I'm putting the stale, watery taste of Old Milwaukee behind me and reaching for ... a Chicago dog.
There is no finer restaurant city in the United States of America than Chicago. Not New York, not San Francisco, definitely not Seattle.
One observation is I thought the Sonics bigs, mostly Chris Wilcox, got tired. Collison and Petro got in foul trouble and it forced Wilcox to play 40 minutes of action.
The final play was supposed to be a lob to Lewis from Luke. Ra inbounded to Luke, but it was congested and Ra couldn’t get to the rim.
I will give you more when we get to Chicago.
I thought Luke really wore down in the 4th as well. He had Wilcox open on several fast breaks down the stretch but didn't give up the ball. The last play was simply botched when the NannyRaper jumped the pick and Luke couldn't get off the pass to Rashard. It happens.
One encouraging stat, as good as the Bulls have been the past couple of years (and they were friggin TERRIBLE before that, trust me) the Sonics are 5-0 against them the last 5 games. So in the words of Carl Spackler, "I got that goin' for me..."
Official Sean Corbin called a technical on Wilkins and the Bucks scored three points on the possession to cut the lead to 86-84. Michael Redd tied the game with a layup, and the Sonics would lead by no more than a bucket the rest of the way.
"I don't think any of us agreed with the call," Wilkins said. "You can't take it back now. It was a critical call at a critical moment. (Corbin) made the call. I wish we could take it back, but we can't. A couple of calls here and there and a couple of misfortunes at the other end of the floor (is what hurt us)."
True. I am grateful to Washburn for writing about it though. That is one that the front office should definitely send to the league office because Corbin f*****d that one up big time. This was a situation where the referees should have gotten together and overruled the initial call. Instead, because the refs are always protecting each other to avoid crackdowns by the league, the error was compounded and was a factor in the outcome of the game. I am not saying it is the reason the Sonics lost but a tight game shouldn't be decided by a whistle. The refs swallowed their whistles during the Sonics last possession...as if Luke Ridnour wasn't fouled on that play? Sure he was. So, it's over now, no point in complaining any more. It's not going to come out of Sean Corbin's paycheck, though it should.
“Ruben made a good defensive play,†Lewis said. “He’s the Kobe Stopper.â€
He's also the NannyRaper, the Asskicker, the Cleveland Steamer and a couple of other names I can't remember right now. Both him and Peja "Hairybjak" Drobnjak led the league in crazy nicknames back in the old ESPN Sonic board era.
Earl not expected to play tonight, either. Will Mike Wilks get more time?
"The muscles are just so tense," [Watson] said after logging just nine minutes during Tuesday's 94-93 loss to Milwaukee. "If I can play [tonight] I will, but realistically, I'm aiming for Friday and I don't even know if that's realistic."
Also, Robert Swift's recovery from knee surgery is progressing well. If all goes well and we are all good little girls and boys maybe we can get him to write a guest column for us or do some game analysis.
Vienna Beef Maxwell Street Polish Sausages
Interesting stuff about the change back to the new ball. Sonics equipment manager Marc St. Yves basically said he thinks the league is going to eventually be using the composite ball again, but they are switching back to the leather for now because so many players are complaining about cuts on their fingers. He said the league called and asked how many game-ready balls each team had. Sonics had six. Twelve teams had none. So they had to ship them all to Spalding, which is going to do a series of tests on them to make certain they are game-ready. Then the league will ship the balls back out to teams. Some teams will be playing games with balls that have other teams' names on them.
In the words of Ron Fairly: You should never play with someone else's balls.
I'm not sure if Ron ever really said that, but he could have.
Brown didn't practice and is suffering from a strained plantar fascia. The Bulls wouldn't be surprised if Brown missed home games Wednesday and Friday against Seattle and Milwaukee, as well as Saturday's game at Atlanta.
No PJ Brown tonight and a special dig at Flip Murray from BlogABull.
Those awesome artopitas from Greek Town
I don't think Mike gets Gelabale's value. Two conversations going on here at once.
And never mind Basquiat's timidity — if the Supes don't have the confidence to play Mike Wilks more than one minute in a game when they lose their backup point guard, what exactly is the purpose of having Mike Wilks on your active roster? With Allen out, it would appear to be a lot more plausible to fill that void with a combo playmaker-sharpshooter like McNamara.
Sure, I can deal with replacing Wilks with McNamara ... not Gelabale. G-Mac's a good little player but 1) needs the ball in his hands to be effective and 2) is more of an undersized SG than a PG. I always thought as a pro prospect G-Mac was only a slightly better version of Shammond Williams, but for a Mike Wilks type role it's not a bad idea.
Best steakhouse: Wildfire
Best hot dog joint: Portillo's
Best Italian Beef: Portillo's
Best Greek food: Artopolis
Best ribs: Carson's
Best Pizza: Giordano's
Best Cheesecake: Eli's
GO SONICS! and win one for the Green Lantern.