Empty the Bench

This can’t be a good sign for Sonics fans hoping their young superstar is still around next year. With free agency looming this summer, Seattle Supersonics forward Rashard Lewis tore his team a new a**hole after an embarassing 15-point loss to the Boston Celtics Friday night. Lewis wasn’t pleased about his lack of involvement in the offense, or the way he perceived his teammates were playing… or in this case, not playing. The Seattle Times has these post-game quotes from an exasperated Lewis:

“I only had 11 shots tonight, and when you look at the stat sheet, everybody took more shots than me except for Damien [Wilkins],” said Lewis, who finished with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting. “I thought we pretty much [played poorly] the whole first half even though we had the lead by 12. I knew we were going to go into the second half not playing hard, and all it took was for them to get their little run. And they did and they got the momentum.

“We were lackadaisical on the game plan,” Lewis said. “We just didn’t do nothing that was on that board tonight. It’s frustrating. You’re not going to make the playoffs losing to the worst teams in the league. If we’re going to continue to do this, we might as well hang it up and get ready to go home.”

“If [his teammates] don’t know by now, then they got a problem,” he said. “I was frustrated at halftime. I told them on the bench in the third quarter. I screamed and yelled a bit, but it didn’t seem to work. If you don’t know what the problem is after this game, after we just lost to a team that’s probably worse then us, then you have to check yourself. Everybody has to look in the mirror.”

Strong words from Lewis, whose team currently has the second-lowest winning percentage in the Western Conference (Memphis). Technically, the Sonics still have a realistic shot at making the postseason; after last night’s debacle in Boston, they’re 3.5 games back of the LA Clippers and the biggest booby prize in the NBA—the privilege of getting blown out by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Still, we feel Seattle is a longshot at this point, but you have to admire the fact that Lewis is nowhere near being ready to throw in the towel. Ripping teammates through the media is hardly the best approach, but if that’s what it takes to get through to them, so be it. It’ll be interesting to see how the Sonics play tomorrow in Toronto.

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