewis that game but he may not be able to suit up for this one as he is questionable. New York's bench was shut down in that game and the Sonics should once again attempt to bury the Knicks when they revert to their benchwarmers. [/list] <ul> [*]This is my "1,000th" post (thanks to SOMEBODY deleting a chunk of my earlier posts). Woopty doo. [/list]* Useful/less stat of the day: The Sonics average 7.6 more points when Rashard Lewis is on the court. * Word of the Day: Deftness; n: characterized by facility and skill. "Damien Wilkins' big game against Portland confirmed some of the deftness we saw in him at the Summer League. Random Family Guy Quote Peter: Lois, When I'm through with them, our kids will be so smart, they'll be able to program their own VCRs without spilling piping hot gravy all over myself. All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
Damien will get the start if Sweet Lew is unavailable. It's amazing how players who haven't played at all throughout the season turn into starters when a starter is unavailable. Nate McMillian is very fortunate to have players up and down the roster who all prepare themselves to play 30+ minutes at any given time. This could be a trap game b/c of the emotion that followed last night's victory. The Sonics played horribly in the first meeting between these teams but were able to pull away from the Knicks b/c the Knicks played their worst second half of basketball in the history of the franchise. The Sonics may come into this game overconfident while the Knicks may be focused to avenge their earlier loss. I'm optimistic that the Supes can pull this game out but I am worried about our defensive matchups when the Knicks put Tim Thomas at the three. It's been a great luxury to be able to defend the bigger small forwards with two 6'10" small forwards. With both of them possibly being sidelined I would imagine that Tim Thomas will be a larger factor underneath than what he may be accustomed to being. Wilkins is a tough defender but he will be giving Thomas four inches in the post and when Wilkins is out it will be up to Ray to keep Thomas off of the blocks. Expect to see us play a lot of zone tonight.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Damien will get the start if Sweet Lew is unavailable. It's amazing how players who haven't played at all throughout the season turn into starters when a starter is unavailable. Nate McMillian is very fortunate to have players up and down the roster who all prepare themselves to play 30+ minutes at any given time. </div> Nate is fortunate???? How about Nate is a great judge of unrecognized talent. Give the man credit for finding overlooked players who play like he did, with heart and effort. Like Reggie, Wilkens was an undrafted rookie who earned the roster spot through hard work and determination in summer league and training camp. That effort is HIGHLY sought after by Nate, and is why his bottom of the roster picks keep turning out as "surprising" successes. Also, he seems to bring more out of these individuals than other coaches. Emmanuel Davis and Kevin Ollie had nice, SOLID years with Nate and dissappear into obscurity after they earn their new, more expensive contracts elsewhere. I can't think of a year where they haven't had a surprise out of camp since Nate started running them. (His first year he didn't get a camp.)
I bet anyone here 50$ that Jamal Crawford will try that 'jump in the air with nowhere to go toss the ball off the backboard and dunk' move at least once tonight. Wouldn't suprise me if he tried to go off for 40 in his hometown with even worse shot selection than usual, because, well...that's just the kind of player he is.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting psheehy:</div><div class="quote_post">Nate is fortunate???? How about Nate is a great judge of unrecognized talent. Give the man credit for finding overlooked players who play like he did, with heart and effort. Like Reggie, Wilkens was an undrafted rookie who earned the roster spot through hard work and determination in summer league and training camp. That effort is HIGHLY sought after by Nate, and is why his bottom of the roster picks keep turning out as "surprising" successes. Also, he seems to bring more out of these individuals than other coaches. Emmanuel Davis and Kevin Ollie had nice, SOLID years with Nate and dissappear into obscurity after they earn their new, more expensive contracts elsewhere. I can't think of a year where they haven't had a surprise out of camp since Nate started running them. (His first year he didn't get a camp.)</div> Nate is not responsible for who gets invited into camp or not. That is Rick Sund's responsibility as a general manager. I believe that the Sonics have done an excellent job narrowing down their roster each season, but I'm not going to give Nate all of the credit for the production of our personnel. Kevin Ollie played less than half of a season with McMillian and it wasn't until this season that Reggie Evans has been able to become a productive mainstay in our player rotation. The reason why Nate consistently uses these free agent afterthoughts is b/c he's always looking for a combination that works. Up until this season that constant rotating was not received well by the members of the team b/c they didn't know their role on a day to day basis. I think b/c this team has had an opportunity to grow with Nate over the past two seasons (Fortson, Wilkins, and Cleaves excluded) they better understand how to be productive in a McMillian system. Nate has done an outstanding job this season but I'm going to give the credit to the players for consistently being prepared to play. If an undrafted rookie gets his first extended opportunity to play and he comes in and leads his team to victory, the credit should go to the player before the coach. Otherwise the question needs to be asked, "Why wasn't he getting minutes beforehand?"
Nice OT win! But what the hell is going on with Fortson? He was suspended again??? What the f**** he did now? I don't understand that guy at all... But nice win! Allen redeemed himself in my eyes and Lewis also had incredible stats. This recent 5 game win streak has been terriffic because we have been bitten by a big-big injury bug but bench guys have stepped up magnificently! Sonics is a deep-deep team - GO SONICS!
