BRAMA, Jan 3, 2004, 9:00 am ET
Meeting of the Ukrainian Titans
— by Max Pyziur
Friday January 2nd the Los Angeles Lakers flew into Seattle for an evening game, the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. The game's main headlines revolved around former Supersonic Gary Payton's return to Seattle in a Laker uniform. However, one of the subtexts of this game was that this was the first meeting this season of the NBA's Ukrainian nationals - Los Angeles Lakers Power Forward Stanislav Medvedenko and Seattle Supersonics Center Vitaly Potapenko.
With teammate Karl Malone's freakish December 21st knee injury sidelining him longer than expected, the Mailman's pain has been Slava's gain, increasing his minutes per game as well as putting him in the starting lineup. Already this season Slava has shown considerable development over previous ones, averaging 8.3 points on 56% shooting per game versus 4.4 and 43% last season.
By comparison, Vitaly Potapenko's playing and participation has been inconsistent. This season Sonics' coach Nate McMillan has seesawed between molding the team to be strong defensively - with players such as Vitaly as one of the cornerstones - to playing a fast-break game dominated by his star shooter and high-speed rookies. One evening the former strategy dominates, the next the latter. With lackluster performance coming from Sonics starting Center Jerome James Vitaly has gotten more playing time but his production has not been as consistent as that of Slava's.
As expected the pre-game's festivities focused on now Laker Gary Payton, with the fans cheering his return to the Seattle hardwood. However, once the game was underway it was high-speed, high-scoring with neither team dominating. After 14 minutes of play Lakers' star Center Shaquille O'Neal strained his right calf and was out the rest of the game. The leads changed several times and were never more than 8 points. The game was finally decided in the last five seconds of play with Kobe Bryant missing a three-pointer leaving the score at 111-109 and giving Seattle the win.
Both Vitaly and Slava put in productive nights. In 22 minutes of playing Vitaly was 6 for 8 in shooting (75%) and 1 for 2 in free throws for 13 points, a season high for him. Slava played 30 minutes scoring 6 of his 7 shots (86%) and making 2 of his 3 free throws for 14 points, along with pulling 4 rebounds. For their respective teams each player was the third-highest scorer for the evening.
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