One day after taking the day off from practice to see a doctor, forward Rashard Lewis was back in the team’s starting lineup.

Lewis had missed the team’s previous two games with tendinitis in his left knee. The game before that, in LA against the Clippers last Wednesday, he played only the first half.

With Lewis back in the lineup, the Sonics started the unit that had opened 31 of the team’s 36 games – guards Ray Allen and Luke Ridnour, center Jerome James, and forwards Lewis and Reggie Evans. Allen, Ridnour and James have started all 37 games this season.

Missing Tuesday was backup center Vitaly Potapenko, who is suffering from gastroenteritis, the same malady that recently waylaid Evans. Potapenko, who was not at KeyArena, became ill after Sunday’s game against Cleveland and didn’t attend Monday’s practice.

His mistake was simply not to show up, and it took a phone call from the team to find out where he was, leaving McMillan to tell the media after the workout that Potapenko “is missing.” Not calling is a violation of team policy for which Potapenko probably will be fined, though the Sonics don’t release information about team punishments.

Potapenko did show up for Tuesday morning’s shootaround, but was sent home.

Big money awaits: Under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement (which expires after this season), first-round draft picks get three guaranteed seasons on a set salary scale, and the team then has the option of bringing the player back for a fourth season.

A player’s fifth NBA season is where the big money often begins. Though fifth-year players are restricted free agents, meaning their current team can match any offer from a rival team, they can still sign a hefty offer sheet.

That opportunity is what awaits forward Vlade Radmanovic in the next offseason. Given how well he has played to date, he could be in for a hefty salary bump beginning in 2005-06.

“Right now, honestly, I’m not even thinking about that,” Radmanovic said. “That’s far away from me right now. We have a long way to go and if we start thinking about our contracts and what’s going to happen in the summertime, we’re going to screw up the whole team and the atmosphere that we have here.”

For now, he said, “we’re just coming in here, having fun, playing as best we can, and hopefully we’ll go far in the playoffs this year.”

Rich Myhre