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When was Luke Ridnour injured? I didn't even know about that.
http://www.nba.com/sonics/news/preview071125.html
Insider Preview - Sonics vs. San Antonio
Sonics (2-11) vs. San Antonio (11-2)
Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM
For the San Antonio Spurs, each NBA season begins with only one primary goal: an NBA championship. After sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers last June, the Spurs have now achieved that goal three times in the last five years and four times since 1999. How long has San Antonio been a perennial contender? All four other starters alongside Tim Duncan from that 1998-99 team are now retired. One, Avery Johnson, is the head coach of the rival Dallas Mavericks; a reserve on that team, Steve Kerr, is now the GM for another rival for Western Conference supremacy, the Phoenix Suns.
While even years have been the bane of the Spurs, who have won in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007, this year's team has started better than any of the champion teams. Once considered slow starters (they opened the year 7-6 through 13 games in 2003-04), the Spurs are off to the best 13-game start in franchise history at 11-2 after going 10-3 each of the last three seasons. San Antonio also has an excellent +9.0 point differential, second in the NBA behind Boston and a step up from last season, when the Spurs were +6.9 through their first 13 games.
San Antonio has returned almost entirely the same group of players that won last year's championship. The only changes to the rotation so far this season have been because of injuries to backup guard Jacque Vaughn and veteran reserve forward Robert Horry, who has yet to play this year. The off-season changes for the Spurs were made with the long term in mind - signing forward Ime Udoka as a free agent with an eye toward eventually having him supplant Bruce Bowen as the team's perimeter stopper, and bringing over 2005 first-round pick Ian Mahinmi, who was recently assigned to the D-League and will probably spend much of the year there.
The one concern about maintaining the status quo is age. The Spurs, with an average age of 30.6 on their roster, are more than a year and a half older on average than the next-oldest team (Phoenix, 29.0). However, it helps that San Antonio Head Coach Gregg Popovich does a masterful job of limiting the minutes of his starters. Tony Parker (34.8 mpg) and Duncan (32.0) are the only two players averaging more than 30 minutes a night, which helps keep the team fresh for the postseason.
The Spurs have struggled a little in the early going on defense - not relative to the rest of the league, but in comparison to their own lofty standards. San Antonio has been in the low top 10 in the league in Defensive Rating much of the season, leading Popovich to declare to the San Antonio Express-News early in the week that this was the worst defensive Spurs team "in the last seven or eight years."
Even with his high standards, however, Popovich was later able to admit, "Actually," Popovich said, "I think our defense has been pretty sound for this early in the year."
Lo and behold, the Spurs have moved into fourth in the NBA in defense, allowing 102.3 points per 100 possessions. San Antonio will still hope to bring that down over the course of the season, but that's more than good enough given the Spurs offense has been off to a strong start. San Antonio ranks third in the league in per-possession scoring, trailing only Dallas and Phoenix.
It's been guard Manu Ginobili who has keyed the fast start on offense. Ginobili is off to a sensational start, averaging 19.8 points per game off the bench. That's the best in the league amongst reserves. Ginobili also ranks seventh in the NBA in per-40 minute scoring. In addition to points, Ginobili is also posting career-best marks in three-point percentage (41.3%) and assists per game (4.6).
The Seattle SuperSonics saw their return to KeyArena Friday against New Jersey come to a familiar end. Having fallen behind by as many as 13 in the third quarter, the Sonics rallied but were unable to maintain the perfection they would have needed down the stretch to complete the comeback. In recent games, the Sonics have done a good job of coming back but have put themselves in early holes with slow starts. Getting off to a better start will be challenging against the Spurs.
KEY MATCHUP
Sonics rookie Kevin Durant will match up for the first time with Bowen, widely considered the NBA's best perimeter defender. Bowen has been named to the All-Defensive First Team each of the last four years and plays a physical style that will challenge Durant. However, the Sonics rookie was successful against the best Bowen proxy in the league, Phoenix's Raja Bell, earlier this season.
