Friday, May 13, 2005
GAME 3: SUPERSONICS 92, SPURS 91
SuperSonics 92, Spurs 91 (San Antonio leads best-of-seven series 2-1)
(NOTE: The foul originally listed as Jerome James' 5th foul, occurring with 7:18 to go in the third quarter, was actually on Reggie Evans. Don't worry, I was screwed up when James got his fifth foul in the waning minutes of the game, and I thought it was his DQ.)
For the first time in the series, neither team scored 100 points, but did anyone think the Sonics would be the team winning such a game? I flipped to the ESPN guys at halftime saying that if the game was slowed down into halfcourt basketball, the Spurs would win the game. Looks like they bought into the myth of the Sonics being a fast-paced, jumpshooting team. Dig through some of David Locke's P-I articles, and you'll find out that the Sonics played the fourth-slowest pace during the season of any team in the NBA. Remember the home game against Detroit where Jerome James went nuts for the first time? Remember the game at Houston that was a grind-it-out game? Those wins during the season remind me in a way of this one. There are nights when you might not have the offense totally working, there are nights when Ray Allen might be off (hopefully few and far between during the playoffs), and there are nights when the other team's defense is awesome. But what's really beautiful is when the Sonics' defense steps up.
Seattle opened the game on an 11-4 run. Or you could just say the teams traded the first couple baskets and the Sonics reeled off seven straight points. It was capped by a Luke Ridnour three from the right corner with 8:42 left and a Rashard Lewis midrange pull-up jumper with 7:56 remaining. After the requisite San Antonio timeout, the Spurs answered exactly with an 11-4 run of their own to tie it. Though half of the Sonic points in that stretch came on the first of quite a few pick-and-rolls finished with a Jerome James slam, the Spurs got a couple of layups along with a Brent Barry three to tie the game at 15 apiece with 5:48 to go.
The Spurs' run was broken by the second pick-and-roll play from Ray Allen to Jerome James that finished in a powerful slam with 5:29 to play in the quarter. At this point, both teams had made good on their last five shot attempts. Antonio Daniels blew a layup and Nick Collison grabbed the rebound. He was fouled and split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 19-19 with 3:06 left in the first.
Though it didn't seem like it at the time, things got a bit out of hand. Danny Fortson got the offensive board on the second Collison free throw, which was missed. Reggie Evans couldn't catch Fortson's pass to him, and it went out of bounds. Tony Parker drove into the lane and made a beautiful bounce pass from the baseline to Radoslav (I'm not calling him "Rasho") Nesterovic for an easy layup to give the Spurs the 21-19 lead. Collison blew a layup on one Sonic possession, and Daniels missed a three before the Spurs showed some nice ball movement and Manu Ginobili sank a three from the left side to give the Spurs a 24-19 lead. Fortson was called for an illegal screen, ho hum. Ginobili lost a ball out of bounds with 54.4 ticks remaining after having been pressured by Damien Wilkins. On the other end, Fortson put back a Wilkins missed shot, and then Fortson plowed a driving Ginobili on the other end. A flagrant foul was called, and though I was watching the Calabro/Ehlo crew and they are partial, they're usually good with these kind of assessments -- that wasn't a flagrant foul. I didn't think Danny went for the head. Anyway, it was a two-shot flagrant, which I still think is crap because that wasn't a Ron Artest-type foul, but oh well. Ginobili hit those free throws, then Robert Horry beat the quarter buzzer with a three.
I guess the point with that big paragraph was this -- the Spurs closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run for a 29-21 lead, but it really didn't seem like the Sonics were out of it. I'm not sure if it was the home crowd, or if it was because Parker and Ginobili weren't lighting it up...something about this game seemed within reach.
Within the first minute of the second quarter, Danny Fortson and Jerome James both drew their third personal fouls. That of course means more minutes for Nick Collison and Vitaly Potapenko. Daniels found Collison with a nice pass under the basket for an easy layup with 10 minutes to play in the first half (31-25). Parker hit a long jumper and hit a tough shot inside to get the Spurs their largest lead of the night, 35-25 with 8:49 to go before halftime. The Spurs were beating the Sonics 20-10 in the paint.
