By Dave Dondoneau
The News Tribune
SEATTLE – Nate McMillan is through wasting time thinking and talking about the Sonics’ 97-91 loss at home Friday night to the Chicago Bulls, the worst team in the NBA.
“It was devastating,” McMillan said after the team’s practice Monday afternoon. “But on the drive home that night I decided the sun was going to shine in the morning. You can either dwell on a game like that or move on.”
McMillan is choosing the latter, and after reviewing game tapes and practicing the past two days, that means a change to the starting lineup for the game tonight at Golden State.
Art Long, who started at center Friday but played just six minutes, will be replaced by 7-foot-1 Jerome James.
“It’s something we want to look at,” McMillan said. “We haven’t shown (Golden State) a bigger lineup with Jerome and Vin (Baker) yet.”
The lineup change is more than matchup strategy. McMillan said Long’s minutes have dwindled partly because of foul trouble and partly because of Long’s play. A 6-9 center, Long endeared himself to McMillan with his hustle and work ethic. Lately, Long has battled early foul trouble, and his play has fallen off. He’s averaging 4.7 points and 4.3 rebounds this season. James has battled injuries and played in 21 games, averaging 3.2 points and 2.3 rebounds a game. He’s not as quick as Long, but he could present matchup problems inside when he’s moving well.
“I’ve tried smaller lineups and all sorts of combinations to get something out of that position,” McMillan said. “We’re still trying to find something that works.”
Other than the lineup change, McMillan wouldn’t talk about individual players Monday afternoon. His focus was about regaining the chemistry the Sonics had from late December until about two weeks ago. A large part of that, he said, means getting the team to execute on offense and defense late in the game.
The Sonics have held leads late in each of the past three games – all at home and all losses. The most recent one, against Chicago, saw the Sonics give up a season-high 41 points in the fourth quarter as the Bulls went 6-for-7 on 3-pointers and won for just the second time on the road.
“They made some great shots,” McMillan said of the Bulls. “You could go to the gym with nobody on you and still not shoot that hot. But that’s only part of it.”
A loss tonight would match Seattle’s season-high losing streak of four and drop the Sonics (23-23) below .500 for the first time since Dec. 21.
“What we’ve done is basically revert back to where we were in mid-December where it’s not one individual (losing games) but it’s a total team effort on both ends,” McMillan said. “It’s bad basketball.
“Right now we have no rhythm and no chemistry in what we’re doing on the floor. It’s no one thing or player. It may be a bad pass, or a turnover, a mental mistake, a defensive breakdown … you put it all together and it adds up to major problems.”
To illustrate the point McMillan stopped the team scrimmage Monday with 20 seconds left after Vin Baker drove to the basket and was bodied out of bounds by Olumide Oyedji. A foul was called, but Baker had thrown the ball away.
McMillan used the play as an example of how the team has broken into individual performances, and stressed for the forwards and guards to put the ball back into the point guard’s hands and focus on executing plays.
“These guys found a way to work through this in December when they turned it around,” McMillan said. “I know they can do it again. These are the same plays and the same defense we were running two weeks ago. The execution just isn’t there right now for whatever reason.”
Baker echoed McMillan’s sentiments, and added that he and other veterans have to play more of a role at the end of games.
“We have to focus on that loss to Chicago and learn from it,” Baker said. “I’m not going to let it bury our season. We need to be concerned with how we’re finishing games. We’ve got to bounce back as a team and finish strong. It’s up to myself and Gary and other veterans to take over in the fourth quarter and play better.
“This is a league where you can lose your rhythm as a team. There’s so much parity the tide can turn on you quickly. We’ve got to get back on track. We can do it. This is the closest team I’ve played on. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of tension right now, but there’s a lot of anticipation to get on the court and clean up what we’ve done the past three games.”
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