Of the 6 losses on the season, this was the second most painful. The Jazz were seemingly in control for most of the 1st half, keeping a consistent 6-8 point lead, but never pulling away. Kevin Durant was having a tough shooting night, Chris Wilcox wasn't getting a ton of help (he had 14 of his 17 points in the first half), and it looked like the Jazz were going to escape with a relatively easy. The Sonics fought back and entered the 4th quarter down 3, and promptly tied the game with 10 minutes to play. Delonte West was on fire in the 4th quarter going 4-6 and scoring 8 of his 10 points on the night in his best game since the opener. Jeff Green had his best game as a pro finishing with 19 points on 7-12 shooting. The Sonics and Jazz traded baskets, and the Sonics had the ball and a 101-101 tie with 43 seconds left. After Coach Carlesimo's timeout, Deron Williams stole a Delonte West pass, which Carlos Boozer converted for the winning bucket after running the pick and roll to perfection. After another squandered oppurtunity for the Sonics, they stole an inbounds pass with under 10 seconds and Durant broke for the basket, but forced up a tough running layup that Kirilenko rather easily extended for and routed away. Game, set, match.
As far as losses go, there's a lot of good here. Jeff Green had his best game as a pro (just a hour or two after I started to wonder if the Sonics had made a mistake by passing on Yi). Delonted West broke out of a 4 game slump by making big shots in the 4th quarter. Durant continued to demonstrate his short memory by taking and making tough shots in the 4th. Chris Wilcox singlehandedly kept the team afloat in the first half. Damien Wilkins scored in double figures for the 5th time in 6 games. Most importantly, the Sonics went toe-to-toe with a Western Conference finalist, and very nearly sent the game to overtime, despite being behind the vast majority of the game. Nick Collison had his first double-double of the season, and the Sonics had six players score in double figures for the game. Carlos Boozer had his way, finishing with 27 and 15, but there's no shame in having Boozer put up big numbers. What ended up killing the Sonics is Andrei Kirilenko's near triple-double, and turnovers in key moments.
On the downside, Szczerbiak's roller coaster hit bottom as Wally had no points in 9 minutes. BOBBBY SWIFT! had an incredibly empty box score with 1 rebound and 4 fouls in 18 minutes. That's zero points, zero blocks, zero steals, zero assists, and zero impact. I want to get him some PT and give him a chance to develop. Johan Petro, in my opinion has just as much upside as Swift (both are 21), and while he isn't the shot blocker that Bobby is, he produces more in every other avenue. Neither are likely to develop into anything more than a serviceable center, so the Sonics might as well give more PT to the player who is further along at this time. Petro should get 20 minutes, and Swift 10. Ridnour did not play.
The Sonics now get a day to stew over their 6th loss before they get to play Eastern Conference power, the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons are 4-1 on the season and will present another stern test for the young Sonics. On the plus side, the college scene seems to be rich with freshmen stars to stock the top of the draft this year.
Also, I went 1-3 on picks for the night, including the worst case scenario of the Sonics losing AND covering. Ouch. Somehow Charlotte slaugtered Indiana in the fourth quarter 31-14, forcing another loss. Better luck tomorrow.
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