LAST TIME
The Spurs completed their mastery of the Sonics April 3 in San Antonio, completing a 4-0 sweep of the season series with a 110-91 victory. The 19-point margin of victory was actually the smallest of the four games, which were decided by a combined 111 points. Relative to the first three meetings, the Sonics were much more compe ive in this one, trailing by just eight early in the third quarter. However, San Antonio followed with a 16-2 run to take control of the game.
The Spurs shot 55.7% from the field behind a balanced offensive attack that saw 10 players score at least five points. Bowen led San Antonio with 18 points, hitting 6-of-9 from the field - all on three-pointers. Chris Wilcox's 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting paced the Sonics, while Rashard Lewis had his best game against San Antonio in recent memory with 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting. The rest of the Sonics starting five combined for 5-of-17 shooting and 12 points.
INJURIES
Sonics - Centers Johan Petro (strained lower back), Robert Swift (tendinitis and contusion, right knee) and Kurt Thomas (strained right hamstring) are game-time decisions. Guard Luke Ridnour (left quad tear) is out.
San Antonio - Forward Robert Horry (strained hamstring) is day-to-day.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
2-11 RECORD 11-2
L-3 STREAK W-4
2-3 LAST 5 4-1
99.5 PF 99.8
99.4 Off. Eff. 112.2
108.0 PA 90.8
108.7 Def. Eff. 102.3
45.0 RPG 40.8
.497 Reb % .500
98.2 Pace 88.9
2.9 Exp. Wins 10.4
When was Luke Ridnour injured? I didn't even know about that.
Sonics by 20
Ugghhh! It's a quad tear. That' s going to take some time. If P.J. had a healthy team, I doubt they would be 2-11. More like 5-8.
NBA.com's preview:
http://www.nba.com/games/20071125/SASSEA/preview.html
Spurs-SuperSonics Preview
By JEFF MEZYDLO, STATS Writer
P.J. Carlesimo knows all too well about the San Antonio Spurs' recent success. He also understands that might not bode well for his Seattle SuperSonics.
The Sonics will again try to win at home Sunday night when they face the Spurs for the first time since Carlesimo left his assistant job in San Antonio to take over as coach in Seattle.
For the last five seasons, Carlesimo served as Gregg Popovich's top assistant in San Antonio. The Spurs won three NBA les during that span, including last season. Carlesimo had a courtside seat and played a key role in that run, but opted to become a head coach for the first time since guiding Golden State for three seasons - the last coming in 1999-2000.
"It'll be great to see him, because we all miss him, but when the game starts, we'll be trying to beat each other up, that's for sure," Popovich said.
San Antonio (11-2), which is tied with Phoenix for the Western Conference's best record and tries for a season-high fifth straight victory, looks for a sixth consecutive win over the lowly Sonics (2-11) and third straight in Seattle.
Though San Antonio's losses have come away from home, it should be in good shape against Seattle, which is the league's only winless team at home (0-5).
Carlesimo hopes his knowledge from the past will help his new team contain the Spurs, who are coming off a 101-88 win over Memphis on Friday.
Working in the paint most of the night, Tim Duncan had 28 points with nine rebounds. Tony Parker had 21 points and eight assists for the Spurs, who are averaging 99.8 points this season and 114.5 in their last two games.
Parker, off to a strong start with team bests of 20.4 points and 6.5 assists per game, is averaging 28.0 points and 8.7 assists in his last three contests. He averaged 18.8 points in four wins over the Sonics last season.
"Some nights he's going to score when we need it, some nights he's going to have assists, and some nights he's going to do both," Popovich said of Parker.
Seattle's Kevin Durant makes his first appearance against Duncan and the defending champion Spurs Sunday. The 6-foot-9, former Texas star hopes for a better outing after another rough night in Seattle's 98-93 home loss to New Jersey on Friday - the team's third straight following its only two wins of the season.
After scoring 11 points in a 125-108 loss at Memphis on Monday, Durant had 12 on 4-for-12 shooting versus the Nets.
