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WE'RE NOT FALLING FOR IT. WE KNOW LEWIS WILL PLAY.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Sonics Notebook: Lewis' hurt toe 'not better'
Again too sore to practice, he's questionable for Game 5
By DANNY O'NEIL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
SAN ANTONIO -- Rashard Lewis has tried the soft approach, wrapping the big left toe, which he sprained in Game 3.
He has tried the hard approach, putting steel inserts inside his basketball shoes. He has applied ice and used electronic stimulation in hopes of reducing swelling.
All of that effort has yet to ease the pain, though. He remained too sore to practice yesterday in San Antonio, questionable for tonight's game after missing Game 4.
"It's not necessarily better," Lewis said after the team's workout at the SBC Center yesterday. "Not to where I can go out and run and jump. I feel like if I can't play on it, it's not better."
Lewis limps when he walks and said it hurts just putting on the shoe because it presses against the toe. He answered questions after practice with a towel wrapped around his foot.
"That bone is tender; it hurts so much any time when I put pressure on it," Lewis said.
The Sonics' victory in Game 4 took some pressure off in a figurative sense. They know they have at least two more games left.
"It just seems like they're giving me time," Lewis said. "They're behind me and they're giving me time to get back. They're pretty much holding it down for me."
The Sonics went with a three-guard lineup to start Game 4, something coach Nate McMillan said would be possible at times should Lewis return, putting him at power forward.
Damien Wilkins had his most playing time of the playoffs and scored 15 points, triple his total from the first eight playoff games.
And at a time when the foundation of Lewis' game has been eroded by the sprained toe, his teammates' production takes some of the weight off his shoulders.
"As long as those guys go out there and play the way they played, I don't want to disrupt the chemistry," Lewis said.
OFFCOURT ASSIST: The Sonics sent two cars filled with players and coaches to visit Sgt. Tim Brumley at the Brooke Army Medical Center.
Brumley had his foot amputated after he was injured in combat in Afghanistan earlier this month. His father, Bob, lives in Burlington, and was flying to San Antonio to see his son for the first time since the injury when he sat next to Tracy Weiss, wife of Sonics assistant coach Bob.
Tracy gave a Sonics fleece blanket as a gift for Tim. It was hanging on his wall at the hospital when she and Bob Weiss went to visit him between Games 1 and 2. They brought a practice jersey of Vladimir Radmanovic signed by more than half the team.
Yesterday, the Sonics sent a larger group -- including Luke Ridnour, Nick Collison, Ray Allen and McMillan -- to visit Tim after practice with plenty more shirts.
Tim attended high school at the New Mexico Military Ins ute. He had served one combat tour in Iraq and had just started his second combat tour, which was in Afghanistan, when he was injured.
POINT PROVEN: Antonio Daniels came to San Antonio in 1998, having struggled in Vancouver through his rookie season, in which he complained about coach Brian Hill and stumbled through the learning curve of adapting to the NBA.
"My eyes were completely closed to what the NBA was all about," Daniels said. "I had no idea how hard you had to work. The preparation you had to put in to come in and be successful."
He learned from a veteran voice once he came to San Antonio. Avery Johnson started taking Daniels out to dinner any time they were on the road, talking to him about how to make a career in the NBA.
"He paid for every one of them," Daniels said.
Daniels is now at the other end of the spectrum. At 30, he's the oldest player on the Sonics and trying to pass along pointers to Ridnour, as Johnson once did for him.
"Just trying to slowly but surely push him along," Daniels said. "Not be too overbearing with him and tell him this or tell him that because he has to learn things on his own. But also just be there for him."
Ridnour and Daniels have been an effective combination all season, never more so than in Game 4, when Ridnour scored 20 points and Daniels 19.
The Sonics are 2-0 when Daniels and Ridnour combine to outscore San Antonio's Tony Parker and 0-2 when the reverse occurs.
WE'RE NOT FALLING FOR IT. WE KNOW LEWIS WILL PLAY.
Be stupid and play him Seattle. Unfortunately Nate McMillan is a good coach and anything but stupid. With or without him, Radmanovich, Ray's hormonal imbalances and what have you, the Sonics are getting flattened tonight.
I want him to play...there is no way that he can be as good as his replacement.
Also, I do not want him coming out for game for first time in Seattle with the crowd going crazy screaming for their returned hero...that could ignite them that game.
Turf toe sucks, basically just thinking about your toe causes it to hurt, and I mean hurt alot. If he truly has a bad case of it (and wants to play), Spurs need to run it uptempo and he'll be out within 5 minutes. That's not a call to be dirty, it's just that that hurts really bad. Anyone who's had it knows what I'm talking about.
Very cool of them to visit Sgt Tim Brumley. Kind of puts the game in perspective.... it's not a real war, after all.
As for Lewis, I don't believe he will play. Why should he? The 3 guard line-up seems to match up well with the Spurs. Another reason to start Manu, I suppose.
Last edited by MadDog73; 05-17-2005 at 02:43 PM.
No excuses bring his ass out.
I wonder if he is quietly blaming Bruce for his hurt toe too?
No but Ray is blaming bruce for his gum disease.
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