Young SuperSonics gaining confidence

By Rich Myhre

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – Back at the start of training camp, no one knew what to expect from the Seattle SuperSonics.

Not the fans. Not the media. Not even the coaches and players.

Now, with the Sonics moving into the second half of their NBA season, expectations are everywhere.

“I expect us to win every game,” Sonics coach Nate McMillan said Monday. “We’re a young team and we still have to make adjustments, but I expect us to win. And I expect us to compete every night. If a team beats us, it should not be because we’re not coming out and competing.”

Such is the mood among the Sonics these days that winning is suddenly the norm. Seattle has victories in four of its last five games, including three of four on last week’s difficult Eastern Conference road trip.

“We’re a lot more confident now,” said Seattle forward Rashard Lewis. “We’re winning ballgames. We’re playing together and that’s the reason why we’re winning. I think we have confidence that we can go out there and win. We expect to win, and if we lose we’re upset.”

It is fitting that tonight’s game is against the Portland Trail Blazers. Back on Dec. 8, Seattle’s season reached its low point with a 113-92 loss to the Blazers at Portland’s Rose Garden (“They embarrassed us,” McMillan said). The defeat dropped the Sonics five games below .500, their worst record of the season.

Three nights later, Seattle suggested an impending turnabout with a surprising win over the Lakers at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Though the Sonics were beaten by the LA Clippers the next night, they followed with a six-game winning streak that provided some momentum to a rugged January schedule.

Despite playing nine of 12 on the road already in January, the Sonics managed seven wins to climb three games over .500 for the first time this season. Three of those victories came last week in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Indiana. Only a dismal first half against Charlotte kept Seattle from sweeping the four-game swing.

“I think that’s the best we’ve played in the last couple of years,” McMillan said. “For us to go out and win three out of four – and we should have won all four – it was a very good road trip for this team.”

Now, with a favorable schedule in the weeks ahead – Seattle plays seven of its next eight at KeyArena – the Sonics have a good opportunity to pad their record even more.

“That was a great road trip for us,” said forward Vin Baker. “I think a lot of people were thinking we’d take a step back, but we believe in ourselves. To beat the caliber of teams that we beat was great. It boosts our confidence.

“Now we feel like we’re going to win every basketball game,” he said. “Earlier in the year, we were trying to find our identity. We were trying to see what kind of team we were going to be, and individually guys were trying to find out what kind of players they were going to be. But now we’re going into every basketball game feeling like we’re going to win, and I think that’s evident from our last road trip.”

The Sonics enter tonight’s game in third place in the NBA’s Pacific Division, a half-game up on the Blazers. Barring a dramatic shuffle of the Western Conference standings, Seattle will be one of five teams – Portland, the Clippers, Phoenix and Utah are the others – contending for the circuit’s final three playoff spots.

Which means Seattle’s remaining home games, and particularly those contests against conference rivals like Portland, will be particularly significant.

“We’ve done a good job this month of playing out on the road,” McMillan said. “Now we have an opportunity to be at home. Portland is a very good team and they can give you a lot of different combinations, so it’s hard to prepare for everything they’re capable of doing. But I’m not concerned with what other teams do. It’s what we do and how we play the game.

“As long as we come out ready to play, and as long as we commit to defending and executing on the offensive end of the floor, we should be OK,” he said.