SIMULBLOG FOR SONICS V. HAWKS

Sonics 99 Hawks 91 --- FINAL SCORE
Damien Wilkins scored 11 staright points for the Sonics
He has a career high 26 points and 12 of 13 from the free throw line
Nick Collison was the key to the game and he had a career high 13 rebounds
The Sonics had a lull in the 3rd Quarter but otherwise were very good tonight
The Hawks were unable to find the match-ups that I thought they were going to be able to exploit.
The Hawks isolated Harrington on the wing guarded by Collison and he forced him into a jumper and the Hawks never went to it again.


Sonics 83 Hawks 83 with 6:19 left in the 4th Quarter
Flip Murray was -15 in his last stint
Nick Collison is the reason the Sonics are in the game
Neither team can grab a defensive rebound.

Hawks 78 Sonics 76 at the end of 3 Quarters
7 turnovers by the Sups in the 3rd Quarter
A total and colossal collapse by the Sonics
The Hawks scored on their final 6 possessions of the Quarter to close on a 13-2 run.
That is terrible
I am nervous about this. The Hawks have some half court match-ups that we can’t guard and I am not sure we have the same without Rashard Lewis on the floor.
If they isolate Al Harrington we can’t guard it.
Joe Johnson may be able to penetrate.


Sonics 58 Hawks 56 with 7:04 left in the 3rd Quarter
Sonics are in a lull and it could be dangerous.
I am not sure I understand what Atlanta is doing. Why aren’t they isolating Al Harrington on Nick Collison and trying to draw him into foul trouble. They have done it once and got an easy lay-up.
10-2 Hawks run.


Sonics 52 Hawks 44 at the half
Great second quarter of basketball
The Sonics are playing very well defensively and it is opening up opportunities.
Nick Collison has been a total stud – 15 pts 7 rebs
Strong strong performance
Rashard has not come out to warm up for the second half

Sonics 46 Hawks 44 with 1:54 left in the 2nd Quarter
Nick Collison is playing great tonight. I mean great. His defensive rebounding changes everything. Swift needs Nick on the floor. Nick is always in the right place and it give Robert some freedom.
Lewis has not returned.
This is a really fun game, thus far. Great pace. Great energy. Great action


Sonics 38 Hawks 37 with 5:20 left in the 2nd Quarter
Rashard Lewis is in the locker-room with a thigh contusion
Damien Wilkins is a totally different player under Bob Hill
There is a really good energy in the building tonight
Not sure why Nick has re-entered the game yet after his brilliant first quarter
The Sonics ran their best fast break of the season on a Wilkins/Murray back and forth with the ball never touching the floor and finishing on a Wilkins dunk


Hawks 28 Sonics 26 at the end of 1 Quarter
Josh Childress may have the ugliest shot I have seen in the NBA. I love his game, but then when he shoots it is so terrible looking that it makes you cringe.
Vlady has been aggressive going to the basket thus far coming off the bench
It is a very high tempo game
Nick had a brilliant first quarter 11 pts 4 of 4 shooting and 3 rebounds.
Luke is 0 for 5 but has 3 steals.


Sonics 16 Hawks 14 with 6:15 left in the 1st Quarter
This is going to be a heavy transition game as neither team gets back well.
Nick Collison is very active and getting great slips to the basket from Ray Allen.
The Hawks ran a pick and roll with Johnson and Harrington and the Sonics look like they are going to have a tough time with that play
Great block by Robert Swift helping down low on Joe Johnson
Opposing bigs are just killing the Sonics young kids

Storylines
1) Nick Collison at the power forward matching up on Al Harrington
2) Both teams are great offensive rebounding teams and both are poor defensive rebounding teams. Who wins that battle wins the game
3) Marvin Williams homecoming

SIMULBLOG FOR SONICS V. HORNETS

Hornets 77 Sonics 73 at the end of 3 Quarters
Hornets are shooting 30 of 60 on the game. This is the 28th best shooting team in the NBA playing without both of their point guards
Sonics may need to go Evans and Collison to finish and win this game
Since the Sonics starting playing the young bigs the other teams bigs have been putting up big numbers – West has 16-8 and Brown 13-7


Sonics 69 Hornets 67 with 2:37 left in the 3rd Quarter
Sonics offensively are taking advantage of the overplay on Allen to get easy looks in the paint and finding open cutters
Chris Paul tired to return but was unable to go and Speddy Claxton is still out of the game.
The Hornets can’t run the offense without either of their point guards,
The Sonics should run away here at some point.