The Sonics then put together a 10-2 run to get to within two, 39-37 with 4:40 to go. It began with Vitaly Potapenko batting a rebound under the basket after Lewis missed a three; the ball went off a Spur (probably Duncan) and into the basket (7:49). The San Antonio offense stagnated on the other end, as Vitaly draped Duncan with the shot clock running down, and it eventually expired. With 6:42 to go, Allen drove to the basket and was fouled hard by Nazr Mohammed. The crowd thought that if Fortson's foul on Ginobili was flagrant, this one had to be as well. Officials didn't see it that way. Glenn Robinson shoved Lewis into the referee on the inbound, though, and that drew a technical foul. Allen missed the T shot, snapping a streak of 45 straight made free throws. Lewis then hit his free throws. Also part of the run was Allen's pull-up baseline jumper from the left side with 6:06 to play -- his first field goal of the night. A Daniels stepback jumper from the left side capped the run, and the Sonics were down by the 39-37 margin I opened the paragraph with.
With three minutes to go in the half, the Sonics were shooting 35%, and the Spurs were shooting 54%. Amazingly, Duncan went to the line at the 2:54 mark, and those were the Spurs' first free-throw attempts of the quarter. The Sonics got down by six points, then put together a 6-0 mini-run, capped by an Allen transition three and a couple of Daniels free throws, tying the game at 47 apiece with 52.8 seconds left.
The Sonics trailed 51-49 at halftime. Though Allen had his way with Bowen in Game 2, it appeared that the presumably better ankle wasn't helping Allen in his plight against Bowen in this game. The Sonics only committed four turnovers in the first half, helping keep them in the game despite the disappearance of Allen. Another thing that helped was the free-throw gap -- the Spurs were shooting 6-for-7 from the line at half, while the Sonics were shooting 19-for-23. I don't have to tell you that's a 13-point difference at the line alone.
Consecutive possessions ending with an Allen pull-up jumper from the right elbow and an Allen midrange stepback jumper got the Sonics their first lead (53-51, 11:06) since there was 4:14 left in the first quarter. Of course, that lead doesn't last long when Barry and Bowen hit back-to-back threes. With 8:53 to go, Jerome James put a spin move on Mohammed, but was called for an offensive foul, his fourth personal on the night. Reggie Evans was bowled over by Duncan and called for the foul. Too bad Duncan didn't hit the ensuing free throws. After a crazy loose-ball sequence, the Spurs regained possession (Seattle should have gotten the ball) and Mohammed was fouled on the low block by Evans. Not long after, the Sonics retook the lead with an Allen shot from the right elbow, making it 61-60 with 6:32 to go.
After a basket by the Spurs, James finished off a pick-and-roll with Allen for a thunderous jam to retake the lead once again (63-62, 5:57). The Sonics got a hustle play not long after: Ridnour tipped out an offensive board to Allen beyond the perimeter, who dribbled to the free-throw line and stuck a jumper to take the lead back again (65-64, 5:09). After back-to-back San Antonio threes (Horry wide open, Ginobili), the Sonics got the lead back with a couple of dunks -- Allen dumped to a trailing Collison, and Evans finished off a break with Allen to make it 71-70 with three minutes to play.
Evans fouled Parker not long after, and the former went to the locker room for what was later revealed as a bruised back. Parker stepped to the line and missed both his free throws. Fortson grabbed the board and flattened Bowen on the other end, and it's basically a rule that Fortson's gotta flatten at least one opposing player per game. Fortson made good not long after, making a power move on Duncan and hitting a layup to get the Sonics another lead, 73-71 with 1:44 remaining.
Daniels was tripped up by Horry, and contact had been made with his sore knee (the one with fibromylagia, if I spelled that right). He was down on the floor for a few seconds, and walked off with a limp. As Sonic fans would find out later, thank goodness he stayed. Collison hit a turnaround hook with 46.1 seconds to go for another lead (75-74), but Duncan split a pair of free throws to tie it at 75, and that score held up for the end of the quarter.
To open the fourth quarter, Daniels stumbled into the lane and hit a reverse layup to break the tie once again (77-75, 11:42). Daniels did another crazy drive to the basket again, and rolled around on the floor after the whistle. Amazingly, the free throws he sank afterward (79-79, 9:46) were the first Sonic free-throw attempts of the second half. Duncan hit a running hook that bounced on the rim to break the tie, but the Sonics got the lead soon after. How? Why, a James slam off a pick-and-roll, of course. This time Ridnour fed him, and Duncan hacked James on the dunk, ending with a three-point play and a Sonic lead (82-81, 8:34).
