From Deseret News archives:

Sonics' Fortson gets teed off, thrown out during Seattle's win over the Jazz

Published: Friday, Dec. 9, 2005 11:48 p.m. MST
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Some of the Seattle Sonics expressed frustrations during Friday night's 106-90 victory over the Jazz in the Delta Center to avenge their Nov. 22 loss at home when Utah was without several injured players.

Burly Danny Fortson stomped off the court and out the tunnel in the first half after getting a foul, and he got a second technical and an ejection and had to be held back from referee Mike Callahan at midcourt by teammates and coaches in the second half after a foul with about nine minutes to go.

Vladimir Radmanovic went and sat in the stands momentarily after getting his sixth foul.

But the Sonics pretty much smiled it off in the postgame locker room after they'd put the Jazz back in their place after Utah had pulled off a six-point win Nov. 22 in Seattle when they were missing several injured players and the Sonics somewhat took them for granted, said coach Bob Weiss.

"No, that's us — always," said guard Ray Allen a bit whimsically about the antics of a few teammates Friday. "We've just got to make sure that when we get a little wild and crazy that we do it where it can't affect the game, where we give the game away."

Which is pretty much when the Fortson and Radmanovic incidents occurred. The Sonics had a 20-point lead.

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"It's just certain individuals," said forward Reggie Evans, who grabbed 13 rebounds and defended Utah's Mehmet Okur, who had 24 points in Seattle but only 10 Friday.

"The people who kept their control outweighed the people who got out of control," Evans said.

"Yeah, it's a spirited game. Things like that happen," said Weiss.

Allen recalled that Fortson got flustered in the first game with the Jazz. "I don't know if there's something personal between he and (Jazz forward Jarron) Collins, but Danny plays hard, and he's helped us out and won a lot of games for us with his physical presence down low."

Evans and Utah forward Kris Humphries also did some talking on the court as Humphries tried to push and pull him around.

"I get a smile when you try to get physical," said Evans, calling that his game. "Somebody like Humphries, he probably (could have gotten) a tech pulling my jersey and stuff, but it was understandable. It's just his second year, so he wants to get physical.

"I'm a little too strong for him," said Evans.

Evans was apparently too strong for Okur, too. "We let Okur get off last game, so I got a chance to play Okur for the whole game — just stay in his face, not give him too much breathing room. A lot of those guys from overseas, they can stroke it with any kind of room.

"I just couldn't let him go off like he did last game."

Unlike the Jazz philosophy of defending from the inside out, Evans said he wanted to stop Okur's long-range game. "You don't really get concerned about the post-ups," he said. "I care about him shooting threes. Post-up, I figure he's going to go baseline."

Utah had a pretty good time breaking through the Sonics' man defense the first half, so Weiss switched to a zone to stop people like Devin Brown (14 points, 10 in the first half), from cutting to the basket. It also halted Jarron Collins at 13, which was what he had the first half.

Once that was solved, "we looked like the old Sonics, so it felt good tonight," said Evans. "We felt like we gave away a couple games this year, and that (against Utah Nov. 22) was one game."


E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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