Tuesday, December 28, 2004
GAME 26: 76ERS 114, SUPERSONICS 107
76ers 114, SuperSonics 107
[Final update ~10:30p -- This post was retitled and re-timed after the game ended. For a post on the HUGE Gonzaga game, scroll down one post for Jeremy's piece. The tense was also changed from present to past in the notes.]
1st qtr
Jerome James dunked on first play of the game after the tipoff. Guess what? The 76ers can hit their shots if you don't put hands in their faces. Reggie Evans had a nice offensive board and foul-and-one down low around the 6-minute mark. Luke Ridnour had a smooth drive and layup from the right side around halfway point. Sam Dalembert is tall; he's gotten in the way of a few Sonic rebounds even with a few Sonics around him. Ridnour hit his first three shots. Allen Iverson started out 1-for-7 from the field. The Sonics were tagged with eight of the first nine fouls in the game, two each on Ridnour and Vlad Radmanovic. Danny Fortson down low late in the quarter got hacked multiple times trying to get up a shot...Nate got the technical (Danny keeps cool). TRADE RON MURRAY. The man is just not fitting in with this team. I know he's definitely not in his usual role because his minutes are limited right now, but that guy is not a point guard. I don't want to see him bringing the ball up the floor. He's a shoot first/pass second player. Hell, he might be a shoot first/try to drive to the basket second/pass third player. Nick Collison had a nice tip-in off a Daniels missed three with one second left. The Sonics were down 29-26 at the end of the quarter. Neither team had a sizable or commanding lead or run in the quarter.
2nd qtr
Fortson had his way in the post a lot more after McMillan got the technical. At 8:12 to go in the quarter, Allen is 1-for-6. At 7:15 to go, a Willie Greene three opened the 76ers' biggest lead at 9. Fortson got hit with his third foul at 6:27...at this point I thought he would foul out later in the game due to the refs' quickness on the whistles. Ray Allen around the 6-min mark made a horrible jump pass in transition that was intercepted by Iverson; Allen fouled him on the other end. Ray Allen was having a crappy night. Fortson was the team's leading scorer tonight with 11 when he went to the bench. The second-leading scorer tonight? Luke Ridnour with 9, as of 5:39 left in the half. The 76ers eventually opened up a 12-point lead. How did this game get such a whistle-happy set of refs that's so one-sided? This is crazy. I thought we might see Ibrahim Kutluay get 10 minutes in the fourth quarter at this pace. Philadelphia was getting way too many easy baskets. Seattle was down 59-48 at half.
Half
Allen Iverson was 3-for-13 from the field at half. Why did the 76ers lead this game? They had hit 16 of 21 from the free-throw line, whereas Iverson's free-throw numbers equaled that of the entire Sonic team, 6-for-8. That's a ten-point difference right there, and the Sonics were down 11 at the half. Iverson had 13 despite his crappiness from the field, and Kenny Thomas (13) and Willie Green (12) were also in double figures. Philly was getting way too many easy shots, both in part of Sonic defensive brain farts and Philly moving the ball just enough so the defense was a step slow. Fortson led the Sonics at half with 11 in only 9 minutes, and Luke Ridnour had 9 on 4-of-5 shooting. Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen were a combined 5-for-15 at half for 13 points. Seven different Sonics turned the ball over for eight team turnovers (Murray twice).
Thanks to the FSNNW broadcast for the heads-up, the Sonics got whooped 14-0 on the fast break, 15-5 on points off turnovers, and 3-1 on blocks in the first half.
