Ho-hum Sonics need a quick fix

The boos began with a minute to go. They were well-deserved.

On an opening night that was as festive as a funeral, the Sonics were out-hustled and out-played and, yes, out-coached by the out-manned Los Angeles Clippers.

They blew a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead to a team that, trust me, is going nowhere this season. They collapsed under the weight of Sam Cassell's rainbow jumpers. They were pounded underneath by the strong arms of Elton Brand.

They gave up 12 straight points early in the fourth. They were outscored 15-2 in crunch time. And, as the game slipped away like sand at high tide, they had no timeouts left to halt the inexorable Clippers march.

Flip Murray pounded the ball into the KeyArena floor like a jackhammer, stalling the offense. Rashard Lewis was being ignored by point guards Murray and Luke Ridnour. Nick Collison and Lewis got beaten to the ball on key, late-game rebounds.

Cassell hit a jumper in Ridnour's face, giving the Clippers a six-point lead, and then James Singleton beat Lewis to the ball and scored to put it out of reach.

It was awful to watch.

This 101-93 loss Wednesday to the Clippers was every bit as bad as last season's 30-point loss to the same team in Los Angeles.

Every fear the Sonics took with them into this season was realized in these first 48 minutes.

Defense? When the Clippers made their run, the Sonics were playing the most passive 2-3 zone in the history of the game.

Post play? What post play?

Bob Weiss, new coach and resident Mr. Nice Guy, had better light a fire under this team quickly.

Last season this team crept up on the league like the perfect fog. Stealthily the Sonics put win after win together. Quietly they sneaked up on the rest of the NBA.

They were supposed to be bad. They turned out very, very good.

"We snuck up on a lot of teams last year," said Ray Allen, who led the Sonics with 31 points. "I remember we went to Miami [in January] and they hadn't seen us play a lot. I had a couple of friends down there say the Heat was going to beat the living daylights out of us. But I told them to 'slow down. You don't know what we can do.'

"I remember we just shocked a lot of those people who were there [beating Miami, 98-96]. That was a case of us sneaking up on them. I mean we weren't even on the radar in the NBA."

But that was last year and none of that matters now. Wednesday was a new beginning. New coach. New center. A very different look to their division.

After winning 52 games and the Northwest Division, the fog has lifted. The league knows about the Sonics.

"We have a lot of expectations now," Allen said.

They lived down to those expectations in this opener. They played with all the joy of a losing team on the last leg of an East Coast trip. They played like a team that needed a wakeup call.

Allen learned in 2002 that success from one season isn't a guarantee the next. His 2001 Milwaukee Bucks were one game away from the NBA Finals. The next season, they didn't make the playoffs.

"It taught me to not think or expect that the same thing is supposed to happen the next year," Allen said. "Regardless of what happened the year before, you have to make it happen the next year. People don't just bow down for you."

Call it Allen's "Virgin Daiquiri Theory."

"Some of the worst teams from the year before are watching you in the playoffs," said Allen, whose Sonics made it to the Western Conference semifinals last year. "They were vacationing all over the world. I know there have been years when I was on vacation, watching those other teams and thinking, 'Hey, I want to beat them next year.'

"I'd be sitting on a beach, sipping on a virgin daiquiri, and thinking, 'We've got to put a whipping on them, because I don't want to be on that beach no more watching them play.' Other teams take that mentality. So we can't take anything for granted."

They played the opener as if the win was a guarantee. They took a 16-4 lead that was oh-so easy. They took the game for granted.

"I have no idea about this team," Allen said. "I don't think that success, from one year to the next, is carried over. Each year, you might show promise. People might expect things from you. But you still have to put it out there on the floor."

But on opening night that was thick with anticipation, the Sonics mailed one in. And the boos tumbled in the last minute from a crowd that deserved better.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com.