SEATTLE – As quarters go, the third period of Sunday’s game between the Seattle Sonics and San Antonio Spurs was kind of like a one-on-one duel of can-you-top-this.
On one end was Tim Duncan. On the other was … Luke Ridnour?
San Antonio’s All-Star forward put on another sparkling performance in Sunday’s Game 4, yet his 15-point third quarter was matched by an oft-overlooked Sonics point guard who grew up two hours north of Seattle in Blaine.
Ridnour, whose four first-half points were dwarfed by Duncan’s 20, put on the most impressive scoring performance of his young NBA career in helping the Sonics pull away in the third quarter. His 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting matched Duncan’s point total that period and eventually led the Sonics to a 101-89 victory.
“I just came out and had some good looks and was able to hit some lay-ups and get going. That definitely helped,” Ridnour said after scoring a playoff career-high 20 points for the game. “The main thing is that I came out aggressive.”
Ridnour hadn’t been very aggressive – or productive, for that matter – in the first three games of the series. The second-year point guard entered Sunday’s game averaging just 7.7 points per game against the Spurs.
His first-half performance of Game 4 was pretty typical, as he hit 2 of 6 shots for a quiet four points, before Ridnour exploded.
He hit back-to-back field goals early in the second half to hold off a short San Antonio rally. He added an impressive jumper from the baseline a few minutes later after dribbling under the basket and losing defender Bruce Bowen in traffic. He followed that shot with a pull-up jumper 53 seconds later, extending Seattle’s lead to 66-55.
Just for good measure, Ridnour added three more field goals, totaling seven points, over the final 1:01 of the third. His floater off the glass with 2.5 seconds to play in the quarter gave the Sonics a 16-point lead, at 82-66.
“He was not thinking, and that’s great to see,” teammate Antonio Daniels said. “He was being aggressive. When you have a chance to make a play, you make a play. If you miss the shot, so be it. We’re a much better team when he’s more aggressive.”
Ridnour was so inconsistent this postseason, both as a shooter and while trying to defend point guards Mike Bibby of Sacramento and Tony Parker of the Spurs, that coach Nate McMillan heard suggestions about benching him in favor of Daniels. But McMillan stuck with the 24-year-old University of Oregon product, and it paid off Sunday.
“Luke is the future of this franchise as far as running the point guard,” McMillan said after Sunday’s game. “He is a competitor and competes every single night, and that’s one thing I love about him. … We’re starting to see him grow up right before our eyes.”
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