Monday, May 16, 2005
GAME 4: SUPERSONICS 101, SPURS 89
SuperSonics 101, Spurs 89 (best-of-seven series tied 2-2)
Did I think this would happen? No. I know it looks on paper like all the Sonics did was hold serve on their home court, but without Vladimir Radmanovic for the entire series and with Rashard Lewis being a game-time scratch with his sprained toe suffered in the fourth quarter of the Game 3 win, I sat there watching the unveiling of the lineups and I wasn't feeling too hopeful about the game. Seattle trotted a three-guard lineup out there, with Luke Ridnour, Antonio Daniels, and Ray Allen. That the Sonics won Game 4 in the way they did surprised me a lot.
It started off with the Spurs winning the tip, but Jerome James blocked a Nazr Mohammed shot to start the game. The first basket of the game didn't come until Ray Allen stepped back in the key and nailed a jumper with 10:25 to go in the first. The stretch before that included the first San Antonio turnover of the game, which happened when Tony Parker drove into the key on Jerome James and walked with the ball. The Sonics opened the game on a 12-4 run sparked by five turnovers by the Spurs (including a shot-clock violation), with all 12 points scored by Ray Allen, Antonio Daniels, and Luke Ridnour, the three guards. Coach McMillan called timeout with 4:54 left after the Spurs outscored the Sonics 10-6 to cut the lead in half at 18-14. Tim Duncan got a three-point play and a third-chance basket, and Tony Parker blew to the glass for a layup, and Tim Duncan was fouled off the ball to finish that three-point play. Manu Ginobili was fouled by Jerome James on a drive and hit both free throws to finish off the run at 12-6.
Damien Wilkins was in the right corner, and might have been looking to make a baseline pass to someone under the basket. It two-hopped to the other corner where Ray Allen was wide open for a three, which he nailed. The Spurs got within two points at 23-21 (Duncan had hit a couple of free throws after Collison gave him a tone-setting hard foul down low) before the Sonics got two more baskets -- a dunk by Nick Collison after a nice feed from Daniels, and Damien Wilkins going to the rack and getting the fast-break basket on a Robert Horry goaltend after poking the ball away from Duncan on the other end. The Spurs had a shot-clock violation inside the final minute of the quarter, but the Sonics were hit with one as well. Duncan was left alone beyond the arc on the Spurs' final possession of the quarter, and he hit the three-ball. The Sonics led 28-26 after the first quarter.
Beno Udrih's midrange basket from the right side tied the game at 28 apiece and was the first basket of the second quarter, coming with 11:20 to go. That accounted for one of the five times (other than 0-0, needless to say) that the game was tied. A Damien Wilkins putback of a Ridnour miss was answered eventually by Duncan hitting his patented 17-foot banker from the left side to tie the score at 30 apiece. Collison stood his ground and drew a charge on a drive by Beno Udrih with 9:06 to go. Wilkins intercepted a pass intended for Glenn Robinson, and was fouled by Brent Barry as he raced down the court. The bad pass accounted for San Antonio's 10th turnover, coming with 8:37 remaining in the first half. The game went 2:24 without any points being scored, as there were a couple of turnovers by both teams. Allen finally pulled up from the right elbow and cashed in, putting the Sonics back into the lead (32-30, 7:28). The Sonics put together a 9-2 run, which included a flurry of highlight-reel baskets -- Ridnour threaded the needle with that pass to Wilkins for a layup down low, Allen stepped back and hit a three with Bruce Bowen on him, and Daniels intercepted a pass and dunked on the other end.
The Sonics led 39-32 when Gregg Popovich called timeout with 4:04 to go in the half. The Spurs responded, scoring the next six points to pull within one. Horry put back a miss that had beaten the shot clock, Ginobili hit a couple of free throws, and Duncan dunked after being left wide open down low. Luckily, Wilkins answered with a three from the right side to stop the run. The Sonics ended the half with a 7-2 run of their own. Horry nearly hit a crazy shot to end the half, but it swirled along the inside of the rim and rolled out.
Seattle led 46-40 at half, thanks in large part to fifteen San Antonio turnovers. The Spurs had never trailed at halftime in the playoffs (eight games). Allen led the Sonics with 17 points.