3rd qtr
Philly opened up a 13-point lead at 9:40. The 76ers seemed like they were capitalizing on every single Sonic turnover. Reggie Evans forced a turnover and came the other way for a foul-and-one to get the Sonics within 6 at 66-60 (8:00). A Ridnour 3 at about 7:10 got the Sonics within 5 at 68-63. Allen made a nice pass down low to Evans for an easy layup (7 points in the quarter for him) to get the Sonics within three at 68-65, and Philly called timeout. The 76ers were making a few bad passes and turning over the ball here and there, and they were actually missing some shots for a change. Then James gets whistled for a flagrant foul right after the timeout; not good. At 6:30, James swatted an Iverson driving shot. Evans blew straight through for a dunk at 5:57 (72-67). Evans after a missed Philly shot got an easy transition layup on the other end to get the Sonics to 72-69. A Sonic transition defensive mental lapse enabled a Willie Green dunk. Shameful. Ray Allen finally got to the line at 3:49 to bring the Sonics within three at 76-73, but that was quickly answered on the other end by a three from that hack Kyle Korver. Philly seemed to be able and willing to weather these Sonic mini-runs. Iverson made some beautiful moves on the perimeter to blow straight into the lane and hit a layup. The Sonics hit all 13 of their free throws in the quarter. The Sonics were down 87-79 after three quarters. For the Sonics to win this game, it might not take quite the comeback they had against Memphis, but they're going to have to ratchet up the defense somehow without getting fouls called on them (which hasn't been easy for them tonight) and to either warm up from the perimeter on offense or get a bunch of easy baskets. Basically that means move the ball more and get Ron Murray off the floor.
4th qtr
Ray Allen was wide open underneath for an easy basket off the inbound, the first basket of the quarter. The most unnerving thing about Kyle Korver nailing threes against your team is that you can convince yourself from the above-court cam that he's Ashton Kutcher. That thought is not a delightful one. Iverson hit a three falling down to give the 76ers a 96-81 lead. The Sonics seemed like they were getting absolutely zero offensive rebounds. They weren't coming up with their missed shots, and the fact that Fortson was on the bench with five fouls didn't help. That wasn't wholly Fortson's fault, I don't think, because the Sonics weren't able to do much of anything on defense tonight, and if they did, they get whistled for it. The 76ers went to the line 15 more times than the Sonics as I typed this (~8 min left in game). Ray dunked as the trailer from Collison at 7:38 to bring the Sonics within 10 (96-86), but that was answered on the other end. An Allen three at 6:24 got the Sonics within 7 at 98-91...Vlad missed a three earlier on the same possession but Ridnour somehow came up with the rebound and kicked to Allen. Allen scored all of the Sonics' points in the quarter up to that point (12). Vlad fouled out halfway through the period...what a crappy night from the field for him. Rashard Lewis couldn't buy a basket tonight; it was not an All-Star night for him. I'd have to say Iverson's running righthander in the lane with 4:24 to go sealed this game as the 76ers took a 104-91 lead. Ray Allen made a move in the paint for a foul-and-one to get the Sonics to 108-100 at 2:30, answered on the other end once again by Iverson with the shot clock running down. The foul fest started with 54 seconds to go and the Sixers up 112-102.
---
Here's some postgame notes before I delve full-on into the boxscore...
Well, a funny thing happened. Allen Iverson and Ray Allen shot crappy to start the game, but Iverson took the game over late and Ray Allen was the only Sonic who showed up on the offensive end in the fourth quarter.
The big Sonic that didn't show up at all? Rashard Lewis. Since he's been predominately consistent this year, let's just hope tonight is an aberration for Rashard. It definitely wasn't an All-Star night for him.
Also not showing up in any way tonight was Vlad Radmanovic. Craig Ehlo was on the broadcast saying that Vlad brings a lot more than just scoring to this team. But this team needs Vlad's 12 or 13 off the bench every night. They need a clutch three here and there off the bench from Vlad. Tonight they got next to nothing.
Ron Murray remains nonexistent in all but one game he's played since coming back from injury. He wasn't the master bricklayer tonight, but he did have a turnover-to-points ratio of 3:2 (okay, so I looked at the boxscore once) [Edit Wed ~1:56p -- I originally had him listed with 4 turnovers, but I might have confused that with his amount of rebounds].
It was Antonio Daniels' first game back, so I wasn't expecting too much from him in the first place.
So who actually did show up for the Sonics?
Luke Ridnour looks like he shook off the shooting woes for at least one night, and his assist numbers were solid as well. Dare I say he indeed had a Brent Barry-type night.
Danny Fortson had limited minutes because the referees were so whistle-happy, but he was the Sonics' leading scorer for a good portion of this game, and it stood that way for quite a while even as he was on the bench with too many fouls while the Sonics were out there stinking it up.
Reggie Evans had a great night, providing a spark, forcing some turnovers, and getting a couple of key offensive rebounds.