That dunk by James (again, 8:34) was the second basket the Sonics hit from the field during the fourth quarter. When was the next basket? That came with 5:01 to play. What was it? Ridnour to James for a slam off a pick-and-roll, and a hack by Duncan. James missed the free throw that time, though, and the Spurs led 85-84. I'll warn you now -- the Sonics only hit one basket for the rest of the game, which had just over five minutes left to play.
Allen drove and made a jump-pass to nobody in particular, and Parker ran the other way, all alone before Daniels fouled him (I was surprised they didn't call a clear-path foul). That put the Sonics over the limit with 4:01 remaining. Parker responded by missing both free throws. Rashard Lewis limped off the floor with a toe injury with 3:34 to play. Daniels tied the game at 88 apiece with a couple free throws after being plowed by Duncan in backcourt. Horry missed a three. On the other end, Collison had the ball down low, had a shot blocked by Duncan, stayed with it, and laid it in.
Collison's basket put the Sonics up 90-88 with 2:33 to go. Duncan rumbled to the basket on the next possession and was fouled by James, which I thought was his 6th (remember, these are my game notes, so one of James' early fouls must have gone to someone else). That was Jerome's 5th, and Duncan toed the line and split a pair of free throws. Daniels took the ball on the other end of the floor, where he was fouled -- Ginobili tried to fight over the top of a James screen and did the mother of all flops, taking a phantom elbow to the face, and lying down on the floor for about twenty seconds. He didn't get the whistle to blow on Daniels, so what made him think the 20 fake seconds of writhing in pain on the floor was going to do it? Anyway, Daniels hit his free throws to make it 92-89 with 1:59 to go.
Ginobili tried to fight through a double team and actually did get some contact to the face this time from James, for what was definitely his sixth foul, coming with 1:46 to go. Ginobili split the free throws, and the Sonics still led 92-90. The Sonics wore down the shot clock on the other end, but the possession ended with a very long Daniels jumper (just inside the arc) that missed. Duncan had a short shot from the right side hit the side of the glass as Vitaly stood his ground. Allen had a shot blocked by Duncan on the other end, and a loose-ball scramble ensued. Replays showed that Vitaly tipped the ball off of Bowen before it went out of bounds, but the ball was awarded to the Spurs with 44.8 seconds left.
Horry fired a three-pointer and missed, but Ginobili scooped up the rebound and was fouled by Daniels. Ginobili split the pair of free throws to cut the Sonics lead to 92-91 with 29.3 seconds remaining.
The Sonics called timeout, and before the inbound, Allen and Bowen were jawing at each other. The possession had Daniels wearing down the clock before handing off to Allen. Potapenko came out high to try to screen Bowen from Allen, but that didn't work on multiple tries. Allen forced up a tough fading shot from the left baseline which missed, but luckily bounced high off the base of the rim, killing a second or so before Horry grabbed the rebound and called timeout.
On the final possession, the ball found Duncan on the right elbow, who had Potapenko on him. Time drew down, Duncan put up an 8-footer or so, and it was short off the front rim. Collison grabbed the rebound, and it was over.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 20 pts/7 reb/7 ast (6-23 FG, 1-8 3pt, 7-9 free throws, 42 min), Rashard Lewis 12 pts/10 reb (3-10 FG, 0-3 3pt, 6-6 free throws, 36 min), Luke Ridnour 9 pts/3 reb/5 ast/2 stl (4-10 FG, 1-3 3pt, 42 min), Reggie Evans 2 pts/6 reb (1-3 FG, 15 min)
bench
Antonio Daniels 18 pts/8 reb/3 ast (3-9 FG, 12-12 free throws, 34 min), Nick Collison 10 pts/6 reb (4-6 FG, 2-4 free throws, 18 min), Danny Fortson 4 pts/2 reb (2-2 FG, 6 min), Vitaly Potapenko 2 pts/3 reb (1-3 FG, 10 min), Damien Wilkins 0 pts/1 stl (0-3 FG, 13 min)
Jerome James Watch
15 pts/3 reb/1 stl/2 blk (7-7 FG, 1-2 free throws, 1 turnover, fouled out with 1:46 to go, 24 min)
team
shot 31-for-76 (40.8%) from the field, shot 2-for-16 (12.5%) from downtown, shot 28-for-33 (84.8%) from the line, outrebounded Spurs 48-37, were beaten 42-38 in the paint, won 9-8 on the break and 15-13 on second chances, bench outscored San Antonio bench 34-33 (outrebounded them 19-12)
I was sitting there through a decent part of the fourth quarter thinking there was a good chance the Sonics could lose this game. They had many reasons to, not the least of which was the fact that Ray Allen didn't score in the final 17:08 of the game. I'm definitely not saying that you could have had Ron Murray out there and gotten the same result (Murray wouldn't have gone 7-for-9 from the line), but Allen wasn't the fourth-quarter dynamo in this game that he's fancied himself to be during the regular season. You can't do it every time out, sure, but these are the playoffs. Also, though I do know the Sonics play a slow pace of basketball when they're clicking on all cylinders (though a much higher-scoring brand), I figured this pace would accommodate the Spurs better as well, though not a death blow as some of the national press might have thought. The Spurs had a couple of trips to the line where they missed both free throws altogether, and they had many more where they split the pair of free throws. For the record, the Spurs shot 19-for-34 (55.9%) from the line. The Sonics' shooting percentage is above, and Daniels was perfect from the line.