It's been said that the first few minutes after halftime can be the most important minutes of the game. The Spurs outscored the Sonics 12-6 to start the half and tie the game at 52-52. Duncan scored eight points during that run before Nate McMillan called timeout with 8:18 to play in the third quarter. Shortly after, the Sonics caught fire and put together a 12-1 run to blow the game open. Allen had seven points in the run, pulling up twice for deep two-pointers, and cashing in a three on a play with nice ball movement to get to him. Ridnour was going nuts, scoring twice in this run -- he dribbled from one side of the floor to the other, going under the basket and fading away from the right side. Ridnour also capped that run with a jumper from the right elbow to make it 66-55 with 4:19 left in the quarter, the Sonics' largest lead of the game up to that point.
Not long after, Ray Allen drove from the perimeter to the rack for the highlight-reel dunk of the night, finishing with a one-handed flush over Radoslav Nesterovic (some call him Rasho) to make it 68-59 with 3:18 to play.
The Sonics finished the third quarter on a 12-4 run to basically put the outcome of the game out of doubt. Daniels started it with a righthanded runner in the key. Collison split a pair of free throws after getting fouled in backcourt by Bowen on a defensive rebound. Wilkins drove the lane for a layup. Duncan even forearmed Fortson, and the foul was actually called on Duncan. That was the Spurs' 20th turnover of the game.
Luke Ridnour had already hit all four shots he had taken in the third quarter, but went nuts in the final 61 seconds of the quarter. He hit a fader from the baseline on the right side with 1:01 remaining. He hit the corner three from the right side with 42.5 ticks left. He hit the teardrop running banker with 2.5 seconds left for the last basket of the quarter.
The Sonics led 82-66 after three quarters. Luke Ridnour hit all seven shots he took in the third quarter, getting 15 points in the frame. I'm about to totally jack David Locke's radio stats here, but they're great -- Seattle scored on their final eight trips down the floor in the quarter, and scored on 18 of their final 20 trips. This coming against one of the very best defenses in the NBA. The Sonics had just hung a 36-point third quarter on the Spurs. My goodness. I know I certainly couldn't believe it.
Then came the fourth quarter, which eventually became a walkover after Popovich pulled Duncan with about five minutes to go. The Sonics let up a tiny bit, which would have screwed them against a team of Spurs that was truly on their game (or against a Sacramento team making a crazy run like in the last series), but not in this game. Ginobili was stuffed by Collison 13 seconds into the quarter. Frustration mounted for the Spurs. Danny Fortson stood grounded on a Ginobili drive, and the latter lost it out of bounds. Ginobili tried to draw a charge on Wilkins near halfcourt, but didn't succeed, though he didn't fake an elbow to the face and lie on the floor in twenty seconds of fake agony this time. Allen stepped back for a jumper from the free-throw line to make it 86-67 with 9:53 left, and before the ball got inbounded, Nesterovic shoved Fortson under the basket, which drew a technical foul.
The closest the Spurs got in meaningful minutes was within 14 points -- Bowen and Ginobili hit back-to-back threes, and Parker hit a midrange jumper to make it 89-75, a short 8-2 run with 7:56 to go. Devin Brown made it 99-87 with a three from the right side with 1:17 to go, but the problem for the Spurs was that there was 1:17 left to go.
