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December 2, 2006

Sonics Season Opener (For Me At Least)

After a month on the road, I finally attend my first Sonics game of the year; predictably, they lost

After talking a lot of game about how I was going to spend a lot of time blathering on about the Sonics on ThatKid, I barely say a word about the team for an entire month, and I certainly don't offer any direct commentary on how they're playing. In all honesty, due to not being C@L for the month of November, I really hadn't seen them play an entire game until Wednesday's night loss to the Magic. I followed that with another trip to Key Arena last night (a win against Indiana) and now feel more than qualified to spout off about the Supersonics.

My high-level bulletpoints on the last couple games:

I Don't Think We'll Need To Quarrel Over Playoff Tickets: in a tough Western Conference, I just don't see this team making the playoffs. They're still inconsistent with their defending (though I really liked when they were pressing last night -- it at least forces the tempo for them), pretty shallow and untalented inside (though I think Wilcox needs more minutes), and completely indecisive in the fourth quarter (Luke Ridnour, we're looking in your direction). Also, it looks like other teams have figgered out that, um, there's not much there past Ray-Ray and Rashard, and you'll do pretty well against the Sonics by making someone else shoot. Go Sonics!

We Must Be In The Front Row: we upgraded our seats this year from Row 2 of Section 203 to Row 2 of Section 228 (feel free to stop by and say hi). This means that we moved from seats in the corner to seats at midcourt, and there definitely is a difference. Sure, they cost a little more, but if this is the last season in Key Arena, we figgered we'd class it up a bit.

You Don't Expect Us To Swallow This Tripe: and the Clay Bennett PR machine rolls on! This week the Sonics new ownership group announced that they'd hired a firm to evaluate arena proposals in Bellevue. While I certainly appreciate these public good faith efforts to convince us all that the team isn't moving to Oklahoma City, let me say that I remain, ahem, unconvinced. They're leading us on, and I wish more folks would call them out on it. By this I mean that the folks on KJR really need to step up their rabble-rousing on all of this and stop believing the company line from the Sonics. It's sports-talk radio -- you're supposed to engage in low-level demagoguery and trouble-making. This is still America, right?

Updates to the Key Arena Concession Landscape: this is really a minor point, but they replaced the Miller Lite tap at the barbecue joint behind Section 203 with MGD. While I'm certainly far from a beer snob, and the overall beer selection at Key Arena is very strong, let me unequivocally say that I hate MGD and refuse to drink it under any circumstances. This just means I need to update my concession strategies.

Trying to Decide If The Game-Winner Excuses Missing the Two Free Throws: so Luke Ridnour hit a game-winning runner against the Pacers as time expired last night. Good shot, Luke, I hope it makes you feel better about yourself. And I'll admit that I had moments where I really thought Luke was turning the corner last night. I did. There's still room for you in my heart, Luke. I want to get behind the guy. But then he does stuff like missing two free throws that would have iced the game and I remember that this guy is a headcase who really isn't as good when it matters as he needs to be. Anyhoo. Earl Watson doesn't look so good this season either. Kind of grim at PG for the Supes.

The East-leading Orlando Magic?: that's right, the Orlando Magic have the best record in the Eastern Conference. And you know what? They're actually pretty good. They definitely had the Sonics completely figured out on Wednesday, and will probably do well the rest of the season just riding their defense and Dwight Howard. Essentially, their guards play really aggressively around the permieter, and dare people to go into the lane, where they have a bunch of tall guys (including the shockingly competent Donnie Darko!) playing goalie. Also, this Dwight Howard guy is a complete beast. Yikes. When does he start getting some of this Bron-Bron/ D-Wade press? He's going to be/ already is a great player.

Your Craptastic Indiana Pacers: the Pacers are crap; it was actually comforting to see a team that looked more disorganized and sloppy with the ball than the Sonics. Jermaine O'Neal must have missed a meeting or something, because he wasn't out there in the first half. Al Harrington can play, I'll give them that, and it was the first time I'd seen Danny Grainger (who looks solid). But there's also a lot of garbage out there (Stephen Jackson, wave to the nice people!). Also, seeing Jamaal Tinsley (a longtime fantasy bugaboo of mine, dating to a long-ago NCAA player pool) repeatedly turning the ball over in person made me want to trade him from my fantasy team IMMEDIATELY. Seriously -- Bobby Porntastico is willing to trade him on the cheap. The most interesting part of the Pacers was the tension around whether or not they'd field an all-headband lineup at any point. They had four headbands on the floor for most of the second half, but they never closed it out with a fifth. There has to be a basketball nerd somewhere in Indiana who can help me with this.

Next up for me, ATL on Tuesday.

Posted by thatkid at December 2, 2006 12:15 PM under Sonics

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