Wednesday, January 05, 2005
GAME 30: MAGIC 105, SUPERSONICS 87
Magic 105, SuperSonics 87
(final content posted ~7:06p)
Here's some scrawled notes for tonight's game, with postgame thoughts below it all.
1st qtr
Sonics 11-0 first quarter run. 1:46 Ray Allen crazy drive through the lane, one-hand jam gets SEA to 21-13. 0:29.1 Allen straightaway 3 SEA 26-15.
SEA 26-15 after one.
2nd qtr
6:26 Ridnour nice transition layup 37-24 SEA, second such layup of quarter. 3:47 Collison foul and one 42-32 SEA. Sonics timeout at SEA 44-38 at 2:01 ... Antonio Daniels' shots look like they're all falling short tonight, and he's 0-for-6 as I'm typing this. ORL has 8-0 run, ended by Vlad three 47-40 SEA.
Half
Sonics 49-46 at half, ending with an Orlando 14-5 run. Dwane Casey on the FSNNW broadcast told Brian Davis that the Sonics were getting caught too much in the Magic's up-and-down game, saying that the Sonics' main strategy should be to control the tempo, execute, and either score early or score late. For me, I think I noticed that the low-post defense went by the wayside once Fortson came out of the game with his second foul. Then Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley started having more clear paths to the basket, and that's never a good thing.
Of course, the Sonics aren't shooting very well either, and the fact that they still put up 49 points at half either tells you something about the amount of shots they put up in the course of a game, and/or it tells you something about the pace of this particular game.
Stats at halftime...
Ray Allen leads the team with 18 points. Rashard Lewis leads the team with 6 boards to go with his 3 points. Nick Collison's got 7 in his first NBA start, and Luke Ridnour and Jerome James have six points each. Danny Fortson only played six minutes and has two points. Antonio Daniels played 15 minutes and went 0-for-6 from the field (his shots look like they're consistently falling short). The Sonics' bench is 2-for-11 from the field (Vlad has 5 points, Daniels 2). The Sonics as a team are shooting 37%, though curiously they're 13-for-14 from the line (92%), which is no doubt a big reason that they built up their original lead and a big reason why they're still in the lead at all. The Sonics are getting beaten 27-19 on the glass, which directly correlates with Fortson playing only six minutes and Reggie Evans being at home in Seattle due to gastroenteritis.
3rd qtr
Hill hits baseliner, Magic get easy transition layup to draw within 51-50 ORL 10:35. 9:02 ORL leads 52-51 on wide-open Hill jumper. I swear every time the Sonics are tipping balls for rebounds, they're not getting any of them tonight. 7:28 Sonic timeout, Francis three with no one on him gets Magic a 55-51 lead, a 9-0 Orlando run. Sonics shooting ice cold. 11-0 run as Francis starts warming up. 6:50 Ridnour stops the run 57-53 ORL. 62-55 on Hill foul and one...Ridnour faked out of shorts. 5:22 Lewis tip jam on Allen missed three 62-57 ORL. Battie slam gets ORL to 70-57....Sonics STILL shooting like crap, and getting their butts handed to them on the boards 38-24. 72-57 after Francis again. 1:22 Lewis three on second chance finally 74-63. 0:48.2 Allen another drive into the lane for free throws 74-65. 0:17.3 Lewis nice drive right side layup ORL 76-67.
The Sonics got on a 7-2 run to help cut Orlando's lead from 15 to 9 going into the fourth quarter, and on the road, that's a good way to give yourself a chance to win. Fortson came in with just over three minutes left in the quarter, and the Sonics finally got some second chance points on that three-ball by Rashard Lewis. I don't think it's a coincidence with Fortson's presence. The Sonics didn't seem like they were doing anything on the offensive glass for the whole quarter up to that point, and that's not good considering that the Sonics are pretty high in the NBA for the percentage of their rebounds that happen on offense. Lewis**, Radmanovic, and Daniels are a combined 8-for-30 from the field.
(**Looking through the boxscore, I'm not sure this stat was valid when I see Lewis' final numbers, unless he absolutely caught fire in the fourth quarter, which could be the case. But make no mistake, Daniels and Radmanovic were horrid tonight.)
4th qtr
10:59 Lewis three gets Sonics within 76-70. 10:37 Ron Murray makes presence felt, fouls Hill (he's probably on floor because Daniels is ice cold). 10:08 Turkoglu hits transition three 81-70 after Lewis stumbles on offense and turns ball over. Lewis answers though 81-73 with three. 9:21 Allen transition three 81-76. 8:59 Allen transition drive fouled by Hill, to the line, hits two ORL 81-78, Francis answers on next possession. Fortson goes up for rebound of Murray miss, gets fouled, hits two ORL 83-80. Then the Magic get on a 11-0 run. Frustrating. That's not a way to stay in the game. 5:22 Lewis three 94-83, Francis answers low on shot clock on other end. 4:28 Francis another three, 100-85. 1:43 scrubs come in for garbage time, ORL 100-87.