San Antonio ended the game on a 10-2 run, but it was much too late. When Ray Allen left the court to a standing ovation with 3:01 left in the game, that was pretty much it.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 32 pts/2 reb (12-20 FG, 3-7 3pt, 5-6 free throws, 41 min), Luke Ridnour 20 pts/3 reb/6 ast/3 stl (9-15 FG, 1-1 3pt, 1-1 3pt, 39 min), Antonio Daniels 19 pts/2 reb/7 ast (8-13 FG, 1-2 3pt, 2-4 free throws, 38 min), Reggie Evans 4 pts/4 reb (1-1 FG, 2-6 free throws, 19 min)
bench
Damien Wilkins 15 pts/6 reb/5 stl (7-11 FG, 1-3 3pt, 32 min), Nick Collison 3 pts/5 reb/2 ast/2 blk (1-6 FG, 1-4 free throws, 28 min), Vitaly Potapenko 2 pts/1 reb (1-3 FG, 4 min), Ron Murray 2 pts/1 reb (2-2 free throws, 3 min), Danny Fortson 0 pts/1 reb (0-3 FG, 13 min)
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/6 reb/1 stl/3 blk (0-6 FG, 4-4 free throws, 5 fouls, 23 min)
team
shot 39-for-78 (50%) from the field, shot 6-for-13 (46.2%) from downtown, shot 17-for-27 (63%) from the line, were outrebounded 40-31, forced 23 turnovers (turned over 14), won 13-10 on the break and 40-32 in the paint, blocked nine shots, bench was outscored 35-22 (and outrebounded 20-14)
Where were you on the night that Luke Ridnour truly became a Sonic? My goodness. It's been said that at his best, he has some Pistol Pete Maravich in his game. He had most of the arsenal working tonight -- the midrange jumper, the one-handed runners, the one really nice pass, etc. Though Rashard hadn't really been putting up All-Star numbers on offense, the Sonics still needed someone else to fill the scoring, and Luke Ridnour stepped up in a big way, and debatably put the game away in the third quarter, though Ray Allen had a large say in that as well.
The thing about losing Rashard Lewis isn't just on the offensive end, though. The Sonics did get outrebounded by nine in this game. Rashard Lewis had 12 points in Game 3, which is much less than we'd expect, but he also pulled down 10 boards that night. The Sonics weren't getting too many boards, but thankfully they didn't need them. Four rebounds is an off night for Reggie Evans. He had two points and six boards in Game 3 and had one point and 12 boards in the crapfest that was Game 2.
When you see that free-throw percentage of 63% by the Sonics, keep in mind that everyone not named Reggie Evans or Nick Collison totalled 17-for-20 (85%) from the line for the game. I swear, if the Spurs really wanted to mess this up, they could just hack Collison and Evans a whole bunch. Of course, such a strategy might be offset by a regression of Tim Duncan back to the mean at the free-throw line. Duncan more than made up for his Game 3 stinkage at the line, going 14-for-17 from the stripe in Game 4. I guess the thing for the Spurs is that while hacking Nick Collison and Reggie Evans may or may not work (I'll admit I'm just blabbing at this point), Collison is a bench player, and Evans plays limited minutes to begin with. If you did Hack-A-Shaq, you could at least (before this year) presume that a poor free-throw shooter was going to be on the floor for most of the game. With the Sonics, if you've got the three guards they started with in Game 4 on the floor at the same time, you definitely can't foul them for the hell of it because they're great at the line. Danny Fortson at 80% of top form is also going to hit his free throws. Just hair-brained, but if the Spurs could foul any three guys on the roster, they'd be Evans, Collison, and Ron Murray. I guess I'm just afraid of the free-throw ineffectiveness from Collison and Evans coming back to bite the Sonics.
Ray Allen sprained the ankle in Game 1. He wasn't as explosive in Game 2, but didn't let Bruce Bowen really bother him. Bowen affected him in Game 3. I think it's safe to say that Allen had his way in Game 4. The Sonics needed exactly that type of Ray Allen performance to win this game. It was one of their basic needs, something they need in every game of the playoffs. The other big need, of course, is other people stepping up and scoring.
Luke Ridnour said on KJR the day before Game 4 that they weren't too freaked out about the possibility of Rashard Lewis sitting out because he and Antonio Daniels had spent a good deal of time together on the floor during the playoffs. It looked pretty fluid out there in Game 4. The two point guards piled up 13 assists between them, turning the ball over six times. Of course, the big thing was combining to score 39 points on 17-for-28 shooting. They also had four steals. Though I'm copping this from SportsCenter, compare that with the Spurs' two horses, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. They combined for 9-for-23 shooting, 27 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 7 turnovers. Parker only got to the line twice, hitting both free throws. Ginobili went 6-for-8 from the line, but how does Parker only get to the line twice? This is definitely a stark contrast to Game 1, that's for damn sure.