Sonics 47 Hornets 47 at the half
The Hornets lost Speedy Claxton early in the first half when he got hit in the eye.
Chris Paul drove aggressively to the basket and fell hard when Collison took a charge.
The Hornets scored 38 points in the first 15 minutes of the game and without both point guards they scored just 9 in the next 9 minutes.


Hornets 38 Sonics 22 8:54 left in the 2nd Quarter
12-2 run and the rout is on.
The Sonics have been down double figures at this point in every game of the road trip.
Petro is a disaster on defense. He isn’t feeling where people are and he is a poor rebounder
The effort is questionable again tonight


Hornets 26 Sonics 20 at the end of 1 Quarter
Flip Murray comes into the game and the first possession he is in the game he catches the ball on the inbound and then proceeds to never pass on the possessions and drive to the basket and misses. That has to do wonders for team chemistry.
Hornets shot 52%
No Vlady again tonight


Hornets 19 Sonics 13 with 5:18 left in the 1st Quarter
I love Chris Paul. He is amazing. He is in total control.
Everyone is talking about comparisons and the most common name is Kevin Johnson which is pretty good, but he reminds me a bit of Kidd with his open floor vision.
His ability to move the defense with a subtle drift to one side which opens up the back side is a veteran move. He is outstanding.
The Sonics are a poor weakside defensive team and Paul is exploiting it.

SIMULBLOG SONICS V. BOBCATS

Bobcats 101 Sonics 87 with 8:10 left in the 4th
Sonic on a 15-4 run
They are playing 4 guards and Lewis
This is the highlight of ever night but it means nothing unless you get to the other side of the mountain.

Bobcats 95 Seattle 71 at the end of 3 Quarter
The Bobcats have surpassed their season average by 7 at the end of 3.
This is really amazing
It reminds us all of the three game losing streak on the first long trips of the year when the Soncis lost three games by 30. This is 22,19 and whatever tonight ends at.
When do we start training camp again?


Bobcats 80 Sonics 60 with 6:45 left in the 3rd Q
The first good news of the night Mateen Cleeves comes in for Flip Murray
Does this prove that Vlady has value?
Wow is this bad
There is no effort. I mean no effort

Bobcats 67 Sonics 54 at the half
The Bobcats average 89 points a game.
This is Washington Wizards game 5 bad
Reggie Evans will start the second half.

Bobcats 56 Sonics 43 with 2:50 in the 2nd period
Lay-ups,lay-ups, lay-ups anybody want any lay-ups. Giving up lay-ups. Free lay-ups, just come and grab them. Lay-ups lay-ups lay-ups
This is the worst defense of the year. That is a huge statement.

Bobcats 34 Sonics 22 at the end of 1
Rashard has its offense going with 9 points
Sonics trailed by as many as 18
This could be a disastorous ugly loss.

Bobcats 29 Sonics 16 with 2:03 left in the 1st Quarter
This is the worst offensive team in the NBA and they have 29 points already
Melvin ELy, who I like a lot, is dominating the game inside
Swift is out with 2 fouls
Collison has 2 fouls and once again promotes the theory that he can't start because he can't stay on the floor.

STROYLINES
1) worst offense v. worst defense
2) Can the Sonics match the effort
3) No vlady is that good or bad

BREAKDOWN OF THE OFFICALS MISCUES

The talk on this is out of control and 95% of what I said last night was not heard correctly so I thought I would write it all down.

Here is my take on the calls and the officiating which I said last night was awful, was an embarrassment to the league and definitely was influential in the game



D-Jack TD offensive pass interference -- I can somewhat understand why the call was made since it was directly in front of the official and it had all the bearings of offensive pass interference. However, in reality it was a terrible call that cost the Hawks a touchdown.

Big Ben TD – The mechanics of the official were brutal, when he runs in from the side he has his hand up signaling 4th down and then on the second replay you can see when he raises his hand and it is when Michael Boulware walks in front of the officials vantage point the official then sees the ball in the end zone that he raises his arm for a TD. That makes the difference because the head official Leavy has the lowest % of overturned calls in the last 3 years so he was going to keep the call on the field no matter what the call was.

D-Jack TD on the bomb at the end of the 1st half – this is D-Jack fault. He has to get feet in. That is a lack of focus. But what infuriates me on this is that it was close, in fact I think it was a TD, his second foot knicks the pylon before his next foot knocks it over. What is overwhelming is that the Steelers call a TO and the guys upstairs never review the play. How can that be, How can they not review it or take another look at it when there is a timeout on the field.