Antonio Daniels is almost surely going to cash in somewhere else next year for what he's done this year, but man, what a year this guy has had. He's probably going to hate himself around age 50 or 60 when his body exacts revenge on him for all the crazy drives to the basket he does, but rarely have I seen a crazy point guard like this that will sacrifice his body, fall to the floor or get pounded, and then manage to hit both free throws. Repeatedly. More importantly, with Allen not hitting his shots and with Lewis not hitting/not taking shots (though getting a double-double), someone off that bench had to step up, and it was Daniels. He had a great line off the bench, and since the Sonic defense was able to keep the score low, they weren't getting screwed for not having Vladimir Radmanovic popping in that extra ten or so points.
It's games like this one where I look at the boxscore, remember that Daniels did well, and then I look and see that Ridnour was on the floor for 42 minutes, though it didn't seem like it. That's a lot of time with a three-guard lineup, assuming that Allen is out there (given his minutes, he was). Obviously without Radmanovic, the Sonics can't trot that huge lineup of point guard/Lewis/Radmanovic/Collison/Fortson out there, but it kinda reminds you sometimes how versatile this team can be, even with only Jerome James (and maybe Vitaly) as the only guy that could be considered a true center. Back to Ridnour, though, Coach McMillan must have been liking his defense if he was out on the floor that long. I guess his offense wasn't too bad either, and that 5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio isn't too shabby either.
Again, who thought the Sonics would win a physical game with the Spurs? The Sonics made sure that the easy layups were few and far between, and it appeared they were going to use their fouls -- after all, they've got 30 fouls to use between Jerome James, Reggie Evans, Nick Collison, Vitaly Potapenko, and Danny Fortson. In this game, 20 of them were used, six of them by James. Given the result of the fouling, in which the Spurs wouldn't hit their free throws, the strategy is fool-proof in hindsight. Of course, only time will tell how long the Hack-A-Spur defense would work, because all of a sudden they could just start hitting their free throws again, though Duncan would be the least likely to stroke a bunch from the line in a row. As Vitaly would say, the Sonics laid the vood on the Spurs in the paint.
I know the Spurs were more concerned with the Sonics' shooters and everything, but that pick-and-roll play finishing with a dunk by James...that worked five times. I'll go out on a limb and say that James won't be flushing that many pick-and-rolls on Sunday. Frankly, it's great seeing him go to the rack and pack it like that. It's a great contrast to seeing Reggie Evans grab an offensive board and pump-fake about five times under the basket before going up, or Evans missing a dunk.
Well, folks, we've got a series. I'm just glad to see the Sonics get one, but this was a very nice win. I'm hoping they can build on it, but if the Sonics only end up getting this one win, it was at least a good win and a great game. And man, that KeyArena crowd was nuts. On multiple occasions, Kevin Calabro said it almost felt like the old Barn. Were there a couple of profane crowd chants in there? I could have swore I heard "BUUUULL-SH#&" once or twice during the game.
I asked Jinkies if he ever sneaks into the players' luggage and then scares them in their hotel rooms after games. His reply: "I am not wearing anything of course. I am a cat."
