Live From The Press Box - Sonics vs. Washington
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Wild, But Unhappy Finish
Posted at 7:32 p.m.
The Sonics got Ray Allen isolated with Larry Hughes and Allen drove the lane, but had the ball stripped from him. Rashard Lewis recovered behind the 3-point line and wisely through the ball cross-court to Antonio Daniels, who had a look at about a 30-footer as time expired. It came up short, giving Washington a 95-94 win. The Sonics have played a bunch of these games that have come down to the final possessions lately. The upside of that is they are better prepared for the playoffs,, when those types of games are commonplace. The downside is you can’t win them all, and the Sonics finally had luck go against them tonight. A playoff berth, alas, will have to wait at least two more days. Still some excellent performances in this game, including Nick Collison (14 points, eight rebounds) and Damien Wilkins (nine points, five boards). It was also good to see Antonio Daniels have a strong game (15 points) after struggling recently.
Chance to Go Ahead
Posted at 7:29 p.m.
Damien Wilkins - who, as I didn’t note, had the assist on Collison’s three-point play - comes up with a clutch offensive rebound of Ray Allen’s missed jumper to pull the Sonics back within one after two Kwame Brown free throws. Great defensive stand afterwards as Antonio Daniels draws a charge on Gilbert Arenas (his fifth foul). The Sonics get the ball down one with 16.7 seconds left to go.
Portland Friday
Posted at 7:25 p.m.
The Sonics head on the road tomorrow for a quick two-game trip that takes them to Memphis and San Antonio, but they’ll return to KeyArena next Friday to take on their I-5 rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers.
Get your tickets now!
Sonics Within One
Posted at 7:22 p.m.
Ray Allen sinks two free throws to get the Sonics within four, 93-89, with 1:30 left. They’ve played well on defense lately, but can’t afford any lapses. Steal Nick Collison! He follows with a layup and the foul at the other end and the Sonics pull within two, 93-91, at the 1:01 mark. His free throw makes it a one-point game. Incredible turn of events in the time it took me to type this entry.
Do Call it a Comeback
Posted at 7:17 p.m.
After the Wizards extended their run to 9-0 and their lead to nine points, the Sonics have answered back with three straight points and have possession as they take timeout with 3:42 to play. There’s a long ways left to go in the game, and Eddie Jordan has made the strange move of putting reserves Laron Profit and Michael Ruffin back into the game for the stretch. The Sonics will have to take better care of the basketball than they have recently.
Momentum to the Visitors
Posted at 7:10 p.m.
Two more free throws, these by Etan Thomas, put Washington up. Larry Hughes, the league’s leading thief at nearly three steals per game, follows this by picking Ray Allen’s pocket. Allen compounds the issue by fouling Hughes, who hits a layup and the free throw. Like that, it’s a five-point deficit at the six-minute mark. Hughes follows with another steal of a lazy Antonio Daniels pass and finishes this one with a dunk. 29 points, 11 boards for Hughes, who is having a monster game.
Sonics Up … Momentarily
Posted at 7:05 p.m.
A Rashard Lewis jumper with a little over seven minutes left gives the Sonics their first lead since early in the second quarter, 79-78. Jared Jeffries follows with two free throws as the wizards retake the lead. The bad news in the Sonics comeback effort is that Washington is already in the penalty, with Damien Wilkins alone somehow drawing four fouls in this period.
All Square
Posted at 7:00 p.m.
Damien Wilkins steals the ball in backcourt and races to the basket, soaring high above the rim to throw down a one-handed flush that evens the game at 77-all. After throwing aside Antonio Daniels (no call), Gilbert Arenas takes a timeout with 8:37 to play and the crowd on its feet. How many other teams could have their 13th man come in and play like Wilkins has recently? His performance is a testament to the Sonics front office and coaching staff (as if the 48-20 record wasn’t).
Think They Need a Win?
Posted at 6:58 p.m.
With just under ten minutes left in the game, Eddie Jordan has his entire starting lineup in the game. The Sonics, by contrast, have made their run with only one starter (Ray Allen). An Antonio Daniels three-point play brought the crowd to its feet and made it 77-75, and now the Sonics have forced a shot-clock violation.
A Lift
Posted at 6:55 p.m.
