Bynum's out with a knee injury, as you may have heard.
Since the calendar turned to 2008, the Sonics have shot 38.7% from the field and averaged 88.9 points per 100 possessions. For the season, their Offensive Rating is 100.2 points per 100 possessions. In Carlesimo's opinion, the drop-off starts with the team getting less from its transition offense and continues from there.
"We haven't run hard or consistently," he said, "so not only are we not getting shots from the first six, eight, 10 seconds from transition, which is really important to us, but we're basically wasting six, eight, 10 seconds and now we're trying to get into a halfcourt set, so instead of at 10, we're trying to get into it at 14 or 16. Even then, we've been slow getting into it. When we make a call, we're either not communicating it well or we're not getting into it well.
"So we worked on one, running and attacking and doing more in transition; two, when (the point guards) call a play, that we get into it a lot more quickly than we have been getting into it and that we run it more crisply."
The numbers support Carlesimo's contention that his team has not pushed the ball consistently. Of the eight slowest-paced Sonics games this season, six have come in the last nine games, including each of the last two.
"We ran better by a hundred-fold today during practice than we have during any of our games," Carlesimo said. "We've had games where we've run consistently; we've just stopped doing it."
"So you wanna be a superstar
Welcome to hollywood
Quick money, fly women, fast cars
Welcome to hollywood
So you wanna be a superstar
Welcome to hollywood
High times, big dreams, living large
Welcome to hollywood"
-P.O.D.