Locklear Hold negating play to the 1 – Honestly I don’t know enough to understand what is and what isn’t holding. However, I will go with what Madden and others who I know said and they think it was an awful call. There has been a good deal of talk about whether or not the Steelers were offsides on this play and the next. I went frame by frame and didn’t think it was offsides, but it is obvious that they had figured out the snap count the Hawks were using or that Tobeck or Hasselbeck did something right before the snap, because they were moving unnaturally.


SUMMARY
There is no doubt in my mind that the Hawks were responsible for this loss with their own mistakes. The next question is if these calls were all made correctly or mechanically correctly would the Hawks have been able to overcome their own errors?
The officiating had a huge impact on the game, the flow, etc. That is undeniable.

At the same time, the Hawks inability to finish drives. The Hawks inability to make plays and moreover the Stevens and Engram drops were huge. The injury to Manuel put the onus back on Ken Hamlin for his poor decisions in Pioneer Square, the injury to Bernard took away a huge play maker. The Steelers took advantage of that.

The officials were an influence on the game, more so then the NFL should ever allow. Did they determine the outcome of the game, that is up for debate.
Was the officials inadequacies intentional and part of a fix or a conspiracy. No. Get real that is crazy talk.

SUPER BOWL SIMULBLOG

THE COMMENT ZONE IS OPEN TODAY.

STEELERS WIN THE SUPER BOWL 21-10.
A brillant season and the last two weeks were two of the best any sports fan can ever have but the final chapter is very disappointing.

Pittsburg 21 Seattle 10 with 6:46 left in the Super Bowl
The trick play burned Seattle – Randle El to Ward for a 44 yard touchdown.
The killer is that the burned players were Erik Pruitt and Kelly Herndon.
I am not sure why Jordan B isn’t getting some time at the safety
Then the Hawks couldn’t complete another drive.
The Steelers are getting through to Hasselbeck just enough to eliminate drives.
Where has D-Jack gone? No catches since the 1st Quarter



Pittsburg 14 Seattle 10 with 10:46 left in the Super Bowl.
The curse of being a Seahawk fan lives. Just when you felt it really felt it. It gets taken away from you.
The Hawks were at the 1 on a catch by Stevens, that is noteworthy, but it was negated by a phantom penalty holding on Locklear
Then the Steelers keep making plays when Casey Hampton blew up Robbie Tobeck for a sack.
Then the first huge mistake of the game. Matt throws an INT.
If this is going to get done it is going to be in the most dramatic fashion.
That was the game winning drive and it feel short. Is there another one.
The inability to finish drives has killed the Hawks
Then the Hawks got F’d for the third time this game on a brutal officals call and it cost them 15 yards and Pittsburg starts with great field position


Pittsburgh 14 Seattle 10 with 2:41 left in the third
Great work by the defense to force back to back 3 and outs
However, the Hawks still aren’t making plays. Warrick should have never let the punt drop it bounced at the 21 and then rolled to the 1. Tom Rouen has been unable to do this all game.
Jerramy Stevens dropped another ball and has been a total disaster. Joey Porter hasn’t made one play on the field but he may have won the Super Bowl in the week’s pre-game activities.
Hawks start at the 1 – it could be a classic drive. A mistake and the game is over.


Pittsburg 14 Seattle 10 with 6:45 left in the 3rd quarter
How about this change -- Living for another breathe.
Kelly Herndon steps in front of a terrible Big Ben pass and takes it back to the Hawks 20.
Rocky Bernard looked like he got hurt trying to be the lead blocker. I doubt he will return,
Stevens finally holds on to one and catches the 18 yard touchdown pass.
Now the question is without Manuel, Dyson, and Rocky can the Hawks get stops.



Pittsburg 14 Seattle 3 with 11:40 left in the 3rd Quarter
Time to play Jeopardy. The answer is goat. The question is who is Jerramy Stevens?
He has two enormous drops that have changed the game.
The Super Bowl is about making plays and the Hawks are not doing.
The Hawks are without Manuel and Dyson. The Hawks don’t have a stop since Manuel left the game.



Pittsburgh 14 Seattle 3 2 plays into the 2nd half
This is a disaster
Jon Kitna told us that Joey Porter is a much better player when they are ahead then when they are behind. That holds true for the entire Pittsburgh approach offensively and defensively.
Getting Alexander involved in the game is going to be very difficult.
The Ken Hamlin fight is coming back to haunt the Hawks in the Super Bowl of all places.


