Just a couple minutes before tip-off and Seattle's ready to take the floor. It's pretty much a circus here with ESPN cameras all over the place, including inside the Sonics locker room getting shots of Kevin Durant, Chris Wilcox, Wally Szczerbiak and others.

I talked to Durant for a few minutes. He says he's a little nervous, but that he's like that before every game, and that he expects the butterflies to dissipate once the game starts.

Durant could be matched up against Carmelo Anthony at times. He knows it's a challenging matchup, but he has seen him before during the Team USA trials this summer in Las Vegas.

"It’s going to be tough," he said. "He’s a quick defender. Very long, and very athletic. It’s going to be tough. But that’s how every game in this league is going to be."

Listen to the Kevin Durant conversation here.

As far as injuries, Kurt Thomas (right hamstring) and Robert Swift (right knee) will not play tonight. Thomas is questionable for Thursday's home opener against Phoenix, and Swift is doubtful.

With the two centers out Seattle might have to play small, with Jeff Green or perhaps Wally Szczerbiak seeing some time at power forward. Also expect Johan Petro to get a look at power forward tonight.

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo talked about the tough stretch of games to begin the season with two teams that could go deep in the Western Conference playoffs in Denver and Phoenix.

“It’s not the worst," Carlesimo said. "I haven’t looked at other people’s (schedule) but it’s about as bad of an opening as you could have. I mean they are two playoff teams, two running teams, and two veteran teams for the most part. Teams that have been in tact and their coaching staff’s are in tact, so no, it’s not real good.
“But, you know, you’ve got to play them anyhow. And sometimes playing people early is better than getting them later on when they settle in.”

Listen to the full Carlesimo conversation here.

That's it for now. I'll have more stuff during the game.

The starting five appears set. Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo has penciled in Earl Watson (PG), Kevin Durant (SG), Damien Wilkins (SF), Chris Wilcox (PF) and Nick Collison (C) as the starting five for Wednesday’s opener at Denver.

Both Durant and Jeff Green practiced on Tuesday and appear ready to go. Center Robert Swift (right knee bruise/tendinitis) also practiced but is doubtful for Denver, although he will be a game-time decision. Kurt Thomas (right hamstring strain) was injured in practice and will be a game-time decision.

“Kevin looked good,” Carlesimo said. “Again, if he feels good tomorrow, he’ll go for sure. He said he felt good, and he went through the whole practice.”

Carlesimo said he alternated Durant and Delonte West during practice at the shooting guard. And Jeff Green split time with Wally Szczerbiak with the reserve squad, and if all goes well should play on Wednesday.

Carlesimo went into more detail about the move of going with Watson at point guard after practice.

Carlesimo said Watson has had the most reps at point guard during preseason, so he believes starting with Watson is the correct move, and then allowing Luke Ridnour to fully recover from the broken nose and to get rid of using the mask.

“We know he’s going compete,” he said. “I think he’s done a good job running our break and pushing stuff. He sets a good tone for us in terms of how competitive he is, and defensively. And he’s made shots.”

Listen to the full conversation with Carlesimo here.

And Watson had this to say about getting the start against Denver.

“It’s not a marriage,” Watson said. “It’s not long-term. It’s just the way we’re starting out. And until it gets to that point where roles are settled, it’s just basketball.

“For me I’m just going to play very aggressive, play fast and get my teammates involved. My whole mindset has always been to make my teammates successful on the court. Make them better.”

Listen to Watson talk more about the game against Denver here.

Carlesimo said the matchup with Denver will be a tough one

“It’s good to get things going, for sure,” Carlesimo said. “But you don’t feel good with a matchup against Denver. They were one of the better teams last year, and they’re a very good team. They got two of the better players in the league, easy two All-stars for sure. And the other guys are good.”

Carlesimo went on to say Carmelo Anthony is one of the best players in the league, and presents so many problems because of his size and ability to not only score inside but score from the perimeter and drive off the dribble.

Wally Szczerbiak is looking forward to Wednesday’s game.

“We’re going to play hard,” he said. “Hopefully we play a lot more like we did the last three preseason games, as opposed to the first five, and I think we’ll be all right. But we have a lot of depth, and we’re going to be figuring out a lot of stuff. But at the same time you’ve got to go out there and play well.”

Listen to the full conversation with Szczerbiak here.

Looking to bone up on the Nuggets? Here’s a season preview from the Denver Post with capsules on each player. The Nuggets, who lost in five games to San Antonio in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs last season, have set a goal of winning 60 games this season.

And according to this article from the Rocky Mountain News, it looks like Allen Iverson (PG), Yakouba Diawara (SG), Carmelo Anthony (SF), Kenyon Martin (PF) and Marcus Camby (C will be the starting five for Denver.

I apologize for the lack of posts but I've been working on our Sonics tab, which comes out this Wednesday.

