SEATTLE – With the game and their entire season on the line, the Seattle SuperSonics put the ball in the hands of their best shooter. After all, Ray Allen at the 3-point stripe is as close to a sure thing as anything could be.
But in the final half-second Thursday night, Allen’s attempt at a game-winning 3-pointer touched the right rim and bounced away, allowing the San Antonio Spurs to escape with a dramatic 98-96 victory in Game 6 of this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal playoff series.
The outcome, before another raucous sellout crowd of 17,072 at KeyArena, gave San Antonio a 4-2 series victory, bringing a disappointing end to a Seattle season that was nonetheless remarkable in many ways.
”We fought to the end,” said Sonics coach Nate McMillan. ”These guys gave everything they had. They left everything out on the floor. It’s not the way we wanted it to end, but we gave it our best shot.
”I’m proud of these guys. They committed all season long to playing the game the right way and sacrificing (personal ambitions) to become a team. They committed to each other, to the organization and to the city.”
In victory, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich was very gracious to the Sonics. Not many people, he pointed out, predicted Seattle would be a very good team.
”What those guys accomplished was fantastic,” Popovich said. ”This series was very difficult for us. So (the Sonics) were fantastic in all they did. We are thrilled to escape the series, because that’s basically what we did. We escaped.”
The game was decided in a back-and-forth fourth quarter that included three ties and nine lead changes. Trailing by three points inside the final minute, Seattle drew within one on a tip-in by Nick Collison and then had a chance to go in front when Antonio Daniels went to the free throw line for two attempts with 14 seconds to play.
Instead, Daniels missed the first, but converted the second to tie the score, 96-96. San Antonio then took a timeout to draw up a play for a final shot.
The in-bounds pass came to guard Manu Ginobli, who held the ball to let the clock run down as the other Spurs spread the floor. Then, working against Daniels inside the final five seconds, Ginobli drove into the middle. As defensive help converged, he passed to All-Star forward Tim Duncan on the right side of the key.
Duncan pivoted and banked a short jump hook off the backboard over Seattle’s Vitaly Potapenko, with the ball dropping through the net with 0.5 seconds on the clock to give the Spurs a two-point lead.
The Sonics used a timeout of their own to set up a desperation play, which turned out to be a pass to Allen in the left corner. Allen had time to catch the ball and shoot, with barely a glimpse of the basket above the outstretched hand of the oncoming Duncan.
Allen’s attempt seemed true, but just clipped the rim with the horn already sounding through the arena.
”I turned around and Tim was right there,” Allen said. ”I really didn’t even see the basket. I just tried to get the ball over his hands. It had a chance to go in, but it didn’t. But that’ll be a shot I’ll probably think about for a long time this summer.”
”I thought Ray’s shot looked pretty darned good from where I was sitting,” Popovich said. ”It just didn’t drop.”
Despite scoring the winning basket, Duncan had a poor shooting night from the field. He was just 6-for-21, though he was 14-for-17 from the free throw line to finish with a game-high 26 points.
That Duncan was on the court at the end was surprising in itself after he fell to the floor with an apparent injury with eight minutes to play in the game. He had rolled to the basket on a pick-and-roll and collided under the basket with Nick Collison, who drew a blocking foul. Duncan came down on Collison’s foot and rolled his left ankle, and for several moments the Spurs looked on nervously as Duncan writhed in pain.
Eventually he stood and walked off the pain, then coolly went to the line and dropped in both free throws. Though the Spurs’ coaches and trainers were checking with Duncan to see if he needed a break, he waved them off. He later made a brief exit before returning to finish.
”That (ankle) is probably going to be jelly (today),” Popovich said. ”I can’t believe he kept playing on it, but he would probably have had me assassinated if I had kept him out of the game longer than I did. He showed a lot of guts playing through that thing. But great players continue to compete.”
Among the Sonics, the emotion of the loss was seen in the red eyes and heard in the quivering voices of several players, among them Allen and Daniels. Actually, the grief began in the team’s traditional postgame huddle at center court.
”I got teary-eyed because I knew it was the last time we’d huddle up,” Allen said. During the season, he added, ”we’ve laughed in that huddle, we’ve joked, we’ve been (angry), but that huddle has been there all year. But I said I appreciated everything we’ve done. We had a great time and now it’s over with, but everyone can hold their heads high.
”I’ve never felt the type of bond to any group of guys as I’ve had this year,” he said. ”Going to battle with these guys is the most pleasurable season I’ve experienced. We genuinely like each other, and that’s what propelled us to the second round of the NBA playoffs.”
”This hurts,” admitted Daniels, who then paused to let a moment of emotion pass. ”You understand that’s the last time we’ll do that this year. One thing you understand is that this is a business. Who knows if this team will be back together again next year the same way it is now, even though I know a lot of us would love that. But right now it hurts.
”Everything we take away from this season is positive,” he said. ”I have nothing negative to say about anybody in this locker room or what we accomplished this year. This team showed what the word team is about throughout the course of this season and that’s all you can ask.”
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