---
Let's say you have a team, and you're trying to sabotage it and lose a basketball game. What do you do?
A) shoot like crap
B) rebound like crap
C) both
Tonight, the Sonics chose C.
It was a stars-and-scrubs approach tonight as Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis did the heavy lifting tonight and the bench was nonexistent. Somehow the Sonics held the Magic to 15 points in the first quarter, but the Magic followed up by scoring 31, 30, and 29 points the next three quarters. I'm not sure what happened with Danny Fortson, who really was never in any bad foul trouble and only got fifteen minutes. You'd figure that with Evans out, you'd want the Fort to get some more playing time out there (even with Collison slated to start), but it wasn't the case. He didn't even get off a shot from the field tonight. So what happens when Fortson only plays 15 minutes with no Reggie Evans on the team? Something along the lines of the Sonics getting outrebounded by double digits. None of the bounces seemed to be going their way down low. If they missed a shot, one Sonic could tip it away, another Sonic could tip it away, but they could never come down with it, and the ball always seemed to get into Orlando's hands.
I guess something else that ticked me off as well was that other than Fortson (4 attempts), James (6), and Allen (10), nobody was getting to the free-throw line. They accounted for 20 of the Sonics' 24 shots at the line. Since the Sonics haven't been losing too often, it hasn't been eating at me on a regular basis or anything, but sometimes I wish that when this team realizes their shots aren't falling and nothing's working, they should just take the ball to the hole and take two shots at the free throw line, where nobody's defending you or throwing a hand in your face. I realize 22 free throws isn't weak sauce or anything, but not much else was working tonight. Better yet, if you're playing from behind, start taking the ball to the rack, and manage to get the opposing team into the penalty, then you can shoot free throws all day, and the clock doesn't run when you're at the line.
Luke Ridnour couldn't do anything on defense against Steve Francis. Nothing was working at all. Francis was on fire, and there were multiple times where the Sonics would hit a shot to cut the Orlando lead and Francis would answer right back on the next possession. Franchise turned the ball over eight times, but eight turnovers doesn't mean crap if the Sonics can't hit the broadside of a barn. In a related story, 27 of Francis' 35 points came in the second half.
As for the bench, Antonio Daniels and Vlad Radmanovic...ugh. Brutal night. Absolutely brutal. At least you can't blame Fortson for horrible shooting because he never put up a shot to begin with.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 30 pts/5 reb (9-19 FG, 3-8 3pt, 9-11 free throws), Rashard Lewis 20 pts/11 reb/2 stl (8-16 FG, 4-9 3pt), Luke Ridnour 11 pts/3 reb/5 ast (5-10 FG, 1-4 3pt), Nick Collison 7 pts/5 reb/2 stl (3-5 FG, 23 min)
bench (here's where it gets ugly)
Vlad Radmanovic 7 pts/4 reb/2 stl (3-16 FG, 1-7 3pt, 32 min), Danny Fortson 4 pts/3 reb (4-4 free throws, 15 min), Antonio Daniels 2 pts/3 reb/3 ast (0-7 FG, 2-2 free throws, 23 min)
team
shot 35% from the field (28-for-80), shot 29% from downtown (9-for-31), shot 91.7% from the line (22-for-24), were outrebounded 52-36, bench was outscored 22-13 by Orlando's bench and tied in rebounds 10-10 (Sonics' starters were outrebounded 42-26)
Jerome James Watch
6 pts/2 reb/2 blk (20 min, 2 fouls, 0-4 FG, 6-6 free throws)...not a bad night, but I'm under the impression here that the Sonics need Jerome James to suck for the team to win...that's what people call a paradox, or something like that.
To reiterate that free throw stat I tossed out, Luke Ridnour, Rashard Lewis, and Vlad Radmanovic combined for ZERO free throw attempts. How does Rashard Lewis play 40 minutes and not get to the line at least once?
The Sonics got 30 from Ray Allen and a double-double out of Rashard Lewis for the second straight night, except it all went to waste tonight.
So maybe I should revise the semi-theory.
How to Lose a Basketball Game -- Losing in Four Easy Steps!! by David.
1) shoot like crap
2) rebound like crap
3) have your bench doing either or both of #1 and #2
4) combine all of the above
There you have it. Let's hope the Sonics can right the ship on TNT tomorrow night against the Wizards. I still wish they were the Bullets myself.
