Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM | October 24, 2005
24 hours made a big difference in the mood of the Seattle SuperSonics this weekend. Friday night, Sonics Coach
Bob Weiss was displeased with his team's effort in a 113-81 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
"You do move on, but I'm concerned anytime we lose a game like this," Weiss told reporters after the game.
A night later, Weiss was more satisfied after his team responded with a 108-95 win over the Golden State Warriors.
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"I saw good defense by Johan. He was very active."
Rocky Widner/NBAE/Getty
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"I have no idea why I couldn't sleep last night," Weiss said after that game. "You're going to have games like that one, and playing like we did tonight makes you wonder why you lose sleep over those games."
Back at home for three days of practice before closing the preseason with consecutive games at the end of the week against the L.A. Clippers and Portland, Weiss saw good and bad from the two-game preseason road trip.
"
Damien Wilkins was the only one that I felt played really well in Phoenix," Weiss said in one breath.
In another, however, he pointed out that the game against the Suns is a poor measuring stick for how the Sonics will perform against other teams because of Phoenix's fast-paced style.
"When you play Phoenix, it's such an unusual team, most of your rules go out the door," explained Weiss. "You have to defend them in a whole different type of manner and have to try different things about them. I don't think you can take how you defended a certain type of situation against them and say, 'We're really weak at that.' Everybody's weak at that - that's why they won 62 games. They're really good at executing the mid-pick and rolls and they've got one of the best point guards in the league."
Against Golden State, Weiss started for the first time a lineup of rookie 
Johan Petro at center and 
Vladimir Radmanovic at power forward to go with the perimeter trio of 
Luke Ridnour, 
Ray Allen and 
Rashard Lewis. That group played together again during Monday's scrimmage, joined by guard 
Ronald "Flip" Murray and forward 
Reggie Evans. Weiss was pleased with what he saw from this unit.
"I saw good defense by Johan," Weiss said. "He was very active. I saw us with a little more of a spread to our offense. Any time you put Vlade out there - even though he's not making the 3s or taking shots - he's a threat and he has to be acknowledged. That helps Ray and Rashard get off and Luke."
Radmanovic's rebounding was key to the starting five's success. The sharpshooter corralled 13 rebounds - one shy of his regular-season career high - in 32 minutes of action.
"That was the one thing I worried about with that lineup," Weiss noted. "They didn't have (starting frontcourt players Troy) Murphy and (Adonal) Foyle, but we still did a decent job. If he goes to the boards, he's going to get boards. He's just got to mentally go after them every time."
The lineup change also put 
Nick Collison on the bench, where he played for the first time as a reserve alongside 
Danny Fortson. Weiss has consistently mentioned his affection for that pairing, and it paid off with Collison posting his best preseason performance thus far.
"You've heard me say this in the past - I like (Nick) coming off the bench with Danny, and that's the first time he's been able to do that," said Weiss. "In 19 minutes, he gets 10 boards and 17 points. They play well together. It's a lot for the other team to handle to keep both of those guys off the offensive boards."
Conditioning Time
Weiss had the Sonics do extended conditioning at the conclusion of this morning's practice, the first time the Sonics have ran extensively since the start of training camp.
"I wanted to do some conditioning," said Weiss. "I wanted to do some sharpening up on both ends of the floor the next couple of days."
After running lines for 10-15 minutes, the Sonics shot free throws, with the whole team running the length of the court and back for each miss. After a slow start, the Sonics shot 16-for-19 (84.2%) as a team.
Allen commented after practice that Weiss has struck the right balance between working on the court and conditioning.
"I don't think he's ran us into the ground," said Allen. "We've had the perfect complement of learning basketball and getting in shape, so my body's felt a lot better. Not having ran as much and being on the court as long has definitely helped. October's a long month, and I think he spaces everything out pretty well."
The scrimmage ended in a tie after Allen hit a 3-pointer in transition with 2.8 seconds left to even the score at 22 apiece. The white team had a chance to win, but was unable to get up a shot thanks to physical defense by the green squad.
Weiss is happy to have this stretch of time to work on the practice court between preseason games.
"I think it's very valuable," he said. "You have training camp, then the guys are ready to play other people. I like to play a couple in a row and then have three or four days to work."
Weiss on the possibility of using Petro's length defensively against the league's best power forwards, as the Sonics did with Jerome James last season:
"It will be interesting to see if he can do that, if he can make people take him outside. I think one of the reason guys like (Kevin) Garnett and (Tim) Duncan went outside was, just looking at Jerome, they thought, 'He has poor feet. We'll be able to drive him.' But Jerome just stayed off of them and made them shoot the jumpshot. We'll see if Johan can do that. Johan's got quicker feet, but he doesn’t quite have as much bulk."
