From: liang@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Chuck Liang)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Re: Sonics / Portland
Date: 13 Apr 92 23:04:38 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Apr13.192343.6060@tc.fluke.COM> tron@tc.fluke.COM (Peter Barbee) writes:
>blowout of the T'wolves on Sunday, yawn) but the Sonics played well.  The
>game was contested right down to the end.  I'm mostly writing this
>note to generate responses from some of the big Blazer fans (Orleck, et
>all).

  Well, I guess this is unavoidable.  The playoffs are a few days
away.  So here we go....!!!!


>
>I thought Friday's game was poorly officiated.  Not so much because the
>Blazers won it at the line in the fourth but because it seemed really
>inconsistent - I didn't agree with what was called and I thought a lot
>of other things should have been called.  Maybe my living room isn't
>a very good perspective but still...


  It was definitely your living room.  The Blazers never foul anybody.
The refs have it in for them.  It's part of the JFK conspiricy.  If
the game was correctly officiated the Blazers would have won by 40.


>
>But I also think the Sonics need more respect if they're to get far in
>the playoffs.  And by respect I mean calls by refs.  Three in particular
>are: Buck sucks the ref in with bad acting and Shawn gets the offensive
>foul, Robinson falls out of bounds but gets the call despite minimum
>contact in going after a loose ball, and Pierce loses the ball out of
>bounds amid lots of contact and only gets a T for his troubles
>(admittedly he deserved the T for his delay of game but when Pierce
>complains there is a reason).  It's not that any of these calls changed 
>the game but they are indicative of respect Seattle isn't getting from
>the refs.  In the playoffs those calls could make the difference.


  When will you get it?  Sucking in the refs is all part of the game.
I just wish the Blazers could do it much better.

  I guess it's useless to challenge you to not complain about any
officiating if there's to be a Portland-Seattle series?

>
>As for Portland; they look beatable.  I honestly think a healthy McKey
>would have made the difference Friday night (sure Glide wasn't 100%
>but Benjamin [a better center than Duckworth] was at 0%).  When neither
>Porter or Drexler is able to penetrate they look lost (the flip side is
>that when they do they roll).  Most teams rebound with more fire in the
>playoffs.  Portland absolutely depends on second chance points (a snide
>aside would be that their first chance offense stinks); will they
>get as many offensive rebounds in the playoffs?


  In the playoffs it's their offense that gets stuck.  They depend
even more on offensive rebounds in the playoffs.  Their rebounding
saved them in a lot of playoff games.


  A Portland - Seattle 2nd round matchup is certainly possible.
Seattle actually matches up with Portland probably better than anybody
else in the west.  They've talent at every position and they're also
very deep.  But Portland's players are simply a better mix.  If
Seattle wants to be a real contender it should trade away some of that
talent.  Otherwise I see the Sonics going the same sad route the
Mavericks did.  Stop collecting "good" "solid" "dependable" and
"capable" players.  Get a superstar.








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