Live From The Press Box - Sonics vs. Sacramento
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Sacramento Wins
Final: Sacramento 123, Sonics 104
The Sonics simply could not overcome a disastrous third quarter tonight, never getting back in the ballgame the rest of the way. Too much offense from Sacramento, which scored a season-high 123 points and shot 58.1% from the field. All five Kings starters scored at least 15 points, combining for 110. The Sonics, on the other hand, saw their offense come apart in the second half, shooting 5-for-21 (23.8%) from 3-point range and 43.7% from the field. There's something about these games where the Sonics have the opportunity to move above .500 - including opening night, they're 0-5 in that situation. The Sonics will have a couple of days off before returning to KeyArena Tuesday to host the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are one of this season's most surprising teams and also incredibly fun to watch, so come on out to the Key Tuesday!
Sigh of Relief
Fourth Quarter: Sacramento 105, Sonics 87
Virtually all of KeyArena held its breath a moment ago when Ray Allen went to the basket and was fouled in midair by Shareef Abdur-Rahim, appearing to roll his ankle as he went to the floor hard. Allen was down for a while, but was able to get up and hit two free throws before walking off the court under his own power. He has, however, gone to the locker room. As soon as we get an update, we'll pass it along. On the court, the Sonics have gotten some solid production from Rashard Lewis and gotten going, but they've got a long ways to make up and only a little more than eight minutes to do so.
Update: That was quick. Allen has a left knee contusion, but he's already back at the scorer's table preparing to check into the game.
No Way
End Third Quarter: Sacramento 92, Sonics 70
ESPN.com's Bill Simmons often writes about the "No Way Game," where the computer or XBox doesn't give the player any chance to win, just hitting every shot or completing every pass (depending upon the game). Well, the Sonics just had a "No Way" quarter, getting outscored by the Kings 30-13. Sacramento shot 11-for-16 from the field and it didn't matter what the Sonics did, it wasn't going to work. Do you think this Kings team might be just a tad motivated to end their five-game losing streak? My fellow blogger
David Locke has the same idea, wondering "Where is the reset button?"
Up Close
Third Quarter: Sacramento 88, Sonics 66
For the second time in the last week, I'm courtside at the press table on the endline near the Sacramento bench instead of my customary perch in 214, and I'm always reminded whenever I'm down here what a different experience it is. Chasing after an errant first-half pass that rolled into the computers to my right in the first half, Francisco Garcia lightly crashed into the table and then pounded it hard, waking up any members of the media who might not have had coffee yet. I also got a first-hand look at Bonzi Wells' rehabilitation from an apparent hip injury that forced him briefly out of the game (he's now back in), as he stretched right in front of us. Wells returns, improbably, to hit a jumper right away.
Second-Unit Spark?
Third Quarter: Sacramento 75, Sonics 61
For the first time I can ever recall seeing it, the Sonics have made a line shift. Bob Weiss replaced his starting lineup with five reserves in one fell swoop - Mateen Cleaves and Flip Murray in the backcourt, Damien Wilkins and Vladimir Radmanovic at forward and Mikki Moore in the middle. It's a move made to try to change the momentum, and that's precisely what the Sonics want to do after the Kings started the half on a 13-4 run. This is funny, because nobody is known for these kinds of substitutions more than Rick Adelman, who is on the other side tonight (and perfectly happy with his starting five).
Kings Offense Rolling
Third Quarter: Sacramento 71, Sonics 61
On the Sonics locker room, one of the top keys listed on the coaches' whiteboard was to not give Sacramento anything easy, to make them work for everything. The Sonics haven't done that tonight, giving up too many open looks, particularly off of backcuts. But the fact is, the Kings have scored even when they've had to work for it. They are, historically, the masters of the extra pass, and tonight it's resulted in 19 assists on 26 field goals and 54.2% shooting. Four Sacramento starters are in double-figures, and the inconsistent Kings offense has it clicking on all cylinders.
Kings Lead at Half
Halftime: Sacramento 62, Sonics 57
As you would expect in a matchup of teams known more for their offense than their defense, a lot of points and not a lot of great defensive plays in this first half. The Sonics have really been badly beaten by Bonzi Wells, who has 16 points. When they've forced Wells to beat them from the perimeter, he's struggled, but he's destroyed them on backcuts to get free under the basket.
Disappointing end to the first half. After the Sonics were within two or three virtually the entire quarter, they threw away the inbounds pass late in the quarter to give up a layup and a five-point deficit at the half.
Moore Valuable
Second Quarter: Sacramento 53, Sonics 52
Mikki Moore is getting his first extended run of the season with Danny Fortson suspended tonight, and Moore is making the most of it. He's played the entire second quarter thus far and has seven points on two-for-two shooting along with two rebounds. Not only are the seven points a season high, they also surpass his season total to date (six). This is exactly what the Sonics were hoping for when they signed Mikki Moore - great insurance when other players were out of the lineup or struggling. Also playing this entire quarter off the bench? Damien Wilkins, who has slowed down Peja Stojakovic. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, Stojakovic has just three this period, while Wilkins has added seven points of his own and has been very active.
Ray's Shooting
Second Quarter: Sacramento 45, Sonics 43
With Ray Allen continuing to be mired in a shooting slump, Sonics Coach Bob Weiss had a chat with him about his form this morning.
"We talked a little today," said Weiss. "I had noticed some things about his shot. After shootaround today, I asked him to shoot a couple of free throws, then we talked about. We'll see if it helps."
Weiss thinks the issue is that Allen's shot has become, "Almost knuckleball-ish. He doesn't have a lot of rotation on his shot anyway; it's kind of a slow rotation. But it was markedly down."
So far, Allen has nine points tonight on 4-for-8 shooting.
