Details: When: Friday, April 1st Where: KeyArena, Seattle Time (Seattle): 7:30 P.M. TV: Fox Sports, League Pass Projected Starters: <font color="green">Seattle (49-21) </font> Luke Ridnour Ray Allen Rashard Lewis Reggie Evans Jerome James <font color="red">Portland (24-46)</font> Sebastian Telfair Damon Stoudamire Ruben Patterson Shareef Abdur-Rahim Joel Przybilla Injury Troubles: <font color="green">Seattle</font> Mateen Cleaves: Sprained thumb, ruled out. Vladimir Radmanovic: Stress fracture in leg, ruled out. Rashard Lewis: Bruised foot, questionable. Danny Fortson: Sprained ankle, questionable. <font color="red">Portland</font> Nick Van Exel: Sore knee, ruled out. Zach Randolph: Knee surgery, ruled out. Brief Notes: <ul> [*]Seattle returns home after splitting a two game roadtrip with the Grizz and the Spurs, and clinching a playoff berth along the way. They play Portland for the third and final time this season, and with the season series poised at a game each, the Sonics came take it for the first time since 1997/98, when they swept the Blazers 4-0. [/list] <ul> [*]The only thing stopping Danny Fortson from returning to the rotation tonight will be injury, as he has settled his differences for the time being and hopes to see minutes in this one. Nick Collison has been fine in his absence however, averaging around 11/8 over his last five, while Rashard Lewis is still unlikely to suit up. [/list] * Useful/less lyric of the day: Can you help me remember how to smile, make it somehow seem worthwhile, how on earth did I get so jaded, life's mysteries seem so faded. * Word of the Day: Jackanapes; n: A cheeky or impertinent person. "If Nick Collison was being cheeky or impertinent, Nate may feel inclined to bench him for being a jackanapes. Random Family Guy Quote Brian: There's a woodpecker on your head. Keanu Reeves: Yeah, he comes and goes. All predictions, analysis and discussion relating directly to the game, both before, during and after, to be posted in this thread.
My first live game in ages tonight! Looking forward to seeing Danny put in some PRODUCTIVE minutes. Bet Damien doesn't get any easy looks from the Blazers tonight after he torched them last time.
I think that we are a combination of a win and a Denver loss away from securing at least the #3 seed. Catching San Antonio seems to be a long shot so I think that it's almost guaranteed that we are going to play the sixth seed. Looking like it's either going to be the Kings or the Rockets. We've had success against both teams so I'm not going to go on record hoping to play anyone. Keep on winning and let the chips fall. You know that ownership is begging for us to get home court advantage and that all of our series are pushed to seven games so that they can bring in more revenue. There may not be a team in a more dire financial state then our beloved Supes.
I'm going to be at this game too Hoping for a win, don't really care about much else! Seeing as how Portland has all but given up on the season with their super youth movement, Sonics just need to play solid and get this under their belts
I'm pretty sure it's a combination of three Sonic wins and Denver losses, Shiek. Either way, it's pretty much wrapped up. But I'd rather go into the playoffs on a high instead of limping in.
Hopefully Flip gets the start and puts up 20 so that Portland throw a decent contract at him in the off-season. It's fairly evident he won't be sticking around with the Seattle Supersonics basketball franchise (pending Ray), so I hope he can land a gig at a place where he'll definitely get minutes.
More on Allen/Bowen: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Last season, Sonics guard Ray Allen said that Bruce Bowen played "sissy basketball." After Wednesday night's matchup with the Spurs' hard-nosed premiere defender, Allen's accusations continued. "I don't compare him to anyone, because he's the only one I know that doesn't play basketball," Allen told the media after the game. "He's out there playing some other sport. I don't know what you call it." "... what he does is sissy basketball, the way he cheap-shots."</div>
I haven't seen the game yet but judging from the box score the game seemed to be typical of most of our wins. Ray Allen shooting the ball excessively, Reggie Evans (and company) rebounding (Ray's misses), good bench production, and scoring from an unexpected source. Damien Wilkins continues to step up again. I'm actually happy that he got the start b/c the Ron Murray/Ray Allen line up (at the 2 and the 3) wasn't working anyway. One thing I like about Wilkins is that he is aggressive on both ends. If he makes a mistake, it's not b/c he is afraid of messing up. He feels as if he belongs and he is playing like he does as well. Just another free agent the Sonics have to consider this offseason. I'm not going to jump on Nate too much tonight. With Sweet Lew sidelined indefinitely, Radman done for the rest of the season, and Fortson recent melt downs, Flip received 16 minutes tonight and Pot got a DNP-CD. Why Nate seems content w/ burning out all of our perimeter players for the sake of not playing Flip continues to surprise me. It has to be even harder for Pot whose seen Fortson go off of the deep end and get more minutes in his return than he got when Danny was on his "leave of absence." (Bobby Swift has actually gotten Pot's minutes as well). It is taking a yeoman's effort from D. Wilkins for us to be treading above water in the absence of Sweet Lew and Vlad. We are also benefitting from a pretty light end of the season schedule. However, we got the win, took the season series from our rival 3-1, and are inching closer to securing the 3rd seed in the playoffs. I'll try my best not to be as cynical as the regular season winds down. ...the playoffs, on the other hand, are another story.
I went to this game last night. It was soooo incredibly close. And that fight was soo surreal. Why did [I think it was Darius Miles?] push Ray Allen...I didn`t quite get why he did that...? Good game though.
Joel Przybilla and Ray had a confrontation after Joel set an illegal screen on him, but I'm not sure how you could mistake Joel for Darius Miles. May have been a separate incident.
oh...yea...no its cuz i saw darius miles pushing ray allen away...probably was separating him from joel.