The Sonics are getting a nice lift here from rookie Damien Wilkins. Wilkins had two free throws late in the first quarter. He started the fourth quarter by blocking Larry Hughes’ shot, then blowing by Michael Ruffin on the baseline for a layup. After a Larry Hughes score pushed Washington’s lead back to six, Wilkins got to the free-throw line again with a veteran move. He split two shots, making it 77-72 Washington with 10:22 to play.
To The Fourth
Posted at 6:51 p.m.
A Damone Brown 3-pointer ends the Sonics hopes of a run to end the third quarter, and they’ll go to the fourth quarter down eight, 75-67. This game certainly isn’t out of reach, not with the KeyArena crowd on the Sonics side. But they’ll have to get going and cut this deficit down early in the period. Washington smells a win and is playing some great defense, holding the Sonics to 36 points since the first quarter.
Collison Collision
Posted at 6:41 p.m.
Rookie Nick Collison continues to grow on Sonics Coach Nate McMillan and Sonics fans with his heady veteran play, particularly in the fourth quarter. He’s provided a nice lift off the bench once again tonight, giving the Sonics eight points and six rebounds. But the Sonics have surprisingly struggled on the glass, with Washington outrebounding them 26-25. The Wizards are about an average rebounding team while the Sonics are one of the league’s best in that regard.
Give Me a T!
Posted at 6:33 p.m.
We’re nine fouls into the third quarter (in less than five minutes), but it was a rare no-call that irked Gilbert Arenas, who earned a technical for barking at the officials. Ray Allen’s technical foul shot gave the Sonics their first point at the 7:08 mark of the third quarter. Now, a Rashard Lewis 3-pointer and an Allen layup have it 64-56 Wizards. A double-technical has also been assessed to Etan Thomas and Reggie Evans, who have been battling much of the evening.
Sonics Struggling
Posted at 6:27 p.m.
During a little over two and a half minutes of the third quarter, we’ve seen two things: whistles and Wizards buckets. Already, referees have called six fouls, four of them on the Sonics. And while the Sonics have yet to score, six Washington points have made it 62-50 Wizards. If the Sonics expected this to be a relatively easy win because of injuries, they were definitely wrong. They need to elevate their level of play right now.
Halftime Stats
Posted at 6:15 p.m.
The Sonics are definitely doing some things well as of halftime. After getting killed at the free-throw line in Washington, they’ve limited the Wizards to four free-throw attempts tonight (all by Larry Hughes). They’ve also committed just five turnovers. As to what the Sonics need to do … well, defend. Washington averaged 1.24 points per possession in the first half, which is way too high. They shot the ball well from the field (52.3%), from downtown (50.0%, 6-for-12) and turned it over but four times. Arenas and Hughes ended the half combining for 29 points and 11 assists.
It’s Halftime
Posted at 6:05 p.m.
Poor end to the first half for the Sonics. After Rashard Lewis’ beat-the-buzzer (shot clock) desperation 3 went in to tie the game at 48, the Sonics committed turnovers on two of their next three possessions as Washington got a pair of 3-balls and a two-pointer. Luke Ridnour closed first-half scoring with a jumper, but the Wizards still lead 56-50 at the break. The Sonics simply have to do a better job on defense. While this Wizards team can score, the injuries have limited them in this regard and they haven’t reached 100 points in their last five games.
On Guard
Posted at 5:58 p.m.
“Their guards are very good, one of the best combos in the league,” said Nate McMillan about the Wizards before tonight’s game, and that’s a distinctly majority opinion. It’s been almost all about the Wizards guards tonight, as Eddie Jordan no doubt was thinking when he hastily called a 20-second timeout to get Larry Hughes back on the floor. (Gilbert Arenas has, so far as I’m aware, played all 22 minutes thus far.) Arenas and Hughes have combined for 23 of Washington’s 48 points, though lately the Wizards are getting some offense from Etan Thomas, who has eight points. Thomas has shown nice ability to create his own shot recently.
Sonics Flex The D
Posted at 5:52 p.m.
Kwame Brown had a pair of shots swatted down low on a recent Wizards possession, first by Rashard Lewis and then by Nick Collison. The offensive pace of this game has slowed down a bit lately, with two free throws and a score by Ray Allen tying the game at 42 apiece with just under five minutes left in the first half. The Sonics have matched up small with Washington with success.