(NOTE: The foul originally listed as Jerome James' 5th foul, occurring with 7:18 to go in the third quarter, was actually on Reggie Evans. Don't worry, I was screwed up when James got his fifth foul in the waning minutes of the game, and I thought it was his DQ.)
For the first time in the series, neither team scored 100 points, but did anyone think the Sonics would be the team winning such a game? I flipped to the ESPN guys at halftime saying that if the game was slowed down into halfcourt basketball, the Spurs would win the game. Looks like they bought into the myth of the Sonics being a fast-paced, jumpshooting team. Dig through some of David Locke's P-I articles, and you'll find out that the Sonics played the fourth-slowest pace during the season of any team in the NBA. Remember the home game against Detroit where Jerome James went nuts for the first time? Remember the game at Houston that was a grind-it-out game? Those wins during the season remind me in a way of this one. There are nights when you might not have the offense totally working, there are nights when Ray Allen might be off (hopefully few and far between during the playoffs), and there are nights when the other team's defense is awesome. But what's really beautiful is when the Sonics' defense steps up.
Seattle opened the game on an 11-4 run. Or you could just say the teams traded the first couple baskets and the Sonics reeled off seven straight points. It was capped by a Luke Ridnour three from the right corner with 8:42 left and a Rashard Lewis midrange pull-up jumper with 7:56 remaining. After the requisite San Antonio timeout, the Spurs answered exactly with an 11-4 run of their own to tie it. Though half of the Sonic points in that stretch came on the first of quite a few pick-and-rolls finished with a Jerome James slam, the Spurs got a couple of layups along with a Brent Barry three to tie the game at 15 apiece with 5:48 to go.
The Spurs' run was broken by the second pick-and-roll play from Ray Allen to Jerome James that finished in a powerful slam with 5:29 to play in the quarter. At this point, both teams had made good on their last five shot attempts. Antonio Daniels blew a layup and Nick Collison grabbed the rebound. He was fouled and split a pair of free throws to tie the game at 19-19 with 3:06 left in the first.
Though it didn't seem like it at the time, things got a bit out of hand. Danny Fortson got the offensive board on the second Collison free throw, which was missed. Reggie Evans couldn't catch Fortson's pass to him, and it went out of bounds. Tony Parker drove into the lane and made a beautiful bounce pass from the baseline to Radoslav (I'm not calling him "Rasho") Nesterovic for an easy layup to give the Spurs the 21-19 lead. Collison blew a layup on one Sonic possession, and Daniels missed a three before the Spurs showed some nice ball movement and Manu Ginobili sank a three from the left side to give the Spurs a 24-19 lead. Fortson was called for an illegal screen, ho hum. Ginobili lost a ball out of bounds with 54.4 ticks remaining after having been pressured by Damien Wilkins. On the other end, Fortson put back a Wilkins missed shot, and then Fortson plowed a driving Ginobili on the other end. A flagrant foul was called, and though I was watching the Calabro/Ehlo crew and they are partial, they're usually good with these kind of assessments -- that wasn't a flagrant foul. I didn't think Danny went for the head. Anyway, it was a two-shot flagrant, which I still think is crap because that wasn't a Ron Artest-type foul, but oh well. Ginobili hit those free throws, then Robert Horry beat the quarter buzzer with a three.
I guess the point with that big paragraph was this -- the Spurs closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run for a 29-21 lead, but it really didn't seem like the Sonics were out of it. I'm not sure if it was the home crowd, or if it was because Parker and Ginobili weren't lighting it up...something about this game seemed within reach.
Within the first minute of the second quarter, Danny Fortson and Jerome James both drew their third personal fouls. That of course means more minutes for Nick Collison and Vitaly Potapenko. Daniels found Collison with a nice pass under the basket for an easy layup with 10 minutes to play in the first half (31-25). Parker hit a long jumper and hit a tough shot inside to get the Spurs their largest lead of the night, 35-25 with 8:49 to go before halftime. The Spurs were beating the Sonics 20-10 in the paint.