Marginally related aside: A couple of years ago, I remember talking to then-Storm guard Michelle Greco about the fact that she shoots a knuckleball-type shot. She mentioned how coaches had tried to get her to change and she almost seemed a little embarrassed about her form, but I pointed out that Allen had similar form and he's, ahem, a pretty fair shooter. Lo and behold, later that day (after a Storm practice), Allen wondered in and Greco and I were able to watch his knuckleball-type shot.
Bench Battle
Second Quarter: Sacramento 35, Sonics 35
It is something less than a secret that the Sacramento Kings bench has not been a strength this season. On the other hand, the Sonics bench has been very productive and provided energy of late. So that makes this stretch early in the second quarter an important one for both teams. So far, Sacramento's bench has contributed one rebound and one assist, while the Sonics have gotten eight points and four rebounds between Flip Murray, Vladimir Radmanovic and Mikki Moore, with Damien Wilkins due to head to the line momentarily. Because of the bench, the Sonics have tied the game.
High-Scoring Quarter
End First Quarter: Sacramento 31, Sonics 29
Tonight's first stanza bears a certain similarity to last night's, as once again both teams have scored at will in the first 12 minutes. In fact, we've got an identical 31-29 count after the first quarter, though in Utah the Sonics held the lead while they trail here. Sacramento shot 60% from the field and from 3-point range, getting a combined 23 points from Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic. The Sonics weren't far behind at 57.1% shooting. The Sonics turned things around last night by playing a zone, and that isn't an option against the Kings. The Sonics will have to do a better job of not giving Stojakovic in particular the airspace to get off 3s
Sonics Awaken
First Quarter: Sacramento 23, Sonics 23
A 7-0 run midway through this first quarter got the Sonics right back in this game, and a Reggie Evans three-point play has allowed them to tie the game at 23 at the under-three-minutes timeout. The Sonics defense still hasn't been great, with Sacramento making 2/3 of their shots thus far, but the Sonics are hitting 55.6% themselves and each starter has at least four points. Leading the way for Sacramento are Bonzi Wells, with eight points, and Peja Stojakovic, who has seven points and has hit all three of his attempts thus far.
Fast Start for Kings
First Quarter: Sacramento 10, Sonics 4
The Kings are playing like a team that wants to end its five-game losing streak. They've come out with a lot of energy, while the Sonics, who are playing the second game of a back-to-back, have been flat thus far. We'll see whether Bob Weiss' timeout will snap the Sonics out of the early doldrums.
Fortson Suspended
Pregame
Sonics center Danny Fortson has been suspended for tonight's game "for verbally abusing a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner," according to an NBA release. The suspension was announced early this afternoon and I never saw Fortson at the arena, though he may have come and eluded my notice. He's not allowed to be here during the game. According to Bob Weiss, the Sonics will miss Fortson.
"He's been the first big off the bench lately," said Weiss. "He played a lot in our win against Sacramento last time. We just have to make some adjustments that way. We've got a lot of people who are playing pretty well, so we should be able to plug the hole - barring foul trouble. If we get into foul trouble, that's when we could really end up missing Danny."
One of the unfortunate aspects of the suspension is that Fortson has to be active for tonight's game, leaving the Sonics with just 11 players in uniform. Vitaly Potapenko is not amongst them, as Weiss decided to activate Mikki Moore in his place.
"I think mobility is more important against this team than bulk and strength," said Weiss, who added that the flow of the game will dictate who his backup center is tonight between Moore and Johan Petro.
Gonzaga Wins
Pregame
For the second time in three years, the "Battle in Seattle" featuring #9 Gonzaga University was an absolute thriller. The Zags trailed 38-28 after a sluggish first half, but rallied to take a 61-60 lead - their first of the second half - with 1:38 left in the game. Oklahoma State answered with two free throws from point guard Jamaal Brown with 47 seconds left, but after a missed Jeremy Pargo layup in the final 15 seconds, junior forward Mario Boggan missed the front end of a one-and-one. That put the ball and the game in the hands of Adam Morrison, and Morrison responded by dribbling downcourt and banking in a 3-pointer from the right elbow over two defenders with less than three seconds left. After a timeout, JamesOn Curry tried to win the game with a 3 from just across halfcourt, but it was long as Gonzaga won 64-62.
The unranked Cowboys, coming off of a loss to Northwestern State on Monday, defended Gonzaga as well as anyone has all season. The Bulldogs shot 33.3% from the field in the first half and committed 19 turnovers. Though Morrison finished with a game-high 25 points, he shot just 6-for-14 from the field. The difference was the free-throw line. Morrison shot 15 of Gonzaga's 31 free-throw attempts, making 11. Oklahoma State attempted only seven free throws all game.
With junior point guard Derek Raivio dressing but not playing with a sore back, the bulk of the Zags' offense came from Morrison and senior center J.P. Batista, who scored 17 points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked three shots. Oklahoma State got 19 points from Boggan and a surprising 12 off the bench from JC transfer Brown, who picked up when freshman point guard Byron Eaton fouled out after 21 minutes of action. Leading Cowboys scorer Curry handed out a career-high 10 assists, but shot just 3-for-14 from the field.
A great crowd of 13,644 - one of the largest ever for a regular-season NCAA game in the city of Seattle - watched the game and passionately rooted for Gonzaga down the stretch.
Signing On
Pregame
It's not even the middle of December, but the Sacramento Kings make their second and final visit to KeyArena tonight, looking to avenge the Sonics Nov. 20 victory. Sacramento has dropped five straight games with All-Star forward Peja Stojakovic struggling to find his shot, but the Kings, who have made seven straight playoff trips, are always dangerous. This is a rematch of last year's first-round playoff series, which saw the Sonics win in five games. This should be a great matchup, so stay with us all night for the latest and don't forget to hit refresh.
