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Right Now I Would Settle For A Win Or Two

Authored by Hunter Johannason - May 11, 2005 - 8:17 pm

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After an amazing season that has me believing in the Seattle Supersonics again, I have now finally become skeptical and am admitting defeat….For Now. In the first two games of this Western Conference Semifinal versus the powerhouse San Antonio Spurs the Sonics have lost each game in the first 8 minutes. And the whole injury thing, well anybody who was watching Game 1 could tell that the Sonics were done regardless of the injuries suffered by both Allen and Radmanovic. The Spurs were in complete control from the opening tip and you could see it in their eyes. The Sonics upstart point guard Luke Ridenour is a very talented young player and has a very bright future in the League, however, at this point he cannot keep up with Tony Parker. This is not a knock on Luke, it is just that Parker has been here before and Ridenour hasn’t. Nobody on the Sonics roster can guard Ginobli, with the exception of Coach Nate McMillan and Jerome James looks like the center I remember from the regular season. Adding insult to injury, the Sonics shooting, so essential to the team’s success, has been lackluster to say the least.

So what now? Where do we go from here? Seattle gave me more than I expected in the first round versus the Sacramento Kings as they easily overcame any injury issues and won in convincible fashion taking the series 4-1. The confidence the Sonics displayed versus the Kings is the same “this series is ours” mentality the Spurs now boast. The playoff Spurs are a vastly different San Antonio team than the Sonics faced in the regular season. They are a playoff tested juggernaut that does not seem to pay any heed to the fact that the Sonics split the regular-season series between the two teams. These Spurs are already looking to the Suns and the Western Conference Finals.

In light of all of this I have shifted to the same mentality I had in 1996 when Shawn Kemp and the Sonics played their hearts out and took the Un-Beat-A-Bulls to 6 games, far exceeding what the critics thought was possible. To me and every other Seattle fan this was a win wrapped up in a loss as everyone knew that the Western representative would be fodder to Michael Jordon’s Chicago dynasty. Yet, after watching Game 6 on DVD the other day, for a minute I believed the Sonics could have won that game as well and forced a Game 7 and with that, all sorts of possibilities.

The Sonics could win this series but it seems very unlikely at this point. Right now I would settle for a few wins. A couple of wins would cap a fantastic season. A season that saw a team picked to finish last in the Northwest division pretty much seal up that very same division before the All-Star break after taking an insurmountable lead early on. I do not want to get into the whole free-agent dilemma, all I know is this team is primed to make another run at the Finals next year. These young Sonics will be one year older and with that playoff tested and hungry for revenge.