Nick Collison had 10 points and six boards in Game 3, but dropped off a bit in this game. That's where Damien Wilkins stepped in. Granted, he got more minutes largely because Lewis was sitting out, but his defense-first mindset was HUGE, and my goodness, five steals?!!?! He had a couple of nice drives to the basket as well. What a great story this guy has been. He went from undrafted free-agent in training camp to playing a key role in Game 4 of the second round. He got some airtime on SportsCenter as well. He didn't have to go completely nuts like he did in Portland, but those five steals were just as important as the 15 points.
Though nobody got into big foul trouble in this game, the Sonics were still playing physical. Nick Collison gave Tim Duncan a pretty good shot early in the game, which set the tone a bit. Again, I stress that Tony Parker only went to the line for two shots in the entire game. Two shots. The big people's quintet of Evans/Fortson/James/Potapenko/Collison used 17 of their 30 allotted fouls. If you throw in Damien Wilkins, he used four of his fouls as well. I don't think you could quite declare the paint sealed off, since Ginobili was still getting to the line, but 25 of the Spurs' 30 free-throw attempts were from Duncan and Ginobili. The other five were from Parker (two), Beno Udrih (two), and Glenn Robinson (one).
One big thing about this game upon which the Sonics were able to greatly improve was their three-point shooting. They went from a 2-for-16 outing in Game 3 to this 6-for-13 game. It's a great weapon when they're hitting them, and it'd be a much greater threat if Rashard Lewis and especially Vladimir Radmanovic were able to take the floor, but alas, those injuries. One can only wonder what kind of series would have been played by this point if Radmanovic had been healthy the whole time.
I can't believe it. We've truly got a series on our hands now. Larry Brown's quote has been used a billion times -- a playoff series doesn't really begin until the home team loses. The Sonics have Game 6 left on their home floor, but that isn't the next game. All the pressure in the world is on San Antonio to hold serve and win Game 5 on their home floor, not just to reestablish themselves in the series, but...I'm sure the media in San Antonio is having a meltdown considering what happened to the Spurs last year after they were up 2-0 on the Lakers and dropped the next four games.
I asked Jinkies if he likes the drama of the NBA playoffs but sometimes really misses the dead bodies. His reply: "I am sorry, but I am into other cats only. I thank you for the offer."
Did I think this would happen? No. I know it looks on paper like all the Sonics did was hold serve on their home court, but without Vladimir Radmanovic for the entire series and with Rashard Lewis being a game-time scratch with his sprained toe suffered in the fourth quarter of the Game 3 win, I sat there watching the unveiling of the lineups and I wasn't feeling too hopeful about the game. Seattle trotted a three-guard lineup out there, with Luke Ridnour, Antonio Daniels, and Ray Allen. That the Sonics won Game 4 in the way they did surprised me a lot.
It started off with the Spurs winning the tip, but Jerome James blocked a Nazr Mohammed shot to start the game. The first basket of the game didn't come until Ray Allen stepped back in the key and nailed a jumper with 10:25 to go in the first. The stretch before that included the first San Antonio turnover of the game, which happened when Tony Parker drove into the key on Jerome James and walked with the ball. The Sonics opened the game on a 12-4 run sparked by five turnovers by the Spurs (including a shot-clock violation), with all 12 points scored by Ray Allen, Antonio Daniels, and Luke Ridnour, the three guards. Coach McMillan called timeout with 4:54 left after the Spurs outscored the Sonics 10-6 to cut the lead in half at 18-14. Tim Duncan got a three-point play and a third-chance basket, and Tony Parker blew to the glass for a layup, and Tim Duncan was fouled off the ball to finish that three-point play. Manu Ginobili was fouled by Jerome James on a drive and hit both free throws to finish off the run at 12-6.
Damien Wilkins was in the right corner, and might have been looking to make a baseline pass to someone under the basket. It two-hopped to the other corner where Ray Allen was wide open for a three, which he nailed. The Spurs got within two points at 23-21 (Duncan had hit a couple of free throws after Collison gave him a tone-setting hard foul down low) before the Sonics got two more baskets -- a dunk by Nick Collison after a nice feed from Daniels, and Damien Wilkins going to the rack and getting the fast-break basket on a Robert Horry goaltend after poking the ball away from Duncan on the other end. The Spurs had a shot-clock violation inside the final minute of the quarter, but the Sonics were hit with one as well. Duncan was left alone beyond the arc on the Spurs' final possession of the quarter, and he hit the three-ball. The Sonics led 28-26 after the first quarter.