Well …
Posted at 5:46 p.m.
After a 9-0 Wizards run to take the lead, I think the verdict on that lineup is clear. Rashard Lewis and Luke Ridnour replace Damien Wilkins and Vitaly Potapenko.
You Gotta Have Faith
Posted at 5:42 p.m.
Nate McMillan is showing a lot of faith in his reserves right now, replacing Ray Allen with rookie Damien Wilkins when normally he’d come with Rashard Lewis, giving the Sonics a lineup with no starters. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Sonics play five backups recently, but that was mostly because either Ray Allen or Rashard Lewis was injured. So far, the bench has allowed a couple of Michael Ruffin scores down low. Sadly, I have to check whether that’s a season high for Ruffin. Okay, that’s not fair - he’s only halfway to his season high of eight points.
High-Flying AD
Posted at 5:39 p.m.
Apparently Antonio Daniels’ knee is feeling better. Daniels’ vertical has been limited recently, since he partially tore the meniscus in one of his knees. But he got up on the Sonics last score, powerfully dunking through contact to earn a three-point play. Flip Murray (who assisted on Daniels’ dunk) follows with a layup, and suddenly the Sonics are up seven, 36-29.
High-Scoring First Quarter
Posted at 5:35 p.m.
No shortage of points in the first quarter as the Wizards are trying to turn this game into a track meet with their starting big men both on the injured list. The Sonics still hold the lead, but Washington has cut it to 31-29. Ray Allen scored 10 points in the first period, but he was more than matched by a red-hot Gilbert Arenas, who scored 11 and had, I think, three 3-pointers. Nick Collison provided a nice lift off the bench for the Sonics, scoring six points in limited minutes.
Early Start Pros and Cons
Posted at 5:28 p.m.
Tonight is one of a handful of Sunday games the Sonics are playing at home with a 5:00 tip-off, and the first in a while. The upside to starting early is that, for the first time I can remember all season, sunlight is visible through the tunnels across the arena in the 200 level. One of the joys of spring basketball is not having to play in the dark. The downside is that pre-game media availability coincided with today’s Michigan State-Kentucky regional final, forcing us in the media to scramble to follow the game. We watched on Arenavision as referees debated whether Phillip Sparks’ 3 to force overtime was indeed a 3-pointer, and I was up here in Section 214 for the second and final overtime period. Sonics guard and Spartans alum Mateen Cleaves, again wearing an MSU warmup before the game, ran off the court into the locker room before the start of overtime. Presumably, nobody here was happier with the result than Cleaves. I might give him a run for his money, though, as State’s win gave me three of my Final Four picks correct. And yes, I am just bragging now. (Alas, the one team I missed on, Oklahoma State, was who I had winning it all. Maybe next year.)
All Sonics Early
Posted at 5:19 p.m.
About three and a half minutes into the game, the Sonics have jumped out to a 12-4 lead, already prompting Washington Coach Eddie Jordan to take his first timeout. The Sonics have done it largely on the strength of Ray Allen’s shooting. Allen has eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers. One can envision the Wizards quitting on this game if they get down early, so it’s up to the Sonics to take away any hope Washington has.
Fortson Out
Posted at 5:15 p.m.
The Sonics will be without forward/center Danny Fortson tonight because of a team-imposed suspension after Fortson refused to check into the second half of Friday’s win over New York. Sonics GM Rick Sund also announced that Fortson will not accompany the Sonics on their upcoming two-game road trip to Memphis and San Antonio as he looks to get his sprained left ankle fully healed.
“Our focus is on tonight’s game and getting Danny back as soon as possible,” said Coach Nate McMillan.
Without Fortson, the Sonics have still had an effective backup post duo with Nick Collison and Vitaly Potapenko.
Signing On
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
A Happy Easter to everyone out there reading tonight’s Live From The Press Box. It’s an early-evening battle tonight at KeyArena as the Washington Wizards visit the Sonics. The Wizards are battling injuries and will be without starters Antawn Jamison (on the injured list) and Brendan Haywood (who fractured his left thumb during Friday’s loss at the L.A. Clippers). So far, Washington has lost two of three games on its West Coast swing. The Sonics would like to make that three of four, win their sixth straight game and clinch a playoff spot. They’re 48 good minutes of basketball away from doing all that.