So what to make of this? When Rashard Lewis and Vlad Radmanovic have off nights, it's a huge blow to the offense (let's say that's 30 points right there), and even Luke Ridnour getting his shot back can't make up for that difference. The referees were calling massive fouls early on the Sonics, and Philadelphia was able to build and sustain their lead at the free throw line. Fortson sat for more than one stretch for getting high in the foul count, but he didn't foul out. Radmanovic was the one that fouled out, and I think he got called twice for setting the moving screen. The Sonics got absolutely torched on the fast break, and I'll wait for those numbers to come up. All in all, by the time Ray Allen was able to do anything, it was too late.
Also, Allen Iverson is good.
It's a shame this was a home game. The Sonics, however, are still a solid 5-1 on the tail ends of back-to-back sets.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 32 pts/3 reb/8 ast (12-24 FG, 5-6 free throws, 3-10 3pt), Luke Ridnour 16 pts/5 reb/9 ast (6-9 FG, 2-4 3pt), Reggie Evans 14 pts/4 reb (6-9 FG), Rashard Lewis 10 pts/6 reb/2 stl (4-15 FG, 2-9 3pt, ZERO free throw attempts)
bench
Danny Fortson 13 pts/6 reb (18 minutes), Nick Collison 5 pts/6 reb/2 ast, Antonio Daniels 6 pts/3 ast (20 minutes), Vlad Radmanovic 3 pts/2 reb/3 turnovers (1-8 FG, 1-7 3pt, 18 minutes, fouled out), Ron Murray 2 pts/4 reb/2 stl/3 turnovers
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/1 reb/2 blk/1 turnover (16 minutes)
team
shot 44.8% from the field to Philly's 47.5%, shot 8-for-33 from downtown (24.2%), shot 21-for-23 from the line (91.3%...Philly had 40 attempts and nailed 32), outrebounded Philly 39-37, had 17 turnovers (off which Philly scored 23 points), got called for 32 fouls (Philly had 20), got 7 fastbreak points (Philly had 23)
I guess in Peja Drobnjak's words, the Sonics' uniforms would be "wet with the tears of sadness." Okay, not really.
[Final update ~10:30p -- This post was retitled and re-timed after the game ended. For a post on the HUGE Gonzaga game, scroll down one post for Jeremy's piece. The tense was also changed from present to past in the notes.]
1st qtr
Jerome James dunked on first play of the game after the tipoff. Guess what? The 76ers can hit their shots if you don't put hands in their faces. Reggie Evans had a nice offensive board and foul-and-one down low around the 6-minute mark. Luke Ridnour had a smooth drive and layup from the right side around halfway point. Sam Dalembert is tall; he's gotten in the way of a few Sonic rebounds even with a few Sonics around him. Ridnour hit his first three shots. Allen Iverson started out 1-for-7 from the field. The Sonics were tagged with eight of the first nine fouls in the game, two each on Ridnour and Vlad Radmanovic. Danny Fortson down low late in the quarter got hacked multiple times trying to get up a shot...Nate got the technical (Danny keeps cool). TRADE RON MURRAY. The man is just not fitting in with this team. I know he's definitely not in his usual role because his minutes are limited right now, but that guy is not a point guard. I don't want to see him bringing the ball up the floor. He's a shoot first/pass second player. Hell, he might be a shoot first/try to drive to the basket second/pass third player. Nick Collison had a nice tip-in off a Daniels missed three with one second left. The Sonics were down 29-26 at the end of the quarter. Neither team had a sizable or commanding lead or run in the quarter.
2nd qtr
Fortson had his way in the post a lot more after McMillan got the technical. At 8:12 to go in the quarter, Allen is 1-for-6. At 7:15 to go, a Willie Greene three opened the 76ers' biggest lead at 9. Fortson got hit with his third foul at 6:27...at this point I thought he would foul out later in the game due to the refs' quickness on the whistles. Ray Allen around the 6-min mark made a horrible jump pass in transition that was intercepted by Iverson; Allen fouled him on the other end. Ray Allen was having a crappy night. Fortson was the team's leading scorer tonight with 11 when he went to the bench. The second-leading scorer tonight? Luke Ridnour with 9, as of 5:39 left in the half. The 76ers eventually opened up a 12-point lead. How did this game get such a whistle-happy set of refs that's so one-sided? This is crazy. I thought we might see Ibrahim Kutluay get 10 minutes in the fourth quarter at this pace. Philadelphia was getting way too many easy baskets. Seattle was down 59-48 at half.
