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TONIGHT'S NOTES |
With Ray Allen out of the game, the Sonics finished the third quarter on a 12-4 run to extend their lead to 16 points after three quarters.
San Antonio never trailed by less than 12 points in the fourth quarter. The Spurs never led.
The Sonics improved to 5-0 at KeyArena during the postseason.
Allen scored a series-high 32 points, reaching the 30-point mark for the fourth time during the 2005 playoffs. Allen shot 12-for-20 from the field.
Luke Ridnour scored 20 points, a playoff career high. He also handed out six assists.
Antonio Daniels scored 19 points. He is the only Sonics player to score double-figures in all four games of this series. Daniels added seven assists and shot 8-for-13 from the field.
Damien Wilkins, who entered the game with five career playoff points, scored 15.
Tim Duncan scored a series-high 35 points, the second time he’s reached 30 in the playoffs.
Duncan added 10 rebounds for his second straight double-double. He hit a 2005 playoffs-high 14 free throws in 17 attempts.
San Antonio committed 15 first-half turnovers. The Spurs finished with 23 turnovers, a playoffs high and tying their regular-season high.
The Spurs allowed 100 points in a game for only the second time during the postseason. This is the first time the Spurs have allowed an opponent to shoot at least 50% from the field.
The Sonics six 3-pointers are their high for a game in this series.
The last time Seattle was tied at 2 in a best-of-seven series was the 1993 Western Conference Finals vs. Phoenix, which the Sonics lost in seven games.
The Sonics played without forward Rashard Lewis (sprained left big toe).
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May 15, 2005
SONICS COACH 
NATE MCMILLAN:
On 
Luke Ridnour's performance:
I’ve said all along that this a learning experience for Luke. There was a lot of pressure with him matching up with
(Mike) Bibby in the first round and matching up with
(Tony) Parker in the second round. Everybody wanted to see what he could do. I’ve heard so many people saying to replace him in the lineup after the first two games. Luke is the future for this franchise as far as running the point guard. He is a competitor and competes every single night, that’s one thing that I love about him. He plays every possession. Parker played well against him in the first two games but he kept his head. We’re starting to see him grow up right before our eyes.
On the third quarter:
We wanted to push the ball and I felt like we could tonight, with three guards being in the lineup. 
Antonio (Daniels) did a nice job again tonight. By having 
Ray (Allen), Luke and Antonio in the game we wanted to keep pressure on their defense. We didn’t turn the ball over except, I think, one time in the third quarter. We got stops in that third quarter which led to some easy baskets. I thought our bigs, 
Jerome (James), 
Nick (Collison), 
Reggie (Evans), and 
Danny (Fortson) came in there tonight and did a nice job of coming in and setting screens. Our spacing was really good. It starts on the defensive end of the floor. We got into a rhythm and scored 36 points in that quarter.
On 
Damien Wilkins' play:
We went small with Wilkins and he had a big night coming off the bench. He’s worked hard all season long. We talk about opportunities and he came in and played big. He had five steals on the defensive end of the floor that led to some easy baskets.
On the frontcourt:
Our bigs did a nice job of playing together. I thought the Nick and Danny combination was pretty good for us against their small unit. Making stops and allowing our guards to get out into transition in that third quarter and that’s when we broke the game open.
On his team:
Our guys came out tonight and played aggressive. Our execution was pretty good, our spacing was pretty good. We did a good job of taking care of the ball late in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to take care of the ball against San Antonio.
GUARD RAY ALLEN:
On Ridnour:
That’s what Luke has in him. It was just an All-Star coming out. He started doing what he is capable of doing. I’ve told him all year to play like he used to play at Oregon. He’s going to make plays and he’s going to turn the ball over. Who doesn’t turn the ball over? Just go out there and play basketball, and he did that.
On carrying momentum to San Antonio:
The energy was good all night. I’m happy that we won and everybody had a good performance, but we have to have that same performance in San Antonio. It’s not that easy playing in someone else’s building. We have to try to take full advantage of it. As long as we stay together and not worry about what’s going in that building, or what their fans are doing. We have to beat this team; we’re playing against the whole arena, but we have to beat those five guys on out there on the floor.
GUARD LUKE RIDNOUR:
On whether he got down after the first two games:
I try not to get down. It’s a long series and a long season with a lot of guys coming at us all the time.
On whether he was looking for his shot:
It’s been open I just haven’t looked for it. Tonight I just came out and had some good looks and was able to hit some layups and get going. That definitely helped. The main thing is that I came out aggressive.
On the playoffs:
It’s definitely different. Just the intensity of every possession and the strategy. It’s like a chess match every game. You’re trying to change a little bit just to get an advantage. Against a team like San Antonio, it’s tough. It’s going to be tough to finish it but this is a good start.
SAN ANTONIO COACH GREGG POPOVICH:
On the game:
I thought Seattle played a great game tonight. I thought they were more aggressive, they were sharper in their execution. They played like it was a playoff game and I thought that
Tim Duncan played like it was a playoff game. He looked around and he couldn’t find anybody to help him. It’s very disappointing to be in a position to go up 3-1 and then go back home and see such unaggressive, sloppy, uninspired play. In all those areas, Seattle was excellent besides getting some really good individual performances on the part of a few people.
On the Sonics playing without 
Rashard Lewis:
It’s a coach's nightmare usually when somebody sits out. You worry about a team playing inspired basketball knowing that they are up against it. You worry about subconsciously letting down. You talk about it and that sort of thing but sometimes it doesn’t make any difference. It was a real disappointing game in that regard.
On the Spurs:
You can’t play for 12 or 20 or 24 minutes of the game. You can’t do that. You have to maintain playing hard, smart and playing together. We didn’t do that at all.
On the Sonics slowing down Parker:
Its not about Duncan or Parker or (Manu) Ginobili, it’s about a team. Seattle played with great aggressiveness and that carries over to offensive execution…boards, defense, loose balls, all that sort of thing. There wasn’t anything special tonight about Tony Parker than there was about anybody else.
On what difficulty the Sonics three-guard starting lineup posed:
None other than Antonio was great and he kicked our butts so I would say that it gave us some trouble.
GUARD TONY PARKER:
On the game:
They played well tonight. We didn’t really play good defense. We need to execute better on defense and especially on the pick-and-roll. We didn’t do a good job on that tonight.
On the Spurs turnovers:
We might have been in too much of a hurry. We didn’t take our time; we maybe tried to force it a little. We can’t afford that. You can’t get all those turnovers on the road. It just gives Seattle opportunities to get some easy baskets.
On Game 5:
We still have home-court advantage and we need to take care of that on Tuesday. It’s a big game now for us. We couldn’t do it here in Seattle so we definitely need to win at home.
GUARD MANU GINOBILI:
On the third quarter:
We were right there and our aggressiveness stepped up but then we just slowed down and once they got confident, the crowd got crazy and so did they.
On Duncan's performance:
That’s what we try to do. We saw that he was being aggressive and playing a good game so we tried to feed him. That’s our game. We kept attacking and Tim was taking good shots - that’s our game so we did that pretty well. Defensively, we were not there and (we committed) too many turnovers.
2004-05 Postgame Quotes/Notes Archive
