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Spurs Find Third Gear to Race by Sonics
38-Point Third Quarter, Nine Three-Pointers Do In Seattle
By SonicsKevin
Vin Baker, left, had one of his best games of the season today battling San Antonio forward Tim Duncan. He finished with 22 points and seven rebounds.
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Playoff basketball is supposed to be an intimidating experience for the uninitiated. For the Seattle
Supersonics' playoff virgins it was, but the San Antonio Spurs' 19-year-old point guard, Tony Parker,
adapted well despite an arduous assignment -- defend Seattle's perennial All-Star point, Gary
Payton. Not only did Parker play Payton to a standoff, he might have outplayed him. The diminutive
Spurs guard's 21 points on nine of 12 shooting, including making all three of his three-point
attempts, and just one turnover were critical to his team's blowout victory over the Sonics in the
opener of their best-of-five series, 110-89.
At halftime, the teams had played to a draw, with San Antonio rallying to erase an early Sonic lead and tie the game at 52-all halfway through. The third quarter, as in the last meeting between the two teams when the Spurs turned a deficit into a double-digit lead, was all Spurs. After Payton briefly brought the Sonics back within one at 58-57, the home team unleashed an astounding 37-8 run that might more aptly be termed not a run, but a marathon, extending the remainder of the third quarter and into the early fourth as the Spurs easily dispatched of the Sonics. The main weapon for San Antonio during its run was the three-pointer. Behind the sharp shooting of Parker and NBA regular season leader in three-point shooting Steve Smith, the Spurs unleashed nine threes for the game, five of them within their run, each daggers that destroyed the Sonics' waning spirit. The worst of the perimeter assault for the visitors came with just under three minutes left in the quarter and the Sonics attempting to get the deficit in single-digits in anticipation of the fourth quarter. Instead, Smith and Parker unleashed back-to-back threes and a subsequent Tim Duncan dunk pushed the team's lead to 20. Uusually, the focus for San Antonio is on the team's powerful interior play. But with David Robinson limited by a sore back to just seven minutes, all in the first half, the team turned to Smith and Parker. Smith added 17 on six of 10 shooting to Parker's 21, and the Spurs also received bench contributions from Antonio Daniels (13 points) and Danny Ferry (11 points, three three-pointers). Orchestrating it all was Duncan, doing damage both with his shot but also with his passing. He recorded a triple-double with 21 points (on 7 of 13 from the field and 7 for 7 from the line), a career-high-tying 11 assists, and 10 rebounds. Duncan was at his best in the early going, scoring seven points in the game's first two and a half minutes. Despite trailing by as many as 33 points in the early part of the fourth quarter before their deep reserves cut the lead to 21, the Sonics could take some positives from the first game, especially the first half. The biggest positive was the resurgent play of Vin Baker, who had perhaps his best half of the season and finished with 22 points (on 10 of 16 shooting) and seven rebounds. As well, the Sonics got both their injured small forwards, Rashard Lewis and Vladimir Radmanovic, back. Lewis played a strong 21 minutes in his first action in nearly a month, scoring 13 points. Now, the Sonics will go back to the drawing board, hoping to find a way to stop a San Antonio offense that produced 59% shooting and was briefly challenging the playoff record of 67% from the field. They'll have to start by shutting down a 19-year-old rookie whose play belied his age in game one.
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