Sonics hold off Clippers
Ray Allen scored 31 points and Vladimir Radmanovic had nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Seattle SuperSonics to a 104-99 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night in Seattle.
The Clippers beat the Sonics by 30 points in the season opener Nov. 3 at Staples Center.
The Sonics, coming off a victory at home against the Miami Heat and Shaquille O’Neal on Sunday, secured the win in the final 3 1/2 minutes against a Clippers team that lost its second in a row after three straight wins.
Corey Maggette led the Clippers with 20 points. Elton Brand added 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The Sonics outscored the Clippers 11-5 in the final 3:27, with Radmanovic putting Seattle ahead to stay with two free throws after being fouled by Brand.
A 3-pointer by Rashard Lewis with 1:16 left gave Seattle a 100-94 lead before Brand made a free throw with 1:06 to go and Rick Brunson connected on a 16-footer with 40.9 seconds left.
Allen’s driving layup with 17 seconds left put the Sonics ahead 102-97.
The Clippers led 76-74 after three quarters, outscoring the Sonics 11-3 in the final 2:52 of the period. Brand scored six points in the outburst on a pair of layups and two free throws.
Lewis, Seattle’s No. 2 scorer, injured his right thigh in the first quarter and was limited to 24 minutes and nine points. The Sonics got five blocked shots from Jerome James and 11 assists from Luke Ridnour.
Notes
Nate McMillan won’t coach the Sonics on Wednesday night when they meet the Clippers in Los Angeles. After Tuesday night’s game, McMillan flew to Raleigh, N.C., for the funeral of an aunt. Assistant coach Dwane Casey will coach the Sonics in Los Angeles. … Sonics forward Reggie Evans was back in the starting lineup after missing three games with a stomach problem. He was hospitalized during the weekend. “The test results will be back this week and then we’ll know definitely what it is,” Evans said before the game.
Cinderella visits Sonics, Suns
Unlike the other major professional sports, the NBA doesn’t cater to out-of-nowhere champions.
It’s why the Phoenix Suns or the Seattle SuperSonics could become such a wonderful story this spring.
Cinderella rarely visits this league.
It has been 27 years since an NBA team won a championship a year after finishing with a losing record, but it’s something the Suns and Sonics are starting to note.
In Major League Baseball, a team won the World Series a year after having a losing record six times in the past 18 years. It has happened twice in the past three years, too. In the NFL, three of the past five Super Bowl champions have finished with a non-winning record the previous season.
By contrast, the last team to do it in the NBA was Portland, which went 37-45 in 1975-76, then won the title the following season. In the 27 years since, the worst record in the previous year for a champion was 47-35.
Even making the NBA Finals a year after a losing record is a rarity, happening only twice in the past 25 years (Portland in 1990, New Jersey in 2002).
The Suns and Sonics, neither of whom made the playoffs last season, will give the NBA two chances this season to produce one of those surprise endings.
The Suns were 29-53 last season, but they are the clear class of the league now, springing to a 28-4 start through Friday. The Sonics, until losing back-to-back games last week in Orlando and Washington, had the second-best record in the league. And they were only 37-45 last season.
“We’ve been fortunate to win more games this season than people expected,” Seattle coach Nate McMillan said last week.
“But we thought if we played the right way, played unselfishly, we would win.”
One of the biggest reasons for the difference between the NBA and the other sports is the frequency of free-agent movement.
It’s easier in football and baseball, which is why those sports are harder to follow.
The NBA is designed so a team has a better chance of retaining the players it likes by allowing it to pay more than anyone else could offer in free agency.
And one star player in basketball can make more of a difference than one star in either of the other two sports. In baseball, a team will trade an established star for young prospects because of fiscal reasons. In football, the hard salary cap often forces teams to part with valuable players and get nothing in return.
It was a year ago when the Suns made the trade that set the course for their sudden turnaround. They sent Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway, both with maximum contracts, to New York for a barrel of role players with expiring contracts and future draft picks.
It gave the Suns the salary-cap room this summer to land free agents Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson, which was huge in their current surge.
“I’m not sure there is a scenario where it could have worked out any better for us,” general manager Bryan Colangelo said.