Back in training camp, a .500 record was probably the most modest of the Seattle SuperSonics’ goals for the 2003-04 season.
Today it is one of the team’s last preseason objectives still intact. And, like the others, this one might also go unaccomplished.
The Sonics, who flew to Miami on Wednesday and practiced Thursday in preparations for tonight’s meeting with the Heat, have a 27-37 record with 18 games to play. Seattle, then, would have to go 14-4 the rest of the way to reach .500. Considering the Sonics are 4-14 in their past 18 games, that prospect is slim indeed.
Still, a hopeful Nate McMillan has yet to wave the white flag.
“That is the goal,” said Seattle’s coach. “To get back to .500 and to try to do that, or at least to be on our way, by the end of the month. We just have to take it one game at a time.”
Though McMillan knows the odds are steep, the Sonics, he said, “need to have a goal that we’re trying to reach so we’re not just playing game to game. You have something that you’re trying to obtain, as opposed to just playing this season out. So that’s what I want from these guys and that’s what we want to look forward to.”
To have any chance of returning to .500, Seattle probably needs to win at least four games on this road swing, which continues Saturday in Orlando, Tuesday in Atlanta, Thursday in Memphis and Friday in New Orleans. The first three games are against ballclubs with losing records. After that, Memphis is on its way to its first playoff berth in franchise history and New Orleans is also likely playoff-bound.
“This road trip will not be easy, as far as I’m concerned, if we don’t play and do the things we need to do to win,” McMillan said.
The slumping Sonics were last at .500 on Feb. 2, when they defeated Chicago 109-97 at KeyArena. Seattle has lost a season-high five straight games and eight of its last nine, and is 10 games under .500 for the first time since the 1985-86 season, when the Sonics finished 31-51.
As the losses have mounted, an air of resignation seems to have settled over the team. Victories have come as surprises, as if the Sonics have done something good in spite of themselves.
Watching from the sidelines, where he spent six weeks with a broken finger before his return Tuesday night, Sonics guard Brent Barry saw his teammates playing without the same spirit and purpose that kept them over .500 for most of the season’s first three months. What needs to happen on this road trip, he said, is for everyone “to just play harder.”
“We have to find a way to get consistent effort for the rest of the season from our guys,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what the staff has in mind – are they going to give (young) guys experience or (play to win) – but at this point we’re still not eliminated from anything in the postseason. So I would hope our guys continue to go out and play with the type of passion that we should be playing with, because I think at some point we lost a little bit of that.”
“We need everybody to put forth the effort every night,” agreed guard Ray Allen. “Whether you’re playing five minutes or 25 minutes, it doesn’t matter.”
Allen, who sparked the Sonics to a 17-12 record after his trade from Milwaukee last season and an initial 7-2 mark after his return from ankle surgery in late December, seems sobered by Seattle’s recent slide. He was never more so than after Tuesday’s game, in which he scored 37 points and added seven rebounds despite the aftereffects of the flu, only to have his teammates provide scant help in a loss to Minnesota.
“You go through these bad times to get where, hopefully, (it helps you) appreciate the good,” Allen said. “Because nobody is promised winning. You have to go out there every game and make it happen, and that’s what we’re learning now.”
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