It was a pretty big news day on the Sonics front.

The city of Seattle won its first battle in its suit against the Sonics, as a federal judge ruled that the dispute over the KeyArena lease will be decided in federal court, and not in arbitration as the Sonics had wanted.

And in somewhat of a surprise, Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo announced after practice today that Earl Watson would probably start on Wednesday against Denver in the season opener, and Delonte West would back up Watson up at point guard.

That leaves Luke Ridnour as the third point guard in the rotation. Carlesimo had been mulling the decision at point guard for several days, but decided to go with Watson and West because he believes Ridnour has had trouble dealing with the mask he’s been wearing to protect his broken nose. Ridnour missed most of the second half of the last exhibition game against Phoenix because his mask broke.

Ridnour broke his nose in the opening half of the Sonics first preseason game against Sacramento.

“My honest feeling is the mask has been a pain for Luke,” Carlesimo said. “I think it’s been uncomfortable at best from the beginning. So my leaning right now would be to start Earl at point guard.”

“I’d like to see Luke A) either get the mask situated or B) just get the mask behind him, which is like a week or 10 days,” Carlesimo said later in the conversation. “So kind of use that as the reason to look at this particular rotation first.”

Carlesimo said he isn't going to make Ridnour inactive, but he believes it’s just an easier rotation to look at Watson and West until Ridnour is done with the mask.

Listen to the rest of the conversation with Carlesimo here.

West was hurt almost half of the preseason and played in only four games. But when he did play he earned minutes with is ability to create his own scoring opportunities, both in the half-court and in the open floor. West averaged 16 points a contest in the preseason.

“We’re all professionals,” West said. “You’ve got to have competition to make each other better. But I’m happy to be given an opportunity to be a part of the Sonics team. And I’m going to work hard, try to make my teammates better in practice, and cheer them on during the games.”

West said it doesn’t matter whether he plays point guard or shooting guard.

“I’ll play at the center spot if it gets me on the floor,” West said. “I’m just blessed to be here, and to get an opportunity to play for the Seattle SuperSonics. And I’m not going to take nothing for granted.”

Listen to the full conversation with West here.

Rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green practiced today. Both suffered sprained left ankles during the preseason, but went through the full practice on Monday. Carlesimo said that Green may have been a little stiff afterward, but both received treatment at the end of practice. If both practice again on Tuesday and things go well, they should be cleared to play on Wednesday.

“I thought he looked decent,” Carlesimo said about Durant. “He probably did a little more than we thought he might do. We were just going to possibly let him do non-contact stuff, but he said he felt good. Now it will be a question to see how they feel when they wake up tomorrow morning.”

If Durant can go, he’ll start at shooting guard for Seattle. If he can’t then West could start at shooting guard, or Damien Wilkins could slide over to shooting guard and Jeff Green could start at small forward.

Robert swift practiced but didn’t make it through the workout, so it’s looking like he might not play on Wednesday. Swift is experiencing swelling and discomfort in his surgically repaired right knee.

“Robert didn’t look good,” Carlesimo said about Swift.

If Swift can’t go, then Nick Collison or Kurt Thomas will start at center.

As of right now I think if Durant and Green or healthy the starters for Denver will be Watson (PG), Durant (SG), Wilkins (SF), Chris Wilcox (PF) and Collison (C).

Carlesimo also addressed his team’s struggles defensively. The Sonics still have not picked up Carlesimo’s defensive system, and it’s led to a lot of open looks for their opponents, particulary from the 3-point arc.

Listen to Carlesimo talk about the defense here.

A solid, all-around effort by Seattle as they finish the preseason schedule with a victory and a 2-6 overall record.

The Sonics controlled all phases of the game tonight, and most important, closed out the fourth quarter for the win, although they did it against Phoenix's reserves.

Seattle shot 53.6 percent from the field, outscored Phoenix in the paint 64-44, and outrebounded the Suns 53-39.

Chris Wilcox led Seattle with 27 points and nine rebounds. And Kurt Thomas played big against his former team, totaling 19 points and seven board.

Nick Collison also had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Jeff Green sprained his ankle in the third quarter but should practice on Sunday and be ready to go on Wednesday.

Now comes the hard part for Carlesimo -- figuring out a starting lineup. He went with Luke, Damien, Jeff, Wilcox and Collison on Friday, and I would think the starting lineup will look similar, with potentially a few changes if Durant is ready to go, and possibly Watson at the point.

We'll see. Carlesimo talks about the lineup dilemma here.

Watson talks about the lineup changes here. And Wally Szczerbiak, who finished with 15 points and five rebounds, proving he can still play, also talks about the looming regular season.

The most important thing is Seattle played well the last three games and seems to have built some chemistry heading into Wednesday's matchup against Denver.

It's too bad this game isn