(final content posted ~7:06p)
Here's some scrawled notes for tonight's game, with postgame thoughts below it all.
1st qtr
Sonics 11-0 first quarter run. 1:46 Ray Allen crazy drive through the lane, one-hand jam gets SEA to 21-13. 0:29.1 Allen straightaway 3 SEA 26-15.
SEA 26-15 after one.
2nd qtr
6:26 Ridnour nice transition layup 37-24 SEA, second such layup of quarter. 3:47 Collison foul and one 42-32 SEA. Sonics timeout at SEA 44-38 at 2:01 ... Antonio Daniels' shots look like they're all falling short tonight, and he's 0-for-6 as I'm typing this. ORL has 8-0 run, ended by Vlad three 47-40 SEA.
Half
Sonics 49-46 at half, ending with an Orlando 14-5 run. Dwane Casey on the FSNNW broadcast told Brian Davis that the Sonics were getting caught too much in the Magic's up-and-down game, saying that the Sonics' main strategy should be to control the tempo, execute, and either score early or score late. For me, I think I noticed that the low-post defense went by the wayside once Fortson came out of the game with his second foul. Then Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley started having more clear paths to the basket, and that's never a good thing.
Of course, the Sonics aren't shooting very well either, and the fact that they still put up 49 points at half either tells you something about the amount of shots they put up in the course of a game, and/or it tells you something about the pace of this particular game.
Stats at halftime...
Ray Allen leads the team with 18 points. Rashard Lewis leads the team with 6 boards to go with his 3 points. Nick Collison's got 7 in his first NBA start, and Luke Ridnour and Jerome James have six points each. Danny Fortson only played six minutes and has two points. Antonio Daniels played 15 minutes and went 0-for-6 from the field (his shots look like they're consistently falling short). The Sonics' bench is 2-for-11 from the field (Vlad has 5 points, Daniels 2). The Sonics as a team are shooting 37%, though curiously they're 13-for-14 from the line (92%), which is no doubt a big reason that they built up their original lead and a big reason why they're still in the lead at all. The Sonics are getting beaten 27-19 on the glass, which directly correlates with Fortson playing only six minutes and Reggie Evans being at home in Seattle due to gastroenteritis.
3rd qtr
Hill hits baseliner, Magic get easy transition layup to draw within 51-50 ORL 10:35. 9:02 ORL leads 52-51 on wide-open Hill jumper. I swear every time the Sonics are tipping balls for rebounds, they're not getting any of them tonight. 7:28 Sonic timeout, Francis three with no one on him gets Magic a 55-51 lead, a 9-0 Orlando run. Sonics shooting ice cold. 11-0 run as Francis starts warming up. 6:50 Ridnour stops the run 57-53 ORL. 62-55 on Hill foul and one...Ridnour faked out of shorts. 5:22 Lewis tip jam on Allen missed three 62-57 ORL. Battie slam gets ORL to 70-57....Sonics STILL shooting like crap, and getting their butts handed to them on the boards 38-24. 72-57 after Francis again. 1:22 Lewis three on second chance finally 74-63. 0:48.2 Allen another drive into the lane for free throws 74-65. 0:17.3 Lewis nice drive right side layup ORL 76-67.
The Sonics got on a 7-2 run to help cut Orlando's lead from 15 to 9 going into the fourth quarter, and on the road, that's a good way to give yourself a chance to win. Fortson came in with just over three minutes left in the quarter, and the Sonics finally got some second chance points on that three-ball by Rashard Lewis. I don't think it's a coincidence with Fortson's presence. The Sonics didn't seem like they were doing anything on the offensive glass for the whole quarter up to that point, and that's not good considering that the Sonics are pretty high in the NBA for the percentage of their rebounds that happen on offense. Lewis**, Radmanovic, and Daniels are a combined 8-for-30 from the field.
(**Looking through the boxscore, I'm not sure this stat was valid when I see Lewis' final numbers, unless he absolutely caught fire in the fourth quarter, which could be the case. But make no mistake, Daniels and Radmanovic were horrid tonight.)
4th qtr
10:59 Lewis three gets Sonics within 76-70. 10:37 Ron Murray makes presence felt, fouls Hill (he's probably on floor because Daniels is ice cold). 10:08 Turkoglu hits transition three 81-70 after Lewis stumbles on offense and turns ball over. Lewis answers though 81-73 with three. 9:21 Allen transition three 81-76. 8:59 Allen transition drive fouled by Hill, to the line, hits two ORL 81-78, Francis answers on next possession. Fortson goes up for rebound of Murray miss, gets fouled, hits two ORL 83-80. Then the Magic get on a 11-0 run. Frustrating. That's not a way to stay in the game. 5:22 Lewis three 94-83, Francis answers low on shot clock on other end. 4:28 Francis another three, 100-85. 1:43 scrubs come in for garbage time, ORL 100-87.
