[Mr. T]

Sounds like the Sonics and McMillan are a touch too WEAK to make a run come playoff time.

Say what you will about Skiles, but whining about officiating isn't something he gets hung up about. I think he's teaching our players to take responsibility and play. I'm willing to bet we've been screwed over by officiating a lot worse than Seattle this year.

NEW YORK — Their three straight losses last week, the Sonics believe, coincide with a change in the way officials are interpreting the NBA's revised hand-check rule.
Before the season, the league tweaked the definition of the rule to try to increase scoring. The no-contact emphasis doesn't allow defenders to touch perimeter players with the ball, and no team benefited from the rule change more than the Sonics.



Lately, however, the Sonics feel as if they're getting pushed, grabbed and held while driving to the basket — the defenders left unpunished. "It seems like we're not getting those calls," coach Nate McMillan said. "We know that there's a tendency as the season goes on to call less fouls. It does maybe start at this time of the season, and you definitely see it more in the playoffs.



"The thing is: What we talked about this summer was they (officials) were going to be consistent with it, and I felt like that last couple of games they weren't consistent with it. They've allowed more. And what I'm telling our guys is we have to force the issue and make them call it at the beginning of the game." During their 90-80 victory against the New York Knicks yesterday, the Sonics didn't have to worry about how the hand-checking rule would be interpreted because the Knicks are not a defensive-oriented team.

<!--begin text box-->
<!--end text box-->But their next two opponents, the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, have a hands-on approach that has rattled the Sonics.

"Different referees, they determine what hand-checking is, and it varies from one referee to the next," Ray Allen said. "It's not consistent. I know how it's supposed to be; at least I think I do from what they explained it.



"Most teams are going to put their best defender on me and try to ride me out. The way the rules are, it's a foul. I know that, and the way we play is according to that. But if they (officials) don't call that, then we have to adapt." During Seattle's 97-95 defeat to Chicago last Friday, Allen went to the free-throw line nine times. He had 10 free-throw attempts during a win over Detroit on March 4.



Despite the high number of foul shots, Allen scored just 17 and 15 points in those games. Said Antonio Daniels: "To change now, more than three months into the season, seems a little odd, but that's what's happening. We either adjust or force them to make the calls."



Not every Sonic believes a lax interpretation of the hand-check rule is a bad thing.

"This is real basketball to me, I think, the way the game should be played," Rashard Lewis said. "I don't think you should make a call every time somebody makes a move to the basket and you barely even touch them. I don't think that's man basketball. I think that's WNBA basketball."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2002206848_soniglance14.html

You Go Rashard! :clap:
<!--STCFIRST-->

 

[mizenkay]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/216013_sonx15.html

Four days isn't enough time for all the scratches to heal.

Not that the Sonics need any scars to remember a three-point loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday at KeyArena. The Bulls defense rubbed the Sonics raw, leaving them with motivation that is more than skin deep heading into tonight's game at the United Center.

"It's definitely more incentive, because it is fresh on our minds," Sonics guard Ray Allen said. "We didn't play our best, so it's a payback game for us."

The Sonics (42-19) didn't have to wait long. At least not for this rematch. As for the renaissance these two franchises are experiencing this season? Well, that's been a few years in the making.
...

The Sonics and Bulls are two of the biggest surprises. The Sonics are one of the league's most efficient offenses with their combination of shooting precision and rebounding power; the Bulls (32-28) have one of the league's most nettlesome defenses. They are a New Age Jazz of sorts, the Bulls now playing the same sort of clutch-and-grab style that the Utah Jazz once used to flummox the Sonics.

"They just get into your head with all the grabbing and the holding and the no-calls," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said.

The San Antonio Spurs are the only team holding opponents to a lower field-goal percentage than the Bulls. Allen was 4-for-16 shooting in Friday's loss, and he and plenty of teammates spent much of the second half complaining to officials about fouls that were not called.

"That pressure bothered us," McMillan said. "They were fouls, and the officials were not calling it, but you've got to play through it.

"You've got to be able to do that by being calm and under control."

Patience is what the Sonics practiced yesterday in Chicago, McMillan saying that playing slow and steady was the best counterpunch to the Bulls' aggressiveness.

"That pressure or that physical play can force you to rush," McMillan said. "What you have to do is slow down, as opposed to rushing, and use each other."

blood on the horns!

