After another slow start, the Sonics played well when it counted and beat the Sacramento Kings 106-104 in a thriller Sunday night. Ray Allen, who also started slowly again, scored 21 of his 28 points in the second half to lead the comeback. In a brilliant move, Sonics coach Bob Weiss started King killer Danny Fortson at center, who took Peja Stojakovic out of the game in the second half with a slap so hard it was audible from the other end of the court. Danny, you so cRaZy!
The Sonics were also helped by stellar play from Nick "Caveman" Collison, who hit a clutch 15-footer late in the game, and Vlad the Rad, who finally cut his rat-tail, stopped whining and played like the potential all-star we've been hoping for.
Drink up, Sonics fans—the boys are back in town!
9 comments:
I loved the cut from Fortson and Stojackavic tangling to Peja on the bench with towel over his face holding his injured hand. The Kings have the worst bench ever, and are going to fall apart late in the year due to it. Radmanovic is on top of things now, but the sonics have gained a legitamate reason to keep him from starting, with Collison. Now, if they bring him back next year, it will be understood that he is a 6th man. (but an important one Vlade! we swear you're the most important to us!)
Future of the sonics:
PG: Luke/ Mateen Cleaves?
SG: Ray/ Damien
SF: Lewis/ Damien/ Vlade
PF: Collison/ Vlade
C: Petro/ Collison/ Fortson
I'm hoping Fortson stays forever to beat up our opponents for 5 minutes a game and get technicals.
YES! WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS! :D *cheers and jumps up and down all around* now if we can just keep riding the momentum, we're set. :) finally, the chemistry is coming together.
GO SONICS! let's keep this UP! :)
To repeat what Rex said about the chemisty. That is the first thing i noticed this game was how well they were playing TOGETHER! I hadnt seen that before this game, they were working together very well. Is this the first game they went to center court after the game? Things are looking alot better and they are finally fun to watch again. Cleaves is amazing, such a good guy to come off the bench and it seems like the whole teams loves him. I hope he keeps it up. What happened to Rashard? it looked like he was going to have an amazing night but then it seemed like he was off the map. I guess that could have been covered up by the fact that Rad-man had an amazing night.
Rex, you're the king of the emoticon.
hahahha, thanks, man. sorry if it bothers you, though. ^____^ i'm a bit...uh, emotional, so...:D it's a bad habit of mine, putting lots of emoticons and stuff. :)
Alright, I'm ready to step back off the edge. A slow start may have been what this team needed. Everyone seemed to feel a little too good about last season. Either way, we're .500 and starting anew.
We've got Collison starting finally. Anyone who watched last year realized we need him on the floor as often as possible. I really don't remember him blowing one play all year last year except the layup in game 6. Collison is the new glue to keep this team together. He just always makes the right play, plays well off everyone else.
Alright, I've revealed my man-crush on Collison. But I think we can still get it together. Ray-Ray and Shard are a good inside-outside-outside combo, and if we can get another solid inside presence out of Collison/Anyone we will have the same offensive versatility we had last year.
Petro is a new wrinkle, and we've got a whole season of Wilkins shutting down the hot offensive player in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. If he can remember we're not asking him to be the savior, we'll be cool.
Anyways, I guess my point is, let's remember why we were all so excited for this season.
Go Sonics!
Carl
Oh yeah,
My reason for the rant was reading this from foxsports.com
3. A week ago, the Seattle SuperSonics looked like they were coming apart at the seams. Vladimir Radmanovic was screaming for minutes or to be traded, while the team wasn't defending or playing hard for new coach Bob Weiss, and lost a franchise record three games in a row by an average of 31 points to fall to 1-4.
What this really means: Since then, the Sonics have been 4-1. And it's been far more than just the high-scoring duo of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, even though they dominate the box score. Weiss finally came to grips with the need to start young power forward Nick Collison, who adds not only rebounding and defense, but is close to regaining the offensive confidence he had as an All-American at Kansas. They were losing by double-figures in each of the past two games, only to pull them out for wins over Chicago and Sacramento.
But over the course of the season, it is unlikely they will return to playing the same kind of defense they played for previous coach Nate McMillan, and that will hurt them in the long run. The key will be if Radmanovic, who had 17 points in 30 minutes in the win over Sacramento, is mollified by Weiss with consistent minutes and grows back into being the consistent third scorer on the team. If he does, they could defend their Northwest Division title. If he doesn't respond, they need to trade him, or they could miss the playoffs altogether.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/5104238
Carl
They do need to improve the D, but that will come with playing together more, Petro improving, and playing against a few bad teams for once. Clippers, Wolves, Grizz, Cavs, Wizards, Nets, Celtics, Chicago, Sacto is just brutal and the Toronto game was on the road after getting blown out 3 times in a row, so it wasn't an easy thing to do by any means. The defensive stats will look better after Utah, Lakers, NO, and Charlotte coming up and a consistent rotation in place. Also, I think the entire city of Seattle will have a crush on Collison after a few seasons.
i think it was pretty evident in tonight's game vs. utah (a fricking heartbreaker!) that we do need to improve on the D. man, i mean...a team without boozer and ak47 and we can't even beat them? man...:(
Post a Comment