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Spurs Spoil Sonics' KeyArena Party
Parker's Drives, Duncan's Touch Demolish Sonic Defense
By SonicsKevin
Vin Baker, left, was unable to continue his strong play from the first two games of this series, grabbing only one rebound in 31 minutes of action.
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The San Antonio Spurs did not seem surprised by their play in winning game three of their best-of
five series with the Seattle Supersonics by a 102-75 count. After all, this is the way they've
expected to play all along, home court or no. And the Spurs indeed provided irrefutable evidence
negating the claims that many members of the media have made about them since losing game
two to even the series at one on Monday. San Antonio is one-dimensional? Well, it's questionable if
that's an insult when the dimension is as good as Tim Duncan, who continued his one-man assault
on the Sonics with 27 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and five blocked shots, all team highs.
But Duncan had ample help this afternoon, foremost from rookie guard Tony Parker, who looks less like the 19-year-old rookie that he is with each passing game. Parker shined in the first quarter, racking up the majority of his 23 points on 10 of 15 shooting. After averaging nine points per game in the regular season, Parker has exploded for a 17 point per game average in the first three games of this series despite opposing one of the NBA's best guards, Gary Payton. Then there was Malik Rose, who blamed himself for San Antonio's game two loss. Rose could be blamed only by the Sonics on this afternoon, just missing a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds and wreaking havoc on the interior against a smallish Seattle lineup. And Antonio Daniels, the point guard whose starting job was usurped by Parker early in the season, was a force off the bench with 15 points. None of that even considers a stifling San Antonio defense, led by Duncan and small forward Bruce Bowen, which turned the NBA's best shooting team in the regular season into one that scored just two points in a six-minute span of the second quarter and shot 36% overall. On the other side and amongst a sellout crowd that had largely dispersed by the game's final buzzer, there was only a stunned silence. After the Sonics had stolen game two on the road, they hoped to parlay home-court advantage and momentum into their best play of the series. They did that . . . for exactly 3:49 of game time. For that brief period, the KeyArena was as loud as it has been since the Sonics' heyday in the mid-90's under George Karl, and the team fed off the energy in confounding San Antonio defensively while racing out to an 11-2 lead. But as quickly as Seattle had gained an advantage, it disappeared under a hailstorm of missed shots and defensive lapses. The Sonics missed six straight tries against a reinvigorated San Antonio defense while the Spurs ran off 10 straight points to take the lead halfway through the first quarter, a point from which they would not look back. One-dimensional? That must have been the Sonics, who offensively got contributions from Payton, with 20 points and . . . ? The rest of the Seattle starting lineup was held to a combined 13 for 43 from the field and 32 points. Brent Barry continued his series-long Houdini act, missing his first six shots and finishing three for 12 overall under the watchful eye and forearms of the defensively active Bowen. Vin Baker, who had provided the Sonics a second scorer in the series' first two games, was unable to get anything going against Duncan. He did finish in double figures, but it took 14 shots and just five makes to get there. And even before Rashard Lewis limped off the court in the third quarter with an apparent shoulder contusion, he was showing continued ill effects from the sprained ankle which threatened to hold him out of this series, making just two for eight. Just as they had in game one, the Sonics wilted under the pressure of an extended Spurs run that lasted nearly an entire quarter. Trailing just 23-21 heading to the second quarter, any Seattle hopes of taking a two-one advantage in the series were essentially dashed by a 34-18 San Antonio drubbing during the second quarter. It began harmlessly enough, with the Sonics tying the game at 25 just over a minute in. From there, the Spurs dominated the next 10 minutes, putting on a 20-6 run that erased any doubts as to whether they could win on the road without center David Robinson, sidelined for the second straight game with a sore back that may keep him out of Wednesday's game four. San Antonio did it both from the inside, getting nine points from Duncan, who began the run on the bench for a brief rest, and the outside, making three of their seven threes (on 11 attempts) in the stretch. Seattle briefly responded, cutting the lead to a more-manageable 18 at halftime, but still seemingly had too much ground to make up. That was the case, as the Sonics could never take control of the game's momentum or get the crowd into during the second half, a performance by dancer Ben Simon excepted. With San Antonio answering every score, the Sonics could not put together consecutive unanswered baskets in the entire third quarter. When the Spurs ran off an 8-0 run near the period's end to push the lead to 25, the game was over with 13 minutes to play. And after not losing by 20 points from mid-January to late March, the Sonics were well on their way by losing by at least that margin for the third consecutive Saturday, two of them in this series, which would be long over if margin-of-victory allowed San Antonio to count games one and three as more than just one win. Now, the Sonics find themselves with their backs to the wall, needing a win in Wednesday's game four to simply force the series back to Texas for a deciding game five. To do that, they will need significant adjustments on both ends of the court. They cannot be totally deterred, however, safe in the knowledge that they responded from a 21-point blowout in game one to win game two.
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