Opponent: Utah Jazz
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Delta Center, Salt Lake City
TV: KONG (Ch. 6/16)
Radio: KJR (950 AM)
Probable starters: For Seattle – forwards Vin Baker (6 feet, 11 inches) and Rashard Lewis (6-10), center Art Long (6-9), guards Brent Barry (6-6) and Gary Payton (6-4). For Utah – forwards Karl Malone (6-10) and Scott Padgett (6-9), center Jarron Collins (6-11), guards DeShawn Stevenson (6-5) and John Stockton (6-1).
Next game: Seattle at Denver, 6 p.m. Friday.
Scouting report: Since taking over the Sonics early last season, coach Nate McMillan has held his own against Seattle’s Western Conference rivals. He owns the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, for example, having won five of six games between the teams. In his tenure, he has beaten every other conference foe at least once.
Every rival, that is, but one.
McMillan is 0-6 against the Utah Jazz. He will be trying to avoid his seventh straight loss to the Jazz tonight at the always difficult Delta Center.
Utah has already beaten Seattle twice this season, and both outcomes were decisive – a 91-74 decision at KeyArena on Nov. 3 and a 112-88 romp on Nov. 28 at the Delta Center.
“We’ve been able to play one, two or three (good) quarters against this team,” McMillan said, “but we haven’t been able to put four quarters together in the last year and a half.
“Mentally they get into us. They take us out of what we want to do with their physical play. They’re disciplined with how they execute their offense. We have to keep our focus. We know it’s going to be a physical game. We want to play that style of basketball, but we must maintain our composure.”
Tonight’s game will be a clash of two of the NBA’s hottest teams. Though Utah brings a surprisingly mediocre 20-17 record into tonight’s game, the surging Jazz has won eight of its last 10 games. Seattle, meanwhile, has won nine of its last 11.
As always, star forward Karl Malone leads Utah in scoring at 23.7 points a game and rebounds at 8.6. He is also tops in steals at 1.81 and is second in assists at 4.1. Venerable John Stockton – he turns 40 on March 26 – is high in assists at 8.4, second in steals at 1.68 and third in scoring at 12.4.
Forward Donyell Marshall, the team’s second leading scorer at 16.9, is questionable to play after missing the last two games with a bruised right hip.
More Jazz: A trip to Salt Lake City and a meeting with the Jazz is tough for three reasons – the altitude (Salt Lake City is 4,260 feet), the Delta Center’s raucous fans and, of course, the Jazz itself.
“That’s a tough building to play in,” Seattle’s Vin Baker said. “They definitely have a homecourt advantage there. There’s some tough fans there. They’re very hostile. They yell out a lot of different things during the course of the game. They really get into their basketball there.”
Baker expects the Sonics to match Utah’s poise and patience tonight.
“We tried to run them out of the gym (in the two earlier meetings) and it caught up to us,” he said. “The thing we’re going to do is slow down the pace a little bit. You have to be poised against that team. It’s like Coach Mac mentioned today, if you get down 10 to them it’s like being down 30 to anybody else.”
Sharp shooter: Aided by his 6-for-8 effort against Cleveland on Cleveland, Seattle’s Rashard Lewis has climbed into the top 30 in NBA 3-point field goal percentage. Lewis is 29th (going into Tuesday’s games) with a 39.5 percentage (68-for-172).
Before Friday’s game, Lewis had a 37.8 percentage (62-for-164).
As a team, the Sonics were third in the NBA in 3-point marksmanship with a 46.1 percentage heading into Tuesday’s games, trailing Minnesota (47.4) and Milwaukee (46.3). Seattle’s Vladimir Radmanovic was fifth in the NBA at 46.6 (34-for-73) and Brent Barry was 18th at 42.2 (73-for-173).
Rich Myhre
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
