Portland 82, Seattle 75: Sonics face ex-coach McMillan for first time

PORTLAND — The brief pregame handshake and embrace at halfcourt between the coaches was more of a ceremonial showing for the cameras and fans than a true heartfelt meeting.

About 24 hours earlier, Seattle coach Bob Weiss and Portland coach Nate McMillan sat down with members of the Sonics staff for drinks and a meal at a downtown eatery where they discussed the old times and hashed out whatever awkward feelings lingered between them.

And Weiss being Weiss lightened the mood when he queried McMillan about Portland's morning practice before the Trail Blazers' 82-75 victory in last night's exhibition.

"I asked him, 'How long are you going to practice?' " Weiss said. "And he said an hour. Then I told my staff, 'OK we're going an hour and five minutes.' I'm glad [he] didn't say an hour and a half because I didn't want to go an hour and 35."

Both insisted that there's no acrimony between them, but last night's game had the feeling of something more in the first half.

The I-5 rivalry, which had dulled in recent years as the Sonics won six of the past eight regular-season meetings, got a significant jolt of life after McMillan left Seattle this summer and joined the Blazers, which left his former assistant in charge of the Sonics.

"It probably is a little more exciting than a normal exhibition game would be," Weiss deadpanned.

After leading 41-40 at halftime, the Sonics pulled their starters and their reserves were unable to keep pace with the Blazers, who, despite a shoddy shooting performance, were able to overwhelm the defending Northwest Division champions.

Before leaving, Sonics guard Ray Allen finished with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes. Forward Rashard Lewis had eight points, and Luke Ridnour and Reggie Evans each scored six. Each played 19 minutes and Evans also had six rebounds.

"I was pretty satisfied with how I felt individually and just as a team. We may not have made shots when we needed to, but I liked the way guys came in and played," Allen said. "It didn't look like guys were hesitant."

Center Robert Swift, who started in place of injured Vitaly Potapenko (sore left hamstring), scored two points and had three rebounds, but he could have finished with many more.

"Swift, his timing was off," Weiss said. "He had about three rebounds when he went up in the air when the ball was going up. They both came down at the same time and somebody else would get the rebound. He just couldn't reach it.

"I've never seen anybody doing that. He was out of sync. He got one rebound in the second half when he really went up and got it. All of the rest of them, I don't know if he was nervous, but he was not playing in sync."

Weiss wanted to get a glimpse of Seattle's improved defense and its new fast-break offense. To that end, it was a glass half-empty, half-full type of performance.

Expectedly, Seattle's offense sputtered in its first outing. The Sonics shot just 18.2 percent (2 of 11) from three-point range and managed just two fast-break points before halftime.

"We did a great job of stopping them, but then we got to come up with the ball," Weiss said. "When you hold a team to 31 percent [shooting], you should have a lot of fast-break points."

Portland won the game in the second half, outscoring Seattle 23-17 in the third quarter and salting away the victory in the fourth after the Sonics' starters had retired and watched from the sideline.

Portland's Zach Randolph scored a game-high 16 points, Sebastian Telfair added 12 points and 10 assists, and Darius Miles had 10 points. Seattle Prep graduate Martell Webster finished with six points on 3-for-12 shooting.

"For the first game, it's a good start," Lewis said. "Not a great start, because you always want to get the win, but something we can build on."

Last night's box score

Seattle (75)

Allen 4-8 2-2 11, Ridnour 2-5 2-2 6, Evans 1-5 4-6 6, Lewis 4-9 0-0 8, Swift 1-4 0-0 2, Wilkins 3-7 0-0 6, Scales 3-5 4-5 10, Moore 1-4 2-2 4, Collison 1-3 0-0 2, Petro 0-2 0-0 0, Murray 2-6 0-0 4, Cleaves 3-5 2-2 9, Felix 2-6 0-0 4, Brunson 0-0 0-0 0, Powell 0-0 3-4 3, Fortson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-69 19-23 75.

Portland (82)

Telfair 3-14 5-6 12, Smith 2-9 3-3 8, Patterson 2-3 5-5 9, Miles 4-12 2-4 10, Przybilla 1-6 0-1 2, Randolph 5-7 6-6 16, Ratliff 1-2 0-0 2, Webster 3-12 0-0 6, Jack 3-10 1-2 9, Outlaw 2-5 2-2 6, Dixon 0-3 2-2 2, Khryapa 0-1 0-0 0, Clancy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-84 26-31 82.

Seattle 20 21 17 17 — 75
Portland 21 19 23 19 — 82

3-Point Goals — Seattle 2-11 (Allen 1-5, Cleaves 1-1, Murray 0-2, Ridnour 0-1, Wilkens 0-1, Scales 0-1), Portland 4-21 (Jack 2-5, Telfair 1-5, Smith 1-4, Webster 0-3, Dixon 0-3, Outlaw 0-1). Rebounds — Seattle 37 (Evans 6), Portland 48 (Przybilla 12). Assists — Seattle 13 (Evans 2, Allen 2, Ridnour 2), Portland 17 (Telfair 10). Total Fouls — Seattle 32, Portland 22. A — 14,585.