Second Coming: A SuperSonics Return

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlindSideNZ

Oh you can keep the throwbacks that I didn't know I hadn't actually tried yet but very useful information. Thanks trek!

No prob, my friend. The Home and Away jerseys are the only ones that can be changed (outside of modding the throwbacks, which I'm not confident enough in my ability to do for my PC version), but two jerseys are fine. The more throwbacks you have, the bolder you can be with your home/away -- you could make them really crazy alternates and use the throwbacks as the "current" jerseys if you wanted.

I would have liked to do that with the Sonics, but they just have the cruddy Nets jerseys, the only good one their old red/white/blue classic from the ABA days.

[trekfan]

I've spent the last three hours trying to get this one logo right. I'm close. SO CLOSE. Stay tuned, lol.

[trekfan]

Here we go. Had to really dig to find the white version of the cursive "Sonics" (not quite the same as the green one, but I like that) and to do some serious photoshopping to pull it from it's original source (a really old poster of some sort), but this is it. I like the scheme, I like the look, and I'm thinking this is the winner. As always, any and all comments are welcome.

[trekfan]

And here we have next season's (likely) court floor. Changed out the center logo to something I was unable to use on the jerseys, try as I might to find a place for it, and switched up the corner logos to the jet streaking out of the half-basketball (the Sonics current primary logo).

Kept the word/font the same because there just aren't many better ones in the game.

As always, any and all comments are welcome.

[BlindSideNZ]

Absolutely Love it dude. You definitely nailed this. The cursive font definitely sets it apart. Shout out to the dedication you put in. I sincerely hope to see this go 80 seasons.
Going to have to get stuck into photoshop myself I feel.

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlindSideNZ

Absolutely Love it dude. You definitely nailed this. The cursive font definitely sets it apart. Shout out to the dedication you put in. I sincerely hope to see this go 80 seasons. Going to have to get stuck into photoshop myself I feel.

Much obliged. I sincerely hope it does go 80 seasons too ... gonna have to figure out what I want to do with the uniforms for 80 years (there's only so many ways you can do a Sonics uni) but I'll probably be sticking with these for a long-time coming (4-5 seasons at least) unless we start losing/incurring the wrath of the basketball gods. Then I'll ditch these fast, lol.

[trekfan]

The T'Wolves now sit at 33-35, 2.5 games back of the 8th seeded Spurs in the crowded West. Seattle came out determined to put any dreams of an upset to rest, especially after Minnesota's last game against the team in January which was a Sonics win, but came at the cost of Brandon Jennings being injured.

The first quarter was about fouls -- a theme throughout this game as both teams traded hard fouls on one another, especially the bigs. Gortat and Pekovic engaged in some elbow-swinging, Eastern European brutality and the refs didn't much like it. Both players were in foul trouble by the end of the first and rode the bench for a bit. Seattle managed to take a slim three-point lead into the second.

The bench players gave no quarter, either. Bogdanovic and Crawford both mixed it up inside and on the perimeter with the Wolves, and the Wolves gave as good as they got. Both teams committed a few bonehead turnovers in this quarter as emotions were high, but the Sonics still took that three-point lead into halftime.

The third quarter saw the return of the starters and the emergence of Gortat AKA the Polish Hammer. Gortat's nickname is well earned, but he's looked a bit slow all year -- not tonight, though. He was mixing it up, drawing fouls, knocking down his shots, and grabbing offensive boards (something the Sonics aren't particularly good at). His putbacks and deft high-post passing turned the Sonics into a deadly squad this quarter.

The crisp passing from Gortat lit a fire under Jennings, who missed every shot he took in the first half. Jennings hit one technical free throw at the end of the quarter to give him one-point as he entered the fourth.

Jennings would light it up from that point on. He scored the other 11 of his total 12 points in the final frame, running Rubio off screens and dunking (yes, DUNKING) on the Wolves. Jennings facilitated more than scored tonight, but he finished +14 in the box score and nearly had a triple-double (12 points, six boards, 11 assists).

Minnesota didn't let Jennings close them out, though. The Wolves got some help from Wiggins (before RHJ rotated on him and shut him down) and then turned to Pekovic, who was a monster in the fourth. He nailed his free throws, got three and-1s, and was causing trouble for Gortat.

Fortunately for Seattle, he also had five fouls entering the fourth (Gortat only had three) and Nerlens Noel managed to get him to foul out with a little over three minutes left. Without Pekovic, the Wolves collapsed on defense and Seattle had its way the rest of the game.

This was an ugly, playoff caliber win. The team grinded it out and though it was hardly efficient or pretty, they pulled out a win. Sure, Seattle could have played strategy here and thrown the game -- facing the Spurs in the 1st round isn't appealing to any team -- but keeping a rival out of the playoffs is far more meaningful.

It's an old-school approach in the modern era of NBA basketball, but one I'm sure Seattle is perfectly fine with.

Go Sonics.

[trekfan]

The Seattle SuperSonics have guaranteed themselves the 1st seed in the West. The Clippers entered the game only eight games back of Seattle (who had nine games remaining including this one) and, conceivably, could have stolen the 1st seed from the Sonics if they had won this game and Seattle had gone on a prolonged losing streak (entirely possible as the playoffs draw near).

But the Clippers only made this a game in the first quarter, when both teams traded triples back and forth (courtesy of a fun show between Paul Pierce and Brandon Jennings). However, both Pierce and Jennings went cold in the second and that's when the Sonics turned it over to their bench, which got them a lead that Seattle never gave up.

The passing between the bench unit and the starters was crisp for most of the game and the Clippers, as has become the case when facing the Sonics, just weren't up to the challenge. Despite a big coaching change in the offseason, the Clippers once again looked outmatched when facing a mentally tough opponent.

The game got close in the fourth (the Clippers closed the lead to just four twice) but Jennings and Gortat slammed the door on Lob City, ending any hopes of the Clippers nabbing the 1st seed. This was a big win, but better things lay ahead as the playoffs loom.

Go Sonics.