Green and Gold Emerges Victorious Over Green and White

Balanced Offense, Fast Pace Gloss Over Absences of Baker and Bobble-Head Boy

Peja Drobnjak, left, set a career high with his 16 points this evening on solid 7 of 11 shooting.

Of late, the Seattle SuperSonics have struggled to win close games at KeyArena, losing five of their last six home games, all of them winnable. So tonight against the Boston Celtics, the Sonics decided to keep that from being a problem by putting away the Celtics early in the fourth quarter and going on to win 97-77.
Playing without forward Vin Baker, who missed the first game of what should be at least two weeks worth with three dislocated toes on his left foot, the Sonics moved the ball effectively and overcame their lack of a post game by effectively driving the lane and running the floor. The two biggest beneficiaries of the perimeter- and fast break-based offense were guards Desmond Mason and Brent Barry, who thrive in such a style.
Barry, who has been on a hot streak of late which has not translated into Sonic wins, stepped up his performance and just missed a triple-double with 17 points (on 6 of 9 shooting), 9 assists, and 9 rebounds. He also got the crowd into the game in the first quarter with a Sportscenter-worthy dazzling display of dexterous ballhandling. After getting the ball on a fast break, Barry went behind his back twice to elude a Celtic defender. After extricating himself from pressure, Barry found Rashard Lewis with a no-look feed for a thunderous dunk as the sellout crowd roared its approval.
Mason was not even expected to play in the game by local media after suffering from a sore wrist following a perilous fall on Thursday night against the Lakers precipitated by a Kobe Bryant flagrant foul. An x-ray taken yesterday was taken, and Mason not only played, he played heavily -- 38 tough minutes defending Boston star Paul Pierce. On the offensive end, Mason took a season-high 17 shots while scoring 15 points.
Pierce and fellow All-Star teammate Antoine Walker, the catalysts of the Celtic offense, were not on tonight despite combining for 42 points. The scores came on 14 of 40 shooting, and two of the league's more prolific three point shooters combined to go just 6 of 21 from beyond the arc despite several open looks after the Sonics were forced to double team. They did combine for 20 rebounds, but Walker offset this with seven turnovers and a technical foul.
Both sides took umbrage with an uneven refereeing job from Ted Bernhard, Rodney Mott, and Ron Olesiak, with Seattle's Rashard Lewis being kicked out of the game in the third quarter on the night the first 10,000 fans into KeyArena received bobbleheads with his 'likeness' -- or, perhaps more accurately, figures wearing his jersey. Lewis was enraged with the Sonics up 16 halfway through the period by a no call when he lost control of the ball while driving for a layup and his shot came up short. Replays showed that there was little, if any, contact, but Lewis eschewed his defensive duties to debate the call in backcourt with the nearest official, Olesiak. After the Celtics were stopped, Lewis was t'd up and sent to the showers.
It was just part of a crazy refereeing night that saw both teams called for several questionable offensive fouls in the third quarter and an astounding five defensive three second violations whistled. The three second violation, a newly enforced rule this season, has been only intermittently called; the five might have surpassed the sum to date called in the Key all season.
Lewis' ejection provided Boston a brief window of hope, as the Celtics suddenly caught fire from outside while the Sonics' offense sputtered to a halt thanks to poor ball movement. That allowed Boston to cut the lead as low as five in the waning moments of the third quarter, and a manageable eight going to the final period, just one point more than the Sonics led by before losing to L.A. on Thursday night.
The Sonics ensured no reprisal of their fourth quarter collapses with strong play from an unorthodox lineup that had Payton and Mason on the court with rookies Earl Watson and Peja Drobnjak along with Art Long, who had been DNP-CD'd the Sonics' last three games. Drobnjak in particular took up the offensive slack amongst Seattle big men, scoring a season high 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Drobnjak, whose strengths are outside shooting and ballhandling (even if it hasn't been apparent this season), was neatly complimented by Long, who crashed the boards while playing the entire fourth quarter and ended up with six points and five boards capped by a monstrous put-back of a Mason miss late in the game.
With Barry replacing Payton two minutes into the quarter and Payton then replacing Watson near the six minute mark, the lineup extended the lead into the teens and continued slowly adding until it was at a high of 23 before a Joe Johnson three inside the final minute produced the final 99-79 margin.
Baker's absence was eased by the play of Drobnjak, Long, and starter Jerome James, who tallied a full line of 8 points and 9 rebounds in half a night's play, 24 minutes. All told, the three Sonic big men combined for an extremely effective 60 minutes in which they scored 30 points and grabbed 19 rebounds.
The teams were close after the first quarter, with the Sonics establishing a double digit advantage throughout most of the second period thanks to stellar bench play and a quickened pace of the game. The Sonics led by eight, 55-47, at halftime.