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Jerome James broke loose for Seattle, throwing down seven field goals in seven attempts.

You've got to give the Sonics some credit now.

Yeah, the Spurs made things easier on them, shooting a positively Shaquilicious 55.9 percent from the stripe, but on a night when the Wiz couldn't turn O'Neal's absence into a win, the Sonics stood up and held off San Antonio, 92-91.

They played playoff ball in all its ragged, desperate glory. They played ugly and aggressive, like there was no tomorrow, and in the end it was enough to notch a win and make a series of the series.

And you've got to give them some credit for that, because you know, like Stephen A., like most everyone outside the Latte Belt, you figured they were done before the opening tip on Thursday.

But they defied expectations. Again. Remember this club was every pundit's pick for the Northwest Division cellar. Their head coach was a dead man walking when the season began. His was a ragtag bunch of walk-year guys and Association innocents; there was no way they were ever going to hang together.

Even after they got off to a hot start, they got no love. "They'll cool off," folks said. "They'll fade." But they hung in, surviving injuries to Vlad Radmanovic and Rashard Lewis, surviving their own porous defense, and somehow winning 52 games in the regular season, and now five more in the playoffs.

And none of us expected it, and none of us could really quite understand it, because they did it Thursday the way they've done it all season: unpredictably. There was no Vlad in Game 3, Rashard looked like a rookie, Reggie Evans left with an injury, and Ray-Ray was Bowened into a nasty (6-for-23 from the field and 1-for-8 from the arc), frustrating night.

But it didn't matter. Jerome James came up big, as though he was the crazy, animated doppelganger of the guy who had sleepwalked through the first two games of this series. The two-headed point guard Luke Daniels came up with 27 points, 8 assists, 11 rebounds, and 3 steals between them. Nick Collison was good for 10 and 6. And as a group the Supes hit their throws, going 28-for-33 from the line.

Unheralded, unexpected and strangely effective – that's the way the Sonics roll. They change up lineups early and often, looking to attack from odd angles with fresh legs (the crunch-time crew Thursday was Allen, Daniels, Ridnour, Collison and James). They give up points because they don't defend the perimeter very well (Tony Parker, your lane is open, no waiting) but they get them back by taking and hitting a lot of 3s and working the offensive glass as well as any team in the league. They're not much to look at (after Allen, they lack both grace and power), but they're aggressive and they don't fold their tents.

Thursday's win was surprising, but maybe it shouldn't have been. Maybe we should have remembered the way they rolled into San Antonio and Dallas on back-to-back nights in December and rolled out with back-to-back wins. Maybe we should have thought about how they've been working against the grain of expectations with an unorthodox crew from the jump. Maybe we ought to just say, look, the Sonics are kind of weird – muscle men like Fortson and Evans down low, streak shooters like Allen and Lewis on the outside, and water bugs like Ridnour and Daniels in between – but they work, hard and well.

Are they good enough to take this series? Probably not. But they were good enough Thursday night to hold their ground against a team a whole lot of us figure to win the title.

That's no small thing. Ask Gil Arenas and company, they'll tell you.

So whatever happens from here on out, let's give them some credit for Game 3, and for the 89 nights that led up to it.

They've earned it.

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Alonzo Mourning walked out of the visitors' locker room at MCI Center in one of his impeccable suits after the Heat's Game 3 triumph over the Wizards when a small television monitor caught his eye. On it were highlights of him in a Georgetown uniform swatting away shot after shot. He paused, transfixed on the screen. His now-grizzled face wore a sentimental grin.

"Man, that takes me back," he said as his voice cracked. "Coach Thompson really taught me a lot."

His eyes started to gloss over, and then that grin blossomed into a full-blown smile.

"And I was pretty slim back then too. Man, look at me go."

Back in D.C., his adopted second home, Zo has had much to be sentimental about. Everywhere he's gone, people stop him to talk G-Town, not playoffs.

"The four years I spent here were some of the best of my life," said Mourning. "We should have won it all in '89."

Thanks to Mourning's spirited play, the Heat took a 3-0 lead in the series and can close out Saturday. Late in the game, after a rejection of a Larry Hughes dunk, Mourning flexed his massive guns, drawing waves of boos from the fans that once cheered him. He knew it was nothing personal.

"The last thing you want to do is boo me," said Zo. "That just gets me going no matter where I'm playing."

He spent most of his career being the player you love to hate. Now he's the guy you gotta love. Just ask anyone in D.C.
– Chris Palmer, from Washington's MCI Center

If the Wizards want to be taken seriously as one of the elite teams in the East, this is the kind of game they can't lose. Playing on home court against a Shaq-less Miami team, Washington nonetheless rolled over on defense. The Wiz allowed the Heat to shoot 51 percent from the floor, which is amazing considering Miami ran the same play (a high screen-and-roll for Dwyane Wade) nearly the entire second half.

The Wizards may have been hampered by tired legs in the backcourt. Guards Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes both played the entire game and neither accomplished much while an eight-point third-quarter lead turned into a seven-point loss. The fatigue appeared self-inflicted: Wizards coach Eddie Jordan left Steve Blake and Anthony Peeler on the pine all game and used only seven players.
– John Hollinger

The opponents' jerseys may say Wizards, but Stan Van Gundy is already playing the Pistons. What other reason could he have for keeping Shaq on the sideline Thursday night?

Van Gundy knew that even if his team lost Game 3, it was highly unlikely to lose four out of five to the Wizards, regardless of Shaq's status. Meanwhile, in the back of his mind was the lingering thought that he'll need his best player at full strength to contend with the world champion Pistons in the conference finals.

Thus, Shaq was a scratch 20 minutes prior to tip-off, as Van Gundy hopes that O'Neal's black-and-blue thigh will heal if he takes some time off. With Miami winning to go up 3-0, there's no way he'll change course, so you have a better chance of seeing Sasquatch than you do of seeing Shaq suit up for Game 4.
– strong>John Hollinger