The Sonics then put together a 10-2 run to get to within two, 39-37 with 4:40 to go. It began with Vitaly Potapenko batting a rebound under the basket after Lewis missed a three; the ball went off a Spur (probably Duncan) and into the basket (7:49). The San Antonio offense stagnated on the other end, as Vitaly draped Duncan with the shot clock running down, and it eventually expired. With 6:42 to go, Allen drove to the basket and was fouled hard by Nazr Mohammed. The crowd thought that if Fortson's foul on Ginobili was flagrant, this one had to be as well. Officials didn't see it that way. Glenn Robinson shoved Lewis into the referee on the inbound, though, and that drew a technical foul. Allen missed the T shot, snapping a streak of 45 straight made free throws. Lewis then hit his free throws. Also part of the run was Allen's pull-up baseline jumper from the left side with 6:06 to play -- his first field goal of the night. A Daniels stepback jumper from the left side capped the run, and the Sonics were down by the 39-37 margin I opened the paragraph with.
With three minutes to go in the half, the Sonics were shooting 35%, and the Spurs were shooting 54%. Amazingly, Duncan went to the line at the 2:54 mark, and those were the Spurs' first free-throw attempts of the quarter. The Sonics got down by six points, then put together a 6-0 mini-run, capped by an Allen transition three and a couple of Daniels free throws, tying the game at 47 apiece with 52.8 seconds left.
The Sonics trailed 51-49 at halftime. Though Allen had his way with Bowen in Game 2, it appeared that the presumably better ankle wasn't helping Allen in his plight against Bowen in this game. The Sonics only committed four turnovers in the first half, helping keep them in the game despite the disappearance of Allen. Another thing that helped was the free-throw gap -- the Spurs were shooting 6-for-7 from the line at half, while the Sonics were shooting 19-for-23. I don't have to tell you that's a 13-point difference at the line alone.
Consecutive possessions ending with an Allen pull-up jumper from the right elbow and an Allen midrange stepback jumper got the Sonics their first lead (53-51, 11:06) since there was 4:14 left in the first quarter. Of course, that lead doesn't last long when Barry and Bowen hit back-to-back threes. With 8:53 to go, Jerome James put a spin move on Mohammed, but was called for an offensive foul, his fourth personal on the night. Reggie Evans was bowled over by Duncan and called for the foul. Too bad Duncan didn't hit the ensuing free throws. After a crazy loose-ball sequence, the Spurs regained possession (Seattle should have gotten the ball) and Mohammed was fouled on the low block by Evans. Not long after, the Sonics retook the lead with an Allen shot from the right elbow, making it 61-60 with 6:32 to go.
After a basket by the Spurs, James finished off a pick-and-roll with Allen for a thunderous jam to retake the lead once again (63-62, 5:57). The Sonics got a hustle play not long after: Ridnour tipped out an offensive board to Allen beyond the perimeter, who dribbled to the free-throw line and stuck a jumper to take the lead back again (65-64, 5:09). After back-to-back San Antonio threes (Horry wide open, Ginobili), the Sonics got the lead back with a couple of dunks -- Allen dumped to a trailing Collison, and Evans finished off a break with Allen to make it 71-70 with three minutes to play.
Evans fouled Parker not long after, and the former went to the locker room for what was later revealed as a bruised back. Parker stepped to the line and missed both his free throws. Fortson grabbed the board and flattened Bowen on the other end, and it's basically a rule that Fortson's gotta flatten at least one opposing player per game. Fortson made good not long after, making a power move on Duncan and hitting a layup to get the Sonics another lead, 73-71 with 1:44 remaining.
Daniels was tripped up by Horry, and contact had been made with his sore knee (the one with fibromylagia, if I spelled that right). He was down on the floor for a few seconds, and walked off with a limp. As Sonic fans would find out later, thank goodness he stayed. Collison hit a turnaround hook with 46.1 seconds to go for another lead (75-74), but Duncan split a pair of free throws to tie it at 75, and that score held up for the end of the quarter.
To open the fourth quarter, Daniels stumbled into the lane and hit a reverse layup to break the tie once again (77-75, 11:42). Daniels did another crazy drive to the basket again, and rolled around on the floor after the whistle. Amazingly, the free throws he sank afterward (79-79, 9:46) were the first Sonic free-throw attempts of the second half. Duncan hit a running hook that bounced on the rim to break the tie, but the Sonics got the lead soon after. How? Why, a James slam off a pick-and-roll, of course. This time Ridnour fed him, and Duncan hacked James on the dunk, ending with a three-point play and a Sonic lead (82-81, 8:34).
