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2005 Playoffs Homepage Allen's Return Overshadowed by Turnovers, Transition Live From The Press Box - Game 2 Sonics News Archive

Nate McMillan

"We're talking like this team is a seventh or eighth seeded team," said McMillan after his team practiced Wednesday afternoon in Seattle. "This is an excellent team. This team was picked to win the title. We're going up against the best in the NBA right now.

"I think the way they're playing, it would be tough for anybody to beat them. As hot as Denver was, they cooled them off. As much success as we had in the regular season, this is not the regular season. You're dealing with a different beast."

"We haven't played our best basketball. Some of that is due to their play and some of it is due to inexperience." Brian Byrnes/NBAE/Getty

After dropping Game 1 of their series with Denver, the Spurs have rattled off six straight wins by an average margin of 16 points per game. Only once has San Antonio allowed 100 points in the stretch. But while the Spurs have consistently been outstanding at the defensive end of the floor, their improvement on offense, led by guards Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, allowed them to post the NBA's best point differential in the regular season and tie for the league's second-best record.

"They're playing at the top of their game, I think," said McMillan. "We haven't played our best basketball. Some of that is due to their play and some of it is due to inexperience and trying to learn how to play at this time of the season."

When the Spurs are at their best, opposing teams need to be nearly flawless to beat them. That's a standard the Sonics have clearly fallen short of through the first two games of this series. In Game 1, the Sonics were blitzed from the opening tip-off and did not match the Spurs focus and intensity. In Game 2, Seattle was done in by turnovers and the San Antonio fast-break points that resulted from them.

So, while recognizing that part of the results in San Antonio reflected just how good the Spurs are, the Sonics also know they can do better as the series shifts to Seattle for Thursday's Game 3 (7:30 p.m., FSN/ESPN, ).

"A lot of things that are happening out there we're causing," said McMillan. "The 17 turnovers is coming from us. The execution is coming from us. We've got to do a better job of being patient, getting the ball to the places to be and executing on the offensive end of the court and then defensively getting stops."

McMillan and his coaching staff will also need to make more adjustments to counter the Spurs defense and the penetration of Ginobili and Parker. Jokingly, he solicited suggestions from the reporters gathered after practice, but McMillan already has some things in mind.

"I think you've got to back up," said McMillan. "Parker's one of the fastest guards in this league. You've got to give him maybe two steps as opposed to a step. Then we've got to get help. Even though at times he has gotten by Luke (Ridnour) one or two times, he's going by our bigs. Luke is running into the screen and (Parker's) getting by our bigs too. Everybody's got to do a better job of help, containing their guards' penetration."

It's safe to expect that McMillan will go back to a small lineup featuring Rashard Lewis at power forward that he used with some success during Game 2. Such a lineup is the best way for the Sonics to replace the outside shooting lost when forward Vladimir Radmanovic was sidelined for the remainder of this series with a sprained right ankle.

"We're going to have to use our bigs and our bigs are going to have to play well, but it's definitely a lineup that we've had success with all season long," said McMillan. "It's not the lineup [in terms of personnel] that we played with, but last night it gave us some energy, gave us the spacing that we needed at the offensive end of the floor and it opened up the floor a little bit."

After Game 2, Sonics guards Ray Allen and Ridnour suggested the team needed to push the tempo and try to get more points in transition. To McMillan, that means the Sonics have to get more stops at the defensive end of the court.

"We're taking the ball out of the net," he said. "First you've got to get some stops before you can run, because it's tough to run out of the net."