"I just didn't knock down the open shots like I usually do," said Durant, who's averaging 18.5 points in his rookie season but just 13.0 on 28.1 percent (9-for-32) shooting in his last three games.
Friday was the second time Seattle held an opponent to fewer than 100 points this season. The Sonics are one of the league's worst defensive teams, allowing 108.0 points per contest.
"Until we get significantly better defensively, we're not going to win games," Carlesimo said.
Ummm, that was an old quote from last year said about Last season's team. Pop never said that this year did he?San Antonio has been in the low top 10 in the league in Defensive Rating much of the season, leading Popovich to declare to the San Antonio Express-News early in the week that this was the worst defensive Spurs team "in the last seven or eight years."
I don't think so, unless I just missed something as well. Pretty sure that quote is horribly outdated.
If Pop had pulled out the soft card on this seasons team, we'd know about it already.
AS that little guy in Dallas' bench ... Carlessimo could f...k us ... those guys who know our secret system must be killed
Raja Bell is the best Bowen proxy? REALLY? Is that the best thats out there other than BB? If true, thats really sad.
I forgot to point that out as well. Bruce Bowen>>>>>Raja Bell. I don't even think it's close. I'd like to see Raja Bell defend Dirk one night and Kobe the next. Not to mention, Bruce has a better mental approach to the game as well. Bell tends to let his temper influence the way he plays, while Bruce loves it and takes it as a sign when a player gets mad that he's doing his job.
The local paper, The News Tribune, chimes in.
http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/soni..._spurs_pregame
Sonics-Spurs pregame
Posted by Eric Williams
San Antonio (11-2) at Seattle (2-11)
Series: Seattle lost all four meetings to the Spurs last season by an average of 27.3 points a game.
Scouting the Spurs: San Antonio, along with the Boston Celtics, are playing the best basketball in the NBA right now. San Antonio comes to Seattle on a four-game winning streak. The Spurs have held 10 of their 13 opponents under 100 points and rank No. 1 in the league in terms of taking care of the ball with just 12.4 giveaways a game. ... Tony Parker leads the team in scoring at 20.4 points a contest and has scored over 30 points twice this season. Parker also averages 6.5 assists a game. Perennial All-Star Tim Duncan averages 18.2 points and 9.8 rebounds a game. And Manu Ginobili averages 19.8 points a contest.
After working as San Antonio’s top assistant the past five seasons, Carlesimo knows the Spurs well. So does Carlesimo’s boss, Seattle general manager Sam Presti, who served as San Antonio’s assistant general manager and worked with the organization since 2000.
"There's always kind of a yin to a yang when it comes to a coaching staff," Spurs guard and ex-Sonic Brent Barry told the San Antonio Express-News . "I don't want to call P.J. a yang, because that doesn't sound complimentary, but P.J. was a great balancing act for the coaching staff. But we could see that chemistry between Pop and Coach Carlesimo."
The question is, can Carlesimo or Presti of them use that familiarity with San Antonio to their advantage?
"Knowing what plays they are going to run is not going to be a challenge," Carlesimo said. "Stopping them from executing is going to be a challenge."
Scouting the Sonics: Seattle has lost three in a row and are still winless (0-5) at KeyArena this season. Seattle will again only have 11 players available. Luke Ridnour (partially torn left quad), Robert Swift (right knee tendonitis) and Johan Petro (lower back strain) will not play.
Chris Wilcox (sprained left ankle) and Kurt Thomas (right hamstring strain) should be available today. Thomas, who has played Duncan well in the past, should see a lot of time defensively against Duncan.
Seattle, which is giving 108 points a game – second worst in the league, and turning the ball over 18.6 times a contest, will have its hands full against a veteran team like the Spurs.
In order to stay close Seattle needs to shoot the ball well, turn the game into a track meet in order to get some easy scores and defend the basket.
One thing working in Seattle’s favor is the Sonics manage to stay in games at home this season, losing by single digits in all five losses and having a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
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