That dunk by James (again, 8:34) was the second basket the Sonics hit from the field during the fourth quarter. When was the next basket? That came with 5:01 to play. What was it? Ridnour to James for a slam off a pick-and-roll, and a hack by Duncan. James missed the free throw that time, though, and the Spurs led 85-84. I'll warn you now -- the Sonics only hit one basket for the rest of the game, which had just over five minutes left to play.
Allen drove and made a jump-pass to nobody in particular, and Parker ran the other way, all alone before Daniels fouled him (I was surprised they didn't call a clear-path foul). That put the Sonics over the limit with 4:01 remaining. Parker responded by missing both free throws. Rashard Lewis limped off the floor with a toe injury with 3:34 to play. Daniels tied the game at 88 apiece with a couple free throws after being plowed by Duncan in backcourt. Horry missed a three. On the other end, Collison had the ball down low, had a shot blocked by Duncan, stayed with it, and laid it in.
Collison's basket put the Sonics up 90-88 with 2:33 to go. Duncan rumbled to the basket on the next possession and was fouled by James, which I thought was his 6th (remember, these are my game notes, so one of James' early fouls must have gone to someone else). That was Jerome's 5th, and Duncan toed the line and split a pair of free throws. Daniels took the ball on the other end of the floor, where he was fouled -- Ginobili tried to fight over the top of a James screen and did the mother of all flops, taking a phantom elbow to the face, and lying down on the floor for about twenty seconds. He didn't get the whistle to blow on Daniels, so what made him think the 20 fake seconds of writhing in pain on the floor was going to do it? Anyway, Daniels hit his free throws to make it 92-89 with 1:59 to go.
Ginobili tried to fight through a double team and actually did get some contact to the face this time from James, for what was definitely his sixth foul, coming with 1:46 to go. Ginobili split the free throws, and the Sonics still led 92-90. The Sonics wore down the shot clock on the other end, but the possession ended with a very long Daniels jumper (just inside the arc) that missed. Duncan had a short shot from the right side hit the side of the glass as Vitaly stood his ground. Allen had a shot blocked by Duncan on the other end, and a loose-ball scramble ensued. Replays showed that Vitaly tipped the ball off of Bowen before it went out of bounds, but the ball was awarded to the Spurs with 44.8 seconds left.
Horry fired a three-pointer and missed, but Ginobili scooped up the rebound and was fouled by Daniels. Ginobili split the pair of free throws to cut the Sonics lead to 92-91 with 29.3 seconds remaining.
The Sonics called timeout, and before the inbound, Allen and Bowen were jawing at each other. The possession had Daniels wearing down the clock before handing off to Allen. Potapenko came out high to try to screen Bowen from Allen, but that didn't work on multiple tries. Allen forced up a tough fading shot from the left baseline which missed, but luckily bounced high off the base of the rim, killing a second or so before Horry grabbed the rebound and called timeout.
On the final possession, the ball found Duncan on the right elbow, who had Potapenko on him. Time drew down, Duncan put up an 8-footer or so, and it was short off the front rim. Collison grabbed the rebound, and it was over.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 20 pts/7 reb/7 ast (6-23 FG, 1-8 3pt, 7-9 free throws, 42 min), Rashard Lewis 12 pts/10 reb (3-10 FG, 0-3 3pt, 6-6 free throws, 36 min), Luke Ridnour 9 pts/3 reb/5 ast/2 stl (4-10 FG, 1-3 3pt, 42 min), Reggie Evans 2 pts/6 reb (1-3 FG, 15 min)
bench
Antonio Daniels 18 pts/8 reb/3 ast (3-9 FG, 12-12 free throws, 34 min), Nick Collison 10 pts/6 reb (4-6 FG, 2-4 free throws, 18 min), Danny Fortson 4 pts/2 reb (2-2 FG, 6 min), Vitaly Potapenko 2 pts/3 reb (1-3 FG, 10 min), Damien Wilkins 0 pts/1 stl (0-3 FG, 13 min)
Jerome James Watch
15 pts/3 reb/1 stl/2 blk (7-7 FG, 1-2 free throws, 1 turnover, fouled out with 1:46 to go, 24 min)
team
shot 31-for-76 (40.8%) from the field, shot 2-for-16 (12.5%) from downtown, shot 28-for-33 (84.8%) from the line, outrebounded Spurs 48-37, were beaten 42-38 in the paint, won 9-8 on the break and 15-13 on second chances, bench outscored San Antonio bench 34-33 (outrebounded them 19-12)
I was sitting there through a decent part of the fourth quarter thinking there was a good chance the Sonics could lose this game. They had many reasons to, not the least of which was the fact that Ray Allen didn't score in the final 17:08 of the game. I'm definitely not saying that you could have had Ron Murray out there and gotten the same result (Murray wouldn't have gone 7-for-9 from the line), but Allen wasn't the fourth-quarter dynamo in this game that he's fancied himself to be during the regular season. You can't do it every time out, sure, but these are the playoffs. Also, though I do know the Sonics play a slow pace of basketball when they're clicking on all cylinders (though a much higher-scoring brand), I figured this pace would accommodate the Spurs better as well, though not a death blow as some of the national press might have thought. The Spurs had a couple of trips to the line where they missed both free throws altogether, and they had many more where they split the pair of free throws. For the record, the Spurs shot 19-for-34 (55.9%) from the line. The Sonics' shooting percentage is above, and Daniels was perfect from the line.