---
Let's say you have a team, and you're trying to sabotage it and lose a basketball game. What do you do?
A) shoot like crap
B) rebound like crap
C) both
Tonight, the Sonics chose C.
It was a stars-and-scrubs approach tonight as Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis did the heavy lifting tonight and the bench was nonexistent. Somehow the Sonics held the Magic to 15 points in the first quarter, but the Magic followed up by scoring 31, 30, and 29 points the next three quarters. I'm not sure what happened with Danny Fortson, who really was never in any bad foul trouble and only got fifteen minutes. You'd figure that with Evans out, you'd want the Fort to get some more playing time out there (even with Collison slated to start), but it wasn't the case. He didn't even get off a shot from the field tonight. So what happens when Fortson only plays 15 minutes with no Reggie Evans on the team? Something along the lines of the Sonics getting outrebounded by double digits. None of the bounces seemed to be going their way down low. If they missed a shot, one Sonic could tip it away, another Sonic could tip it away, but they could never come down with it, and the ball always seemed to get into Orlando's hands.
I guess something else that ticked me off as well was that other than Fortson (4 attempts), James (6), and Allen (10), nobody was getting to the free-throw line. They accounted for 20 of the Sonics' 24 shots at the line. Since the Sonics haven't been losing too often, it hasn't been eating at me on a regular basis or anything, but sometimes I wish that when this team realizes their shots aren't falling and nothing's working, they should just take the ball to the hole and take two shots at the free throw line, where nobody's defending you or throwing a hand in your face. I realize 22 free throws isn't weak sauce or anything, but not much else was working tonight. Better yet, if you're playing from behind, start taking the ball to the rack, and manage to get the opposing team into the penalty, then you can shoot free throws all day, and the clock doesn't run when you're at the line.
Luke Ridnour couldn't do anything on defense against Steve Francis. Nothing was working at all. Francis was on fire, and there were multiple times where the Sonics would hit a shot to cut the Orlando lead and Francis would answer right back on the next possession. Franchise turned the ball over eight times, but eight turnovers doesn't mean crap if the Sonics can't hit the broadside of a barn. In a related story, 27 of Francis' 35 points came in the second half.
As for the bench, Antonio Daniels and Vlad Radmanovic...ugh. Brutal night. Absolutely brutal. At least you can't blame Fortson for horrible shooting because he never put up a shot to begin with.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 30 pts/5 reb (9-19 FG, 3-8 3pt, 9-11 free throws), Rashard Lewis 20 pts/11 reb/2 stl (8-16 FG, 4-9 3pt), Luke Ridnour 11 pts/3 reb/5 ast (5-10 FG, 1-4 3pt), Nick Collison 7 pts/5 reb/2 stl (3-5 FG, 23 min)
bench (here's where it gets ugly)
Vlad Radmanovic 7 pts/4 reb/2 stl (3-16 FG, 1-7 3pt, 32 min), Danny Fortson 4 pts/3 reb (4-4 free throws, 15 min), Antonio Daniels 2 pts/3 reb/3 ast (0-7 FG, 2-2 free throws, 23 min)
team
shot 35% from the field (28-for-80), shot 29% from downtown (9-for-31), shot 91.7% from the line (22-for-24), were outrebounded 52-36, bench was outscored 22-13 by Orlando's bench and tied in rebounds 10-10 (Sonics' starters were outrebounded 42-26)
Jerome James Watch
6 pts/2 reb/2 blk (20 min, 2 fouls, 0-4 FG, 6-6 free throws)...not a bad night, but I'm under the impression here that the Sonics need Jerome James to suck for the team to win...that's what people call a paradox, or something like that.
To reiterate that free throw stat I tossed out, Luke Ridnour, Rashard Lewis, and Vlad Radmanovic combined for ZERO free throw attempts. How does Rashard Lewis play 40 minutes and not get to the line at least once?
The Sonics got 30 from Ray Allen and a double-double out of Rashard Lewis for the second straight night, except it all went to waste tonight.
So maybe I should revise the semi-theory.
How to Lose a Basketball Game -- Losing in Four Easy Steps!! by David.
1) shoot like crap
2) rebound like crap
3) have your bench doing either or both of #1 and #2
4) combine all of the above
There you have it. Let's hope the Sonics can right the ship on TNT tomorrow night against the Wizards. I still wish they were the Bullets myself.
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