Beno Udrih's midrange basket from the right side tied the game at 28 apiece and was the first basket of the second quarter, coming with 11:20 to go. That accounted for one of the five times (other than 0-0, needless to say) that the game was tied. A Damien Wilkins putback of a Ridnour miss was answered eventually by Duncan hitting his patented 17-foot banker from the left side to tie the score at 30 apiece. Collison stood his ground and drew a charge on a drive by Beno Udrih with 9:06 to go. Wilkins intercepted a pass intended for Glenn Robinson, and was fouled by Brent Barry as he raced down the court. The bad pass accounted for San Antonio's 10th turnover, coming with 8:37 remaining in the first half. The game went 2:24 without any points being scored, as there were a couple of turnovers by both teams. Allen finally pulled up from the right elbow and cashed in, putting the Sonics back into the lead (32-30, 7:28). The Sonics put together a 9-2 run, which included a flurry of highlight-reel baskets -- Ridnour threaded the needle with that pass to Wilkins for a layup down low, Allen stepped back and hit a three with Bruce Bowen on him, and Daniels intercepted a pass and dunked on the other end.
The Sonics led 39-32 when Gregg Popovich called timeout with 4:04 to go in the half. The Spurs responded, scoring the next six points to pull within one. Horry put back a miss that had beaten the shot clock, Ginobili hit a couple of free throws, and Duncan dunked after being left wide open down low. Luckily, Wilkins answered with a three from the right side to stop the run. The Sonics ended the half with a 7-2 run of their own. Horry nearly hit a crazy shot to end the half, but it swirled along the inside of the rim and rolled out.
Seattle led 46-40 at half, thanks in large part to fifteen San Antonio turnovers. The Spurs had never trailed at halftime in the playoffs (eight games). Allen led the Sonics with 17 points.
It's been said that the first few minutes after halftime can be the most important minutes of the game. The Spurs outscored the Sonics 12-6 to start the half and tie the game at 52-52. Duncan scored eight points during that run before Nate McMillan called timeout with 8:18 to play in the third quarter. Shortly after, the Sonics caught fire and put together a 12-1 run to blow the game open. Allen had seven points in the run, pulling up twice for deep two-pointers, and cashing in a three on a play with nice ball movement to get to him. Ridnour was going nuts, scoring twice in this run -- he dribbled from one side of the floor to the other, going under the basket and fading away from the right side. Ridnour also capped that run with a jumper from the right elbow to make it 66-55 with 4:19 left in the quarter, the Sonics' largest lead of the game up to that point.
Not long after, Ray Allen drove from the perimeter to the rack for the highlight-reel dunk of the night, finishing with a one-handed flush over Radoslav Nesterovic (some call him Rasho) to make it 68-59 with 3:18 to play.
The Sonics finished the third quarter on a 12-4 run to basically put the outcome of the game out of doubt. Daniels started it with a righthanded runner in the key. Collison split a pair of free throws after getting fouled in backcourt by Bowen on a defensive rebound. Wilkins drove the lane for a layup. Duncan even forearmed Fortson, and the foul was actually called on Duncan. That was the Spurs' 20th turnover of the game.
Luke Ridnour had already hit all four shots he had taken in the third quarter, but went nuts in the final 61 seconds of the quarter. He hit a fader from the baseline on the right side with 1:01 remaining. He hit the corner three from the right side with 42.5 ticks left. He hit the teardrop running banker with 2.5 seconds left for the last basket of the quarter.
The Sonics led 82-66 after three quarters. Luke Ridnour hit all seven shots he took in the third quarter, getting 15 points in the frame. I'm about to totally jack David Locke's radio stats here, but they're great -- Seattle scored on their final eight trips down the floor in the quarter, and scored on 18 of their final 20 trips. This coming against one of the very best defenses in the NBA. The Sonics had just hung a 36-point third quarter on the Spurs. My goodness. I know I certainly couldn't believe it.