Half
Allen Iverson was 3-for-13 from the field at half. Why did the 76ers lead this game? They had hit 16 of 21 from the free-throw line, whereas Iverson's free-throw numbers equaled that of the entire Sonic team, 6-for-8. That's a ten-point difference right there, and the Sonics were down 11 at the half. Iverson had 13 despite his crappiness from the field, and Kenny Thomas (13) and Willie Green (12) were also in double figures. Philly was getting way too many easy shots, both in part of Sonic defensive brain farts and Philly moving the ball just enough so the defense was a step slow. Fortson led the Sonics at half with 11 in only 9 minutes, and Luke Ridnour had 9 on 4-of-5 shooting. Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen were a combined 5-for-15 at half for 13 points. Seven different Sonics turned the ball over for eight team turnovers (Murray twice).
Thanks to the FSNNW broadcast for the heads-up, the Sonics got whooped 14-0 on the fast break, 15-5 on points off turnovers, and 3-1 on blocks in the first half.
3rd qtr
Philly opened up a 13-point lead at 9:40. The 76ers seemed like they were capitalizing on every single Sonic turnover. Reggie Evans forced a turnover and came the other way for a foul-and-one to get the Sonics within 6 at 66-60 (8:00). A Ridnour 3 at about 7:10 got the Sonics within 5 at 68-63. Allen made a nice pass down low to Evans for an easy layup (7 points in the quarter for him) to get the Sonics within three at 68-65, and Philly called timeout. The 76ers were making a few bad passes and turning over the ball here and there, and they were actually missing some shots for a change. Then James gets whistled for a flagrant foul right after the timeout; not good. At 6:30, James swatted an Iverson driving shot. Evans blew straight through for a dunk at 5:57 (72-67). Evans after a missed Philly shot got an easy transition layup on the other end to get the Sonics to 72-69. A Sonic transition defensive mental lapse enabled a Willie Green dunk. Shameful. Ray Allen finally got to the line at 3:49 to bring the Sonics within three at 76-73, but that was quickly answered on the other end by a three from that hack Kyle Korver. Philly seemed to be able and willing to weather these Sonic mini-runs. Iverson made some beautiful moves on the perimeter to blow straight into the lane and hit a layup. The Sonics hit all 13 of their free throws in the quarter. The Sonics were down 87-79 after three quarters. For the Sonics to win this game, it might not take quite the comeback they had against Memphis, but they're going to have to ratchet up the defense somehow without getting fouls called on them (which hasn't been easy for them tonight) and to either warm up from the perimeter on offense or get a bunch of easy baskets. Basically that means move the ball more and get Ron Murray off the floor.
4th qtr
Ray Allen was wide open underneath for an easy basket off the inbound, the first basket of the quarter. The most unnerving thing about Kyle Korver nailing threes against your team is that you can convince yourself from the above-court cam that he's Ashton Kutcher. That thought is not a delightful one. Iverson hit a three falling down to give the 76ers a 96-81 lead. The Sonics seemed like they were getting absolutely zero offensive rebounds. They weren't coming up with their missed shots, and the fact that Fortson was on the bench with five fouls didn't help. That wasn't wholly Fortson's fault, I don't think, because the Sonics weren't able to do much of anything on defense tonight, and if they did, they get whistled for it. The 76ers went to the line 15 more times than the Sonics as I typed this (~8 min left in game). Ray dunked as the trailer from Collison at 7:38 to bring the Sonics within 10 (96-86), but that was answered on the other end. An Allen three at 6:24 got the Sonics within 7 at 98-91...Vlad missed a three earlier on the same possession but Ridnour somehow came up with the rebound and kicked to Allen. Allen scored all of the Sonics' points in the quarter up to that point (12). Vlad fouled out halfway through the period...what a crappy night from the field for him. Rashard Lewis couldn't buy a basket tonight; it was not an All-Star night for him. I'd have to say Iverson's running righthander in the lane with 4:24 to go sealed this game as the 76ers took a 104-91 lead. Ray Allen made a move in the paint for a foul-and-one to get the Sonics to 108-100 at 2:30, answered on the other end once again by Iverson with the shot clock running down. The foul fest started with 54 seconds to go and the Sixers up 112-102.
