SEATTLE — With Ray Allen already on the injured list, the Seattle SuperSonics can ill afford to lose another perimeter scorer.
It might happen tonight, though, as they wait to see if forward Vlade Radmanovic can play after bruising his left knee in Sunday’s game against the Washington Wizards. Radmanovic skipped Monday’s team practice to get an MRI, with results not expected until sometime today.
Radmanovic was injured early in the game — he was not sure how, but evidently by banging knees with another player — yet did not realize he was hurt until he rose to re-enter the contest after sitting on the bench for a time.
When he stood, he said Monday, "I felt the pain. My knee was almost locking up."
As he ran up and down the court his knee would "loosen up," he went on, "but every time I was on the bench and then came back in the game, it was the same thing." After the game, "it was more painful."
A final decision about his availability may not be made until just before tonight’s tipoff, though "if there is nothing (wrong) in the knee," Radmanovic said, "I want to play."
Seattle coach Nate McMillan said he expects the third-year forward to start against the New Jersey Nets, but if not it will either be Reggie Evans or Ansu Sesay opening at power forward. Neither is the offensive equal of Radmanovic, who is Seattle’s third-leading scorer (14.9 points per game) and is the team leader in 3-point field goals (23).
Losing Radmanovic would "take away that perimeter weapon," McMillan said. "So it would change some things. But guys have to step up, and if they get the opportunity to replace him they have to go in and be themselves."
Kidd ailing:The Sonics know they will not be seeing Nets center Alonzo Mourning, who retired from the NBA on Monday because of a chronic kidney condition.
What Seattle doesn’t know is if it will see New Jersey guard Jason Kidd, who is bothered by a sore knee. Kidd sat out Saturday’s game against Toronto and is questionable to play tonight, though he is with the team for the start of a five-game West Coast road trip. A final decision may not be made until game time.
The sore knee "is not going to go anywhere," Kidd told the Bergen (N.J.) Record newspaper on Sunday. "Rest is the best medicine for it, but unfortunately this is the start of the season. You pick and choose where you’re going to be able to get rest."
"We have to prepare as if he’ll be there," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said.
Say what? Sometimes emotion gets the better of all of us, so we’ll give Jerome James the benefit of the doubt for some astonishing remarks after Sunday’s game.
James, who was benched after lackluster play in two previous games, was asked what he needs to do to get back into the playing rotation?
"Man, I don’t care about that," he said. "Really, I don’t."
You don’t care if you play?
"I don’t care," he replied. "I’m different from everybody else. I come to work, I do my job, I practice hard, I show up on time. Whatever they see fit for this team on the floor, then that is their call. That’s not my call. My call is to do what they ask when my name is called.
"If I play, I play," he added. "If I don’t, then my job is to support my teammates, cheer them on, tell them what I see from the sidelines."
Asked about James’ remarks on Monday, McMillan said: "I don’t know how to take that. I didn’t talk to him. I don’t know exactly what he means by that. But I just tell these guys to be ready to play when I call them."
Good game: Though he missed all four field goal tries, including a couple from point-blank range, Vitaly Potapenko still played well in 12 minutes of Sunday’s game. The 6-foot-11 Potapenko, who is replacing James in the rotation, had three rebounds, a blocked shot and gave the Sonics some hustling play in the middle.
Because Potapenko has played sparingly this season, "he’s a little rusty," McMillan said. "He missed some shots he’s capable of making, but I think all the shots he had were good looks. He was playing within the framework of what we need him to do. He didn’t force anything. He kind of took what was there.
"If he makes his shots, then it’s a really good game. And he also did a good job of boxing out and talking on defense."
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