Then came the fourth quarter, which eventually became a walkover after Popovich pulled Duncan with about five minutes to go. The Sonics let up a tiny bit, which would have screwed them against a team of Spurs that was truly on their game (or against a Sacramento team making a crazy run like in the last series), but not in this game. Ginobili was stuffed by Collison 13 seconds into the quarter. Frustration mounted for the Spurs. Danny Fortson stood grounded on a Ginobili drive, and the latter lost it out of bounds. Ginobili tried to draw a charge on Wilkins near halfcourt, but didn't succeed, though he didn't fake an elbow to the face and lie on the floor in twenty seconds of fake agony this time. Allen stepped back for a jumper from the free-throw line to make it 86-67 with 9:53 left, and before the ball got inbounded, Nesterovic shoved Fortson under the basket, which drew a technical foul.
The closest the Spurs got in meaningful minutes was within 14 points -- Bowen and Ginobili hit back-to-back threes, and Parker hit a midrange jumper to make it 89-75, a short 8-2 run with 7:56 to go. Devin Brown made it 99-87 with a three from the right side with 1:17 to go, but the problem for the Spurs was that there was 1:17 left to go.
San Antonio ended the game on a 10-2 run, but it was much too late. When Ray Allen left the court to a standing ovation with 3:01 left in the game, that was pretty much it.
PEEK AT THE BOXSCORE
starters
Ray Allen 32 pts/2 reb (12-20 FG, 3-7 3pt, 5-6 free throws, 41 min), Luke Ridnour 20 pts/3 reb/6 ast/3 stl (9-15 FG, 1-1 3pt, 1-1 3pt, 39 min), Antonio Daniels 19 pts/2 reb/7 ast (8-13 FG, 1-2 3pt, 2-4 free throws, 38 min), Reggie Evans 4 pts/4 reb (1-1 FG, 2-6 free throws, 19 min)
bench
Damien Wilkins 15 pts/6 reb/5 stl (7-11 FG, 1-3 3pt, 32 min), Nick Collison 3 pts/5 reb/2 ast/2 blk (1-6 FG, 1-4 free throws, 28 min), Vitaly Potapenko 2 pts/1 reb (1-3 FG, 4 min), Ron Murray 2 pts/1 reb (2-2 free throws, 3 min), Danny Fortson 0 pts/1 reb (0-3 FG, 13 min)
Jerome James Watch
4 pts/6 reb/1 stl/3 blk (0-6 FG, 4-4 free throws, 5 fouls, 23 min)
team
shot 39-for-78 (50%) from the field, shot 6-for-13 (46.2%) from downtown, shot 17-for-27 (63%) from the line, were outrebounded 40-31, forced 23 turnovers (turned over 14), won 13-10 on the break and 40-32 in the paint, blocked nine shots, bench was outscored 35-22 (and outrebounded 20-14)
Where were you on the night that Luke Ridnour truly became a Sonic? My goodness. It's been said that at his best, he has some Pistol Pete Maravich in his game. He had most of the arsenal working tonight -- the midrange jumper, the one-handed runners, the one really nice pass, etc. Though Rashard hadn't really been putting up All-Star numbers on offense, the Sonics still needed someone else to fill the scoring, and Luke Ridnour stepped up in a big way, and debatably put the game away in the third quarter, though Ray Allen had a large say in that as well.
The thing about losing Rashard Lewis isn't just on the offensive end, though. The Sonics did get outrebounded by nine in this game. Rashard Lewis had 12 points in Game 3, which is much less than we'd expect, but he also pulled down 10 boards that night. The Sonics weren't getting too many boards, but thankfully they didn't need them. Four rebounds is an off night for Reggie Evans. He had two points and six boards in Game 3 and had one point and 12 boards in the crapfest that was Game 2.