---
Here's some postgame notes before I delve full-on into the boxscore...
Well, a funny thing happened. Allen Iverson and Ray Allen shot crappy to start the game, but Iverson took the game over late and Ray Allen was the only Sonic who showed up on the offensive end in the fourth quarter.
The big Sonic that didn't show up at all? Rashard Lewis. Since he's been predominately consistent this year, let's just hope tonight is an aberration for Rashard. It definitely wasn't an All-Star night for him.
Also not showing up in any way tonight was Vlad Radmanovic. Craig Ehlo was on the broadcast saying that Vlad brings a lot more than just scoring to this team. But this team needs Vlad's 12 or 13 off the bench every night. They need a clutch three here and there off the bench from Vlad. Tonight they got next to nothing.
Ron Murray remains nonexistent in all but one game he's played since coming back from injury. He wasn't the master bricklayer tonight, but he did have a turnover-to-points ratio of 3:2 (okay, so I looked at the boxscore once) [Edit Wed ~1:56p -- I originally had him listed with 4 turnovers, but I might have confused that with his amount of rebounds].
It was Antonio Daniels' first game back, so I wasn't expecting too much from him in the first place.
So who actually did show up for the Sonics?
Luke Ridnour looks like he shook off the shooting woes for at least one night, and his assist numbers were solid as well. Dare I say he indeed had a Brent Barry-type night.
Danny Fortson had limited minutes because the referees were so whistle-happy, but he was the Sonics' leading scorer for a good portion of this game, and it stood that way for quite a while even as he was on the bench with too many fouls while the Sonics were out there stinking it up.
Reggie Evans had a great night, providing a spark, forcing some turnovers, and getting a couple of key offensive rebounds.
So what to make of this? When Rashard Lewis and Vlad Radmanovic have off nights, it's a huge blow to the offense (let's say that's 30 points right there), and even Luke Ridnour getting his shot back can't make up for that difference. The referees were calling massive fouls early on the Sonics, and Philadelphia was able to build and sustain their lead at the free throw line. Fortson sat for more than one stretch for getting high in the foul count, but he didn't foul out. Radmanovic was the one that fouled out, and I think he got called twice for setting the moving screen. The Sonics got absolutely torched on the fast break, and I'll wait for those numbers to come up. All in all, by the time Ray Allen was able to do anything, it was too late.
Also, Allen Iverson is good.
It's a shame this was a home game. The Sonics, however, are still a solid 5-1 on the tail ends of back-to-back sets.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 32 pts/3 reb/8 ast (12-24 FG, 5-6 free throws, 3-10 3pt), Luke Ridnour 16 pts/5 reb/9 ast (6-9 FG, 2-4 3pt), Reggie Evans 14 pts/4 reb (6-9 FG), Rashard Lewis 10 pts/6 reb/2 stl (4-15 FG, 2-9 3pt, ZERO free throw attempts)
bench
Danny Fortson 13 pts/6 reb (18 minutes), Nick Collison 5 pts/6 reb/2 ast, Antonio Daniels 6 pts/3 ast (20 minutes), Vlad Radmanovic 3 pts/2 reb/3 turnovers (1-8 FG, 1-7 3pt, 18 minutes, fouled out), Ron Murray 2 pts/4 reb/2 stl/3 turnovers
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/1 reb/2 blk/1 turnover (16 minutes)
team
shot 44.8% from the field to Philly's 47.5%, shot 8-for-33 from downtown (24.2%), shot 21-for-23 from the line (91.3%...Philly had 40 attempts and nailed 32), outrebounded Philly 39-37, had 17 turnovers (off which Philly scored 23 points), got called for 32 fouls (Philly had 20), got 7 fastbreak points (Philly had 23)
I guess in Peja Drobnjak's words, the Sonics' uniforms would be "wet with the tears of sadness." Okay, not really.
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