This was a special juncture of the season.
With two days left until the trade deadline, the SuperSonics and the Spurs were two teams that could be virtually certain not to make any major trades on the deadline.
The reason was that the Spurs had already done what they needed to do, while the SuperSonics belonged to the group that had no room for operation. For them, rather than making rash moves, it was better to wait and see.
As Tyronn Lue's coaching debut, this game was the center of widespread attention.
The more optimistic media treated the influence Lue had on the SuperSonics as an experimental public test of sorts.
Bill Simmons had issued a bold statement: that there were probably only two or three coaches in the league that could influence the outcome of a game. That is to say, he believed that other coaches were dispensable.