More Halftime Notes
Seattle had 6 drives
1st – died when they got caught in 2nd and 3rd and long
2nd – Chris Grey holding penalty killed this drive
3rd – Bad Call of Offensive Pass Interference negated TD and ended drive
4th – drop by “Soft” Stevens on 3rd and 2 negated a huge play
5th – Mack Strong comes up an inch short
6th – butchered two minute drive

If they tighten up they should be able to score.
The Steelers had 5 drives and only got first downs on a gimmick reverse and two great playmaking plays by Big Ben.

Steelers lead 7-3 at the Half
Seattle is not making plays that win Super Bowls. D-Jack has to get his feet in bounds. Stevens has to hold onto the ball. The penalties have negated huge plays.
An inch changed the half. When Mack Strong was an inch short on the 3rd down play. He should have got the first down. It changed the field position and let the Steelers start a drive in decent position.
They mismanaged the end of the half when Hasselbeck got caught up in an audible
Seattle dominated 22 minutes of the half and trail at the half. That is disturbing.
Seattle has been using 3 wide receiver sets with great success in the passing game.
The offensive pass interference call was awful and has changed the game
The reverse call to Ward was a game changer as well.
Remember the halftime is significantly longer at the Super Bowl.
Since they have gone to this stupid new ball for souvenir routine the second half has been the scoring half.


Steelers lead 7-3 with 1:55 left in the 2nd Quarter
It is tough to swallow but that was too close to overturn. All you have to do is hit that white line not the end zone blue and Big Ben may have done that.
The difference in this game is the Steelers are making plays and the Hawks have not made the plays they needed to make.
Penalities and not holding onto the ball by Stevens have separated the Hawks from brilliance.
The good sign is that the Steelers had to make two remarkable plays to complete that drive. Ben shoveled a pass to Ward on 3rd down and then on another 3rd down his scramble was amazing.
The other thing of concern is that drive too so long that now you are limiting the amount of drives the Hawks get.


Hawks lead 3-0 with 10:10 left in the 2nd Quarter
Boulware interception just as we predicted and it would be 10-0 like we predicted if Stevens hadn’t been”soft”
Huge drop by Stevens on the last drive
The Hawks are killing themselves with mistakes.
They are dominating this football game and look to be the much better team, but they are uncharacteristically making mistakes that are preventing them from being up 14 or more.
Big Ben is 2 of 8 for 9 yards and a pick. He is not comfortable with all of the coverage.
Time for a classic Seattle drive. The hawks could rip their heart out.


Hawks lead 3-0 at the end of 1
Another 3 and out by the Steelers.
Big Ben is 1 for 5
The Steelers don’t have a first down
The Hawks defense finishes the year allowing only one defensive touchdown in the 1st Quarter.
Great return by Warrick puts the Hawks in Steelers territory. Return is negated by a penalty.
Penalties are killing the Hawks


Hawks lead 3-0 with :22 left in the 1st Quarter
Hawks lead but it should be more. A brutal call negated a TD to Darrell Jackson in the end zone. Jackson pushed off at the last second but it was minimal. Bad Call big time bad call and it will impact the game
Mike Holmgren is getting a feel for this game. He is exploiting things in the Steelers defense.
Big play in the drive was 3 recievers to the left (including the TE) and Jackson isolated on the right. Matt hit D-Jack for big yardage
The Steelers are rushing 3 a lot and not blitzing but Matt seems to be comfortable.



Hawks 0 Pitt 0 with 4:34 left in the 1st Quarter
Roethlisberger looks uncomfortable with the Hawks only rushing 4 and dropping 7.
In the past playoff games he was great against the blitz and the Hawks haven’t shown the blitz yet
Great play on run support by Marcus Trufant
The Steelers pressure is hurting the Hawks offense. Hawks have two holding penalties.
Tom Rouen has to do a better job of not kicking into the end zone.
Hawks are winning the field position battle



Hawks 0 Pitt 0 with 9:39 left in the 1st Quarter
Opening Drives are in the books.
Hawks moved the ball and then fell apart when they got into 2nd and 3rd and long
Hawks showed a ton of formations early in Holmgren pre prepared sheet
We saw a 2TE set, a 4 WR, and mostly 3 WR 2 RB.
Hasselbeck missed an open receiver that would have continued the drive
Sean Locklear got beat for a sack.
Pittsburg self destructed


I was waited for Hasselbeck to say "We will take the ball and we are going to score." Maybe that is why they let Wistrom call the coin. Hawks are 1 for 1.

Can you believe it is true -- the Hawks are about to play in the Super Bowl. Enjoy eve

ry second everyone and cheer like hell