Antonio Daniels is almost surely going to cash in somewhere else next year for what he's done this year, but man, what a year this guy has had. He's probably going to hate himself around age 50 or 60 when his body exacts revenge on him for all the crazy drives to the basket he does, but rarely have I seen a crazy point guard like this that will sacrifice his body, fall to the floor or get pounded, and then manage to hit both free throws. Repeatedly. More importantly, with Allen not hitting his shots and with Lewis not hitting/not taking shots (though getting a double-double), someone off that bench had to step up, and it was Daniels. He had a great line off the bench, and since the Sonic defense was able to keep the score low, they weren't getting screwed for not having Vladimir Radmanovic popping in that extra ten or so points.
It's games like this one where I look at the boxscore, remember that Daniels did well, and then I look and see that Ridnour was on the floor for 42 minutes, though it didn't seem like it. That's a lot of time with a three-guard lineup, assuming that Allen is out there (given his minutes, he was). Obviously without Radmanovic, the Sonics can't trot that huge lineup of point guard/Lewis/Radmanovic/Collison/Fortson out there, but it kinda reminds you sometimes how versatile this team can be, even with only Jerome James (and maybe Vitaly) as the only guy that could be considered a true center. Back to Ridnour, though, Coach McMillan must have been liking his defense if he was out on the floor that long. I guess his offense wasn't too bad either, and that 5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio isn't too shabby either.
Again, who thought the Sonics would win a physical game with the Spurs? The Sonics made sure that the easy layups were few and far between, and it appeared they were going to use their fouls -- after all, they've got 30 fouls to use between Jerome James, Reggie Evans, Nick Collison, Vitaly Potapenko, and Danny Fortson. In this game, 20 of them were used, six of them by James. Given the result of the fouling, in which the Spurs wouldn't hit their free throws, the strategy is fool-proof in hindsight. Of course, only time will tell how long the Hack-A-Spur defense would work, because all of a sudden they could just start hitting their free throws again, though Duncan would be the least likely to stroke a bunch from the line in a row. As Vitaly would say, the Sonics laid the vood on the Spurs in the paint.
I know the Spurs were more concerned with the Sonics' shooters and everything, but that pick-and-roll play finishing with a dunk by James...that worked five times. I'll go out on a limb and say that James won't be flushing that many pick-and-rolls on Sunday. Frankly, it's great seeing him go to the rack and pack it like that. It's a great contrast to seeing Reggie Evans grab an offensive board and pump-fake about five times under the basket before going up, or Evans missing a dunk.
Well, folks, we've got a series. I'm just glad to see the Sonics get one, but this was a very nice win. I'm hoping they can build on it, but if the Sonics only end up getting this one win, it was at least a good win and a great game. And man, that KeyArena crowd was nuts. On multiple occasions, Kevin Calabro said it almost felt like the old Barn. Were there a couple of profane crowd chants in there? I could have swore I heard "BUUUULL-SH#&" once or twice during the game.
I asked Jinkies if he ever sneaks into the players' luggage and then scares them in their hotel rooms after games. His reply: "I am not wearing anything of course. I am a cat."
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