If the NBA were one of those milk commercials from the 1980s, the Sonics would be auditioning for the role of the kid in the first stage–scrawny, faintly promising (to an optimistic eye), and eager to prove himself. The Spurs, on the other hand, would be the body-done-good Adonis, and they showed why Sunday night, easily dispatching their junior opponent, 116-101.

Give the kids credit: they brought an admirable, giant-slaying intensity to the affair. Maybe someone had a talk with Kevin Durant, because, despite being guarded by two of the league’s finest defenders (Bruce Bowen and Manu Ginobili), he had his best game of the season, moving without the ball, attacking the basket, forcing few shots, and rebounding and passing.

The game’s most noteworthy performance, though, was Wally Szczerbiak’s 20-point second quarter, which came at the expense of Bowen. I’ve read little press on bad blood between the two, but there’s plenty of reason to believe that Wally, a temperamental scorer, shares the disdain of other temperamental scorers (Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, etc.) for the gangly “stopper.”

I had the good fortune of sitting with the photographers on the baseline, the place to be as Szczerbiak and Bowen went at it. I’ve always agreed with the sentiment that Bowen’s a hacker, but you have no idea how egregious his molestations are until you view them from that vantage point. It was reminiscent of those awkward Jerry Springer scuffles, with the clumsy hand fighting and wounded protestations about the opponent’s perfidy. (Unfortunately for Bruce, Wally is the stronger of the two.) Their constant narration and advocacy (both verbal and facial) during such intense competition bespoke a mastery of their craft. They glared at the refs and shouted indignant, GOB-like “come on!”s, all while running curlicues along the baseline and pawing at each other like a prom couple looking to get their money’s worth before curfew. This was multi-tasking of the highest order, and it was something to behold.

Finally, according to the AP game summary:

Szczerbiak was feeling so good in the second quarter that he pulled rank and refused to hand off to a surprised Durant during a give-and-go play late in the half. Szczerbiak stepped back and made his eighth shot in 10 tries instead.

I’m reminded once more of his intra-squad steal from Mike Miller in the Goodwill Games. This sort of behavior might not make for happy teams, but it can make for happy viewers in dead-end seasons. (When there’s little drama surrounding the outcome, we have to find it elsewhere.) And it seems PJ won’t hesitate to sit the old gunslinger when he’s missing the mark. So I say keep shootin’, cowboy!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Supersonics, Roundball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.