 

[Mr. T]

SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

Sonics ready for rematch with upstart Bulls

CHICAGO -- Four days isn't enough time for all the scratches to heal.

Not that the Sonics need any scars to remember a three-point loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday at KeyArena. The Bulls defense rubbed the Sonics raw, leaving them with motivation that is more than skin deep heading into tonight's game at the United Center.

"It's definitely more incentive, because it is fresh on our minds," Sonics guard Ray Allen said. "We didn't play our best, so it's a payback game for us."

The Sonics (42-19) didn't have to wait long. At least not for this rematch. As for the renaissance these two franchises are experiencing this season? Well, that's been a few years in the making.

It has been seven years since either team won a playoff series, but both the Sonics and Bulls suddenly matter again.

The Sonics and Bulls are two of the biggest surprises. The Sonics are one of the league's most efficient offenses with their combination of shooting precision and rebounding power; the Bulls (32-28) have one of the league's most nettlesome defenses. They are a New Age Jazz of sorts, the Bulls now playing the same sort of clutch-and-grab style that the Utah Jazz once used to flummox the Sonics.

"They just get into your head with all the grabbing and the holding and the no-calls," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said.

The San Antonio Spurs are the only team holding opponents to a lower field-goal percentage than the Bulls. Allen was 4-for-16 shooting in Friday's loss, and he and plenty of teammates spent much of the second half complaining to officials about fouls that were not called.

"That pressure bothered us," McMillan said. "They were fouls, and the officials were not calling it, but you've got to play through it.

"You've got to be able to do that by being calm and under control."

Patience is what the Sonics practiced yesterday in Chicago, McMillan saying that playing slow and steady was the best counterpunch to the Bulls' aggressiveness.

"That pressure or that physical play can force you to rush," McMillan said. "What you have to do is slow down, as opposed to rushing, and use each other."

He said passing was the best antidote, not a headstrong insistence upon penetrating against a defense that collapses in the middle while shot blockers Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler wait inside.

In fact, the Bulls may well have been on the speed dial of Sonics general manager Rick Sund, who was inquiring foremost about Chandler, a fourth-year center. The Bulls, meanwhile, have had a years-long interest in Vladimir Radmanovic.

"We've got a whole new team, basically," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said after his team practiced in Seattle on Friday.

It wasn't a case of blind devotion to a master plan, Skiles said, so much as an accurate personnel evaluation.

"The moment you start thinking, 'Geez, five years from now if we just keep everybody,' that's not pro sports," Skiles said. "You've got to try and get better all the time.

"On the other hand, you don't want to be stupid, either."

The success of these two teams only seems to have happened overnight. Actually, it has taken years of waiting, but tonight's game is finally a matchup worth watching.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/216013_sonx15.html

 

[mizenkay]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

i just posted this in your other seattle moaning about the bulls defense thread.

merge?

 

[Mr. T]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

i just posted this in your other seattle moaning about the bulls defense thread.

merge?

Absolutely! Great minds think alike?

 

[Mr. T]

More Allen whining. Think the refs will be taking care of Ray, Ray tonight?

That’s when the Sonics made a run behind Ray Allen. Allen had an extremely difficult night, missing 12-of-16 shot attempts while being guarded by Kirk Hinrich.

At one point toward the end of the third quarter, Allen shot a baseline jumper, and as he released it he said to referee Danny Crawford, “See that? He’s hitting my arm every time.” The ball sailed long for an air ball.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/sonics/story/4675300p-4329578c.html

 

[remlover]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

Let's hope Bulls players and coaches have read what Nate and Allen have said. I hope the Bullies come out the first period and play their doberman style defense and have the Sonics b*tching and moaning from the get-go.

I am pumped for this game. I think i'll read and watch Henry V right before tip-off. Especially reading/watching Henry's Speech @ Harfleur.

"Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more......

"And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not:
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble luster in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for KIRK, EDDY, and St. SKILES!!!"

 

[Marcus13]

yall just need to close your mouths- none of you have anything on the Sonics and none of your players have anything on Ray Allen, so stop talking until you prove otherwise, if yall was ballin in the West you would't even be a playoff team and you know it

 

[bullsville]

yall just need to close your mouths- none of you have anything on the Sonics and none of your players have anything on Ray Allen, so stop talking until you prove otherwise, if yall was ballin in the West you would't even be a playoff team and you know it

Strange, but the Bulls are 14-13 against the West, and that includes the 7 straight we lost in our season-opening 9 game winning streak. Since then, we are 14-6 vs the West and only 18-13 against the East.

