SEATTLE – Seattle SuperSonics guard Ray Allen calls it “a chess match,” while coach Nate McMillan likens it more to “a game of cat and mouse.”
It is the strategic scheming that goes on during an NBA playoff series, and it begins in earnest when the Seattle-Sacramento first-round matchup resumes with Game 2 tonight at KeyArena.
Since Game 1 on Saturday night, an 87-82 Sonics victory, the two teams have had time to evaluate the other’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own, and make adjustments to their respective game plans. Some of the changes could be overt, such as a new face in the starting lineup, while others are much more subtle, as in new plays or decisions about which players get double-teams and which players do not.
The Sonics have gone so far as to try to anticipate what adjustments Sacramento will make, and then prepare countermeasures.
“We’re trying to be ready for all scenarios,” McMillan said. “You don’t want any surprises this time of the season.”
While Seattle is expected to stay with the same lineup that started 63 of 82 regular-season games and Saturday’s playoff opener, the Kings may present a different look. After starting three forwards up front in Game 1 – Peja Stojakovic, Brian Skinner and Kenny Thomas – and seeing the Sonics punish his squad inside, Sacramento coach Rick Adelman might well opt to shuffle his starting five, although by Monday afternoon he had yet to tip his hand.
Center Brad Miller, a two-time All-Star, could return to the first team after missing nearly two months with first a bruised calf muscle and later a broken leg. Backup Greg Ostertag, who played well in a reserve role Saturday, could also be in the opening lineup.
“They have a lot of guys and a lot of things they can go to,” McMillan said. “But whatever lineup they come with, I don’t think the style will change. I think they’ll still be trying to do the same thing.”
The Sonics also have a few new wrinkles planned, he hinted, though he declined to share them – wise, since some members of the Sacramento media were standing nearby.
Regardless of the tactical nuances tonight, McMillan says the Sonics can expect a decidedly stronger effort from the Kings.
“As I told (the team), this is going to be tougher than what we faced in Game 1,” he said. “Normally the team that loses (the opener) is upset and they come out with more energy the next game because of that sense of urgency. And by nature the team that won the first game may relax just a little.
“What we want to do is put Game 1 behind us and play (tonight) as if this is Game 1. We’ve got to be hungry and we’ve got to be aggressive. We have to be better than we were in Game 1. Game 1 is behind us. We have to play even better and even more aggressive in Game 2.”
Added forward Vlade Radmanovic, “We know Sacramento is not going to lay down and say, ‘OK, you’re going to beat us.’ They’re going to come back and try to take one away from us, especially here in Seattle.”
One thing the Sonics expect is for Kings guard Mike Bibby to play better than he did in the opener, when he was 1-for-16 from the field and finished with a mere three points. Bibby, one of the NBA’s top point guards, averaged 19.6 points and 6.8 assists in the regular season.
“Bibby won’t have the night he had in Game 1,” McMillan said. And when a reporter made the mistake of saying something about stopping Bibby, the coach quickly corrected: “You don’t stop Bibby. All you can do is try to make it tough for him. If he has three more of those games, then I think you can talk about somebody stopping him. But I doubt that’ll happen.”
“I never expect Mike to come in and have a game like that,” Adelman told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. “He might have a half like that, but he never stays down that long. 0x133 But I’ve been around Mike long enough and I’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”
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