Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | Apr. 25, 2005
The Seattle SuperSonics effort in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Sacramento Kings was enough to earn them an 87-82 victory and the lead in the series. But the Sonics know they'll have to bring an even better effort to take Tuesday's Game 2 and head to Sacramento with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"Tomorrow night's game is going to be tougher than what we saw in Game 1," said Sonics Coach 
Nate McMillan. "Normally, the team that loses, they're upset, they come out with more energy. The team that has won that game may relax just a little, and that sense of urgency is automatically on the losing team. By nature, it just happens that way. We want to put Game 1 behind us and play as if this is Game 1."
Sonics center 
Jerome James, the hero of Game 1 after he recorded playoff career highs of 17 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots, echoed his coach.
"My approach to the second game is 0-0; this is the first game of the series and we've got to get that game," said James. That's my whole approach to the game tomorrow night.
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"Tomorrow night is when I want to come out and have my best game. I still haven't had my best game."
Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images
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"Saturday night was Saturday night, and I put that behind me. Tomorrow night is when I want to come out and have my best game. I still haven't had my best game."
Besides the motivational aspect of losing Game 1, the Kings also have adjustments on their side. During the game, Coach Rick Adelman changed his rotation, using Greg Ostertag for virtually the last 17 minutes of the game after the 7-footer saw no action in the first half. With Ostertag on the court, the Kings outscored the Sonics by 12 points.
"They're going to counter," said McMillan. "We did some things that we didn't do in the regular season and may have disrupted their rhythm a little bit. They'll counter some of our schemes."
McMillan and his coaching staff have tried to anticipate what the Kings might change, and they've worked on adjusting to Sacramento's adjustments during practice the last two days. The Sonics give a great deal of credit to the Kings coaching staff.
"You have great coaches over there at the other end of the court in Rick Adelman and his whole staff that have dissected every minute of that game," said James. "They've come up with ways to combat and challenge things that we did. And the reverse for us; we've done the same thing to them. I expect a total defensive game Tuesday night. I don't expect either team to get up around 80 points."
Emphasizing the importance of coaching and adjustments during playoff series is the Sonics track record in series they hosted during the 1990s. The Sonics went 9-1 in Game 1 during those series, but only 5-5 in Game 2, 4-5 when they won Game 1.
"I think there is a lot of coaching in the playoffs because it's a chess match," said Sonics guard Ray Allen, who led the team with 28 points in Game 1.
The Sonics benefited in Game 1 from outstanding performances from their front line, with James playing the best game of his career and forward 
Reggie Evans also adding 15 rebounds. Presumably, neither player will be quite as good in Game 2, which leaves the Sonics the question of how to replace that performance.
"Each game it could change," said McMillan. "If you win in the playoffs, a lot of times it's because your other guys are having some success, because defenses are taking away your number one and number two options and they're forcing someone else to play. But that has been the case for us all season long. When those other guys play, and they have played well most of the season, we've had success."
"When it gets down to this point, every game has to become a total team effort, regardless," said 
Antonio Daniels. "We need contributions from everyone, one to 12. You come around this time, there is no game that is that much more important than the other. Every night, we need Jerome to play the way he played, Reggie to step up and have the rebounds or bring the energy to the game that he brings, me and Luke (Ridnour) to try control the tempo, Ray and 
Ra (Lewis) to bring their offensive spark, 
Vlade (Radmanovic) to bring an offensive spark off the bench, 
Danny (Fortson) to rebound and throw his body around and bring that physical presence. Everybody has a job that they have to do night in and night out."
Radmanovic played only 13 minutes in his Game 1 return after missing five weeks with a stress fracture in his right fibula and did not score.
"I was limited by the doctors to 15 minutes," said Radmanovic. "They're going to increase it every game, depending on how I feel. They're hoping probably (by the) third or fourth game I'll be able to play full minutes."
"It was pretty good," Radmanovic said of his performance. "I'm still trying to find a way to play the way I was playing before I got injured, so hopefully everything will be alright tomorrow and I'm going to get some more minutes, a little bit of rhythm, I guess."
McMillan also wants to see Radmanovic get back to his usual rhythm and role on the court.
"I want Vlade to play in rhythm," he said. "It's not so much get (shots) as much as what is available for him. If there's an opportunity for him to shoot the ball, shoot it, but if not, then play."
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