In retrospect, the Sonics' dull but hardly disastrous Saturday-night loss to Denver strikes me as somewhat of a relief--and no, I'm not just being cheeky.Consider the opposite scenario: A four-game sweep during Nate McMillan's inaugural week as head coach would have completely burst the limits of reality and sent Seattle's ever-susceptible fan base careening into exotic madness. It's possible to have too much of a good thing, especially in the combustible universe of sports; had the Sonics notched the Nuggets, we would now be seeing diehard basketball junkies dropping in fits of ecstatic fanaticism and speculation. Such things have happened before, and while the immediate effects are intoxicating, the long-term results are rarely beneficial. There's nothing like a solid mid-level thumping to nudge your intellectual perspective back into the realm of mere mortality. Because, let's face it, we were all granted a brief glimpse of something truly extraordinary last week when the Sonics, with almost superhuman overcoming, disposed of Portland and L.A. in back-to-back games. It was glorious. All the hapless fans in this sepia-toned city--everyone who, over the last decade or so, invested a profligate amount of time following this team--were spontaneously rewarded for their loyalty.

Of all the games Seattle played last week, though, the most important was surely the one against the Golden State Warriors. This was the off-balance match-up that ultimately tested the Sonics' mettle. It was here, against the best rebounding team in the NBA, that everything could have really unraveled. For a number of reasons, the pre-game prognosis was not entirely optimistic. First of all, forward Vin Baker was sidelined at the last moment by a knee contusion he received after bumping 'caps with the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal; this, despite Baker's erratic play, put the front line at an aggravated disadvantage on the boards. Secondly, the team was undoubtedly fatigued, having taken a late flight out of Colorado after the previous night's game. Finally, on a slightly more psychological level, the Sonics' disturbing tendency to slack against sub-par opponents had to be taken into consideration. It seemed, at tip-off, that just the right combination of tangible and intangible forces were aligned against them, and I was expecting Seattle to get pounded.

I was wrong. Even with Warrior forward Antawn Jamison scoring an NBA season-high 51 points, the Sonics succeeded in quietly dominating the entire game. There were a number of fantastic performances: Gary Payton put up 38 points in 39 minutes; Ruben Patterson had 24 points and eight rebounds; Jelani McCoy played ferocious defense, scoring 13 points as well; Rashard Lewis shot six for six from the floor; and Emanual Davis executed perfectly at the backup point-guard position. More importantly, these performances are directly attributable to the savvy coaching technique of Nate McMillan. In the end, it was probably pure, McMillan-fueled inspiration that drove the Sonics to roll over the Blazers and the Lakers; in the game against Golden State, however, it was the uncompromising implementation of McMillan's strategy that proved decisive. In rearranging the starting lineup and tightening the rotation, Seattle's new head coach has tapped into a huge vein of talent that Westphal was incapable of discovering, much less utilizing to his advantage. Who would have guessed that McCoy could be a scoring threat? And doesn't Baker look a lot better coming off the bench? And isn't it nice to see Shammond Williams back on the floor once in a while?

And, while I'm at it, wouldn't it be splendid if the Sonics' owners removed that dirty little "interim" from McMillan's title, and fast?