Good win for the Sonics. The Knicks came out flat in OT and it seemed as if just getting it into overtime satisfied them. It was a very good game and I am fortunate I got to see it on ESPN...even though they lost. Sending it into OT with the Sonics at home is very remarkable for the Knicks and I think next season will be full of good things for them. Overall it was a good game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Nate is not responsible for who gets invited into camp or not. That is Rick Sund's responsibility as a general manager. I believe that the Sonics have done an excellent job narrowing down their roster each season, but I'm not going to give Nate all of the credit for the production of our personnel. Kevin Ollie played less than half of a season with McMillian and it wasn't until this season that Reggie Evans has been able to become a productive mainstay in our player rotation. The reason why Nate consistently uses these free agent afterthoughts is b/c he's always looking for a combination that works. <<snip>> Nate has done an outstanding job this season but I'm going to give the credit to the players for consistently being prepared to play. </div> I doubt any GM moves solo on selecting players for summer league or training camp. The coach should have considerable input, I think Sund actually listens to Nate's requests, however, in contrast to his predecessor. In a true team (coaching/management team in this case) no decision should be made ALONE by anyone. Nate can't get all the credit, but I see his hand in the mix. I just get frustrated by people who say that Nate is "over-rated" as a coach and just give the players all the credit. The player has to be ready when put in a position to play (a la Flip, Reggie, Wilkens) but the coach gets to decide when to put them their, and who to request on the roster based on who he thinks will keep themself ready when they have to sit all year (a la Flip and Wilkens). Nate isn't playing Fortson right now. Fortson is also acting up (late to shootaround, late to return in the 2nd half, fighting in practice) and Nate is not playing him. Fortson is a much better player than Vitaly, and more experienced than Reggie or Nick, but his attitude is costing him minutes. That is a sign of good coaching. Of course, with the way the others are playing and their current record, he can afford to make examples of players without the right attitude. He also shows he will play you if you change your attitude and come around to his way of playing/behaving (a la JJ). He is not a coach like Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Pop or Sloan, but he is learning and getting better every year. He is using his strengths and working on his weaknesses. His rotation was bad last year and hurt the team. This year he is sticking to it as much as injuries allow, and it is paying off. Every new coach has to learn...I think Nate starts off ahead of the curve, and is showing that he is ready to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes. That and a 50+ win season earns my vote for him as a good coach.
Good win by the Supes despite the fact that they almost gave the game away. I'm just confused by some of McMillian's decisions down the stretch. My first concern is that we would foul in the penalty up by three with over 20 seconds to go. Did Luke Ridnour think that we had a foul to give? That stopped the clock and gave the Knicks a free two points. My second concern was that we were making offensive and defensive substitutions that made no sense. Why would we put Pot in our offensive unit and then take him out for defensive purposes? Marbury drove straight down the lane for uncontested layups b/c we didn't want to give up a three. At least Pot could have made it a tad more difficult for him to make that lay up down the stretch of that game. My third concern was McMillian's overtime line up. Why wouldn't you want your veteran point guard, Antonio Daniels, in the game at that juncture. Antonio has always played in late game situations, but he instead deffered to Ridnour who couldn't get us into our half court offense, nor could he stay in front of Marbury. Granted we got the win, but the Knicks have been one of the worst teams all season on the road. We have to be able to distance ourselves from these teams who aren't in the playoff picture, especially considering that we have a chance to get the number two seed in the West. I'm trying to grow w/ you Nate, but you have to improve on your game management strategies.
Daniels couldn't stop Marbury, either. He can't stop a lot of people these days. And he can't pass. It's rather obvious that the only reason his Assist to Turnover Ratio is so good is because he never ever tries a semi-pass that most point guards would. Luke was doing just fine in the offense that night, so there was no reason to bring Antonio in.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post"> I'm trying to grow w/ you Nate, but you have to improve on your game management strategies.</div> I don't understand some of his late game decisions either, but then again, I'm not much of a basketball coach. My amateur, hindsight thoughts on the Ridnour/AD decision in OT... Ridnour did a pretty good job most of the night guiding Marbury to the bigs and got Marbury cut off. He got to the lane on pick and rolls where the big (anyone but Nick) didn't show strong enough. In fact, with anyone but Nick they killed the Sonics on the pick and roll or the Maurice Taylor/Kurt Thomas midrange jumpers from the angle. Reggie, JJ and Pot left them open all night. Nick was the only one showing strong on the picks and getting up on his man in the high post. If Danny hadn't been showing attitude he would have been in there. He does a good job of setting strong picks on offense, and showing strong on defense. He might have sagged off on the midrange jumper, but not more than twice. They hit that shot over and over and over until Nate put Nick in the game. Anyway...I think AD is having trouble guarding quick guards since he tore that meniscus. Flip or Wilkens was a a possibility, but Nate stuck with what was working, which up until OT was Luke. I think he was just plain tired by the end, and the bigs were being lazy. Marbury stepped his game up in OT and they didn't have it on defense. In the end, it didn't matter thanks to Ray and Nick. As for the late foul...not sure who made that decision, can't even remember if it was intentional or a lazy reach....