BTW, the Bulls do have one thing on the Sonics: A VICTORY in Seattle.

 

[Marcus13]

Strange, but the Bulls are 14-13 against the West, and that includes the 7 straight we lost in our season-opening 9 game winning streak. Since then, we are 14-6 vs the West and only 18-13 against the East.

BTW, the Bulls do have one thing on the Sonics: A VICTORY in Seattle.

gee yay- and we'll have a win in Chicago tonight, so what's that mean?

 

[Kismet]

NBD...McMillan is just stealing a page from Phil Jackson's book on how to publicly manipulate officials before the game even begins. Bulls fans, lets not forget that Jackson was one of the all-time whiners when we were winning those six championships.

 

[giusd]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

Allan and the sonics should be spending more time thinking about their play and not the refs, payback, the bulls, or some other bs. The problems is the sonics have been playing flat the last couple of weeks. They have still won some games but they do not look as sharp as a month ago. Even i beating the knicks on sunday they were down most of the game to a pretty weak knicks team. march is a long month of the season and ths sonics IMHO are in a funk. If they think they can win tonight by fluffing the refs they are in deep touble. The bulls will be pumped up for their first home game in a week.

david

 

[The ROY]

yall just need to close your mouths- none of you have anything on the Sonics and none of your players have anything on Ray Allen, so stop talking until you prove otherwise, if yall was ballin in the West you would't even be a playoff team and you know it

ya'll still got beat, shut the (nomasked cursing) up

the sonics really ain't that hot, last year ya'll was HORRIBLE too..this year ya'll just happen to figure out the ONLY thing ya'll are good at and tried to run with it..ya'll won't even make it out of the first round with that style

ray allen & rodmonavic are leavin next year, so i'll be on your board to talk trash to you when ya'll don't win more than 20 games next season

 

[atlbull]

ya'll still got beat, shut the fukk up

the sonics really ain't that hot, last year ya'll was HORRIBLE too..this year ya'll just happen to figure out the ONLY thing ya'll are good at and tried to run with it..ya'll won't even make it out of the first round with that style

ray allen & rodmonavic are leavin next year, so i'll be on your board to talk trash to you when ya'll don't win more than 20 games next season

don't worry about the ROY. the sonices will be back to under .500 next year when ray, ray bolts Seattle for somewhere else.

 

[7thwatch]

gee yay- and we'll have a win in Chicago tonight, so what's that mean?

Are you rigging the game? Cause I'm not sure how you can be certain of a W playing a team that kicked your arse at your own place a few days ago. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

 

[TripleDouble]

yall just need to close your mouths- none of you have anything on the Sonics and none of your players have anything on Ray Allen, so stop talking until you prove otherwise, if yall was ballin in the West you would't even be a playoff team and you know it

I love it when immature fools spout off. No one was saying anything about how good or bad your team is. They were pointing out that the Sonics were complaining. And they were. Try to stay on point.

 

[TripleDouble]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

The Sonics have to realize that in the playoffs play gets more physical. They should adjust rather than whine.

 

[bullsville]

gee yay- and we'll have a win in Chicago tonight, so what's that mean?

It means you're either psychic or extremely premature...

 

[Krazy!!!]

Re: SONICS: Ray Allen - "It's a payback game for us."

I was told that the Sonics are a much better team on the road than at home.

Then again....the Bulls are much better at home than on the road. :biggrin:

 

[fl_flash]

yall just need to close your mouths- none of you have anything on the Sonics and none of your players have anything on Ray Allen, so stop talking until you prove otherwise, if yall was ballin in the West you would't even be a playoff team and you know it

Such bravado. As far as the Bulls having nothing on the Sonics as it stands right now, the Bulls are 1-0 against them. I'd say that's something. I'd probably have to say that you're the one who shouldn't be talking until your teams proves anything against the Bulls.

As for the Sonics crying like little girls because some big, mean basketball player had the audacity to touch them during the game - wah, wah, wah. What about Ray Allens blatently cheap shots on Hinrich?

It ought to be a good game tonight.