SEATTLE – It has a lot to do with quirks of the schedule, of course, but still the Seattle SuperSonics find themselves in a rather unexpected position this morning.
They are, to the surprise of perhaps everyone on the planet, the NBA’s last unbeaten team. Every other league power – among them Sacramento, San Antonio, Dallas and the Los Angeles Lakers in the West, and New Jersey and Detroit to the East – has been defeated at least once. Meanwhile, the Sonics, who were on very few preseason lists of probable playoff contenders, are perfect through three games.
“I’ll take it,” said Seattle coach Nate McMillan on Saturday, allowing himself a brief smile.
It would be absurd, of course, to make too much out of this. The Sonics, after all, have played just three games because of their season-opening trip to Japan, while most other teams have played between five and seven games. Seattle won twice in Japan against the lowly Los Angeles Clippers and beat a struggling Portland team at home on Friday night.
The first loss, then, could be no further away than next week’s four-game road trip to the Midwest, and possibly even tonight, when the Sonics host the Atlanta Hawks in a 6 p.m. game at KeyArena.
Also, McMillan remembers last season, when Seattle sprinted to an 8-2 record, then came crashing back to reality by losing six of the next seven games. By early January the Sonics had a losing record and they would not get above .500 the rest of the season.
Still, in tones of extremely cautious optimism, McMillan says his ballclub has exhibited some encouraging traits to date.
“This team is playing hard and they are playing together,” he said, “even though we’ve had to overcome some tough things, like injuries and inexperience and traveling to Japan. But our guys are putting themselves in a position to win games.
“I’ve always felt that if you play hard and play together you have a chance to win. In everything I try to do (as a coach), it all goes back to that.”
McMillan has implemented an up-tempo attack this season, largely because the Sonics have several players who are very good at running the floor and also because the team, absent a high-scoring center, does not have an effective low-post offense. And on Friday night that approach paid off in a big way as Seattle simply outhustled the visiting Blazers in a 100-82 victory.
“It’s a long season,” McMillan said. “And for us to say whether this is real or not, I think it has to continue for a period of time. I think it’s way too early, but this is a style that’s here and we’re going to keep playing this way.”
Forward Reggie Evans, who battled for 11 rebounds in Friday’s game, shook his head at the mention of Seattle’s unblemished record.
“We went through that same stuff last year,” he said, “so I’m not thinking about that. I’m not concerned about us being unbeaten right now. I’m just concerned about us playing this same way throughout the whole season.”
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