When you see that free-throw percentage of 63% by the Sonics, keep in mind that everyone not named Reggie Evans or Nick Collison totalled 17-for-20 (85%) from the line for the game. I swear, if the Spurs really wanted to mess this up, they could just hack Collison and Evans a whole bunch. Of course, such a strategy might be offset by a regression of Tim Duncan back to the mean at the free-throw line. Duncan more than made up for his Game 3 stinkage at the line, going 14-for-17 from the stripe in Game 4. I guess the thing for the Spurs is that while hacking Nick Collison and Reggie Evans may or may not work (I'll admit I'm just blabbing at this point), Collison is a bench player, and Evans plays limited minutes to begin with. If you did Hack-A-Shaq, you could at least (before this year) presume that a poor free-throw shooter was going to be on the floor for most of the game. With the Sonics, if you've got the three guards they started with in Game 4 on the floor at the same time, you definitely can't foul them for the hell of it because they're great at the line. Danny Fortson at 80% of top form is also going to hit his free throws. Just hair-brained, but if the Spurs could foul any three guys on the roster, they'd be Evans, Collison, and Ron Murray. I guess I'm just afraid of the free-throw ineffectiveness from Collison and Evans coming back to bite the Sonics.
Ray Allen sprained the ankle in Game 1. He wasn't as explosive in Game 2, but didn't let Bruce Bowen really bother him. Bowen affected him in Game 3. I think it's safe to say that Allen had his way in Game 4. The Sonics needed exactly that type of Ray Allen performance to win this game. It was one of their basic needs, something they need in every game of the playoffs. The other big need, of course, is other people stepping up and scoring.
Luke Ridnour said on KJR the day before Game 4 that they weren't too freaked out about the possibility of Rashard Lewis sitting out because he and Antonio Daniels had spent a good deal of time together on the floor during the playoffs. It looked pretty fluid out there in Game 4. The two point guards piled up 13 assists between them, turning the ball over six times. Of course, the big thing was combining to score 39 points on 17-for-28 shooting. They also had four steals. Though I'm copping this from SportsCenter, compare that with the Spurs' two horses, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. They combined for 9-for-23 shooting, 27 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 7 turnovers. Parker only got to the line twice, hitting both free throws. Ginobili went 6-for-8 from the line, but how does Parker only get to the line twice? This is definitely a stark contrast to Game 1, that's for damn sure.
Nick Collison had 10 points and six boards in Game 3, but dropped off a bit in this game. That's where Damien Wilkins stepped in. Granted, he got more minutes largely because Lewis was sitting out, but his defense-first mindset was HUGE, and my goodness, five steals?!!?! He had a couple of nice drives to the basket as well. What a great story this guy has been. He went from undrafted free-agent in training camp to playing a key role in Game 4 of the second round. He got some airtime on SportsCenter as well. He didn't have to go completely nuts like he did in Portland, but those five steals were just as important as the 15 points.
Though nobody got into big foul trouble in this game, the Sonics were still playing physical. Nick Collison gave Tim Duncan a pretty good shot early in the game, which set the tone a bit. Again, I stress that Tony Parker only went to the line for two shots in the entire game. Two shots. The big people's quintet of Evans/Fortson/James/Potapenko/Collison used 17 of their 30 allotted fouls. If you throw in Damien Wilkins, he used four of his fouls as well. I don't think you could quite declare the paint sealed off, since Ginobili was still getting to the line, but 25 of the Spurs' 30 free-throw attempts were from Duncan and Ginobili. The other five were from Parker (two), Beno Udrih (two), and Glenn Robinson (one).
One big thing about this game upon which the Sonics were able to greatly improve was their three-point shooting. They went from a 2-for-16 outing in Game 3 to this 6-for-13 game. It's a great weapon when they're hitting them, and it'd be a much greater threat if Rashard Lewis and especially Vladimir Radmanovic were able to take the floor, but alas, those injuries. One can only wonder what kind of series would have been played by this point if Radmanovic had been healthy the whole time.
I can't believe it. We've truly got a series on our hands now. Larry Brown's quote has been used a billion times -- a playoff series doesn't really begin until the home team loses. The Sonics have Game 6 left on their home floor, but that isn't the next game. All the pressure in the world is on San Antonio to hold serve and win Game 5 on their home floor, not just to reestablish themselves in the series, but...I'm sure the media in San Antonio is having a meltdown considering what happened to the Spurs last year after they were up 2-0 on the Lakers and dropped the next four games.
I asked Jinkies if he likes the drama of the NBA playoffs but sometimes really misses the dead bodies. His reply: "I am sorry, but I am into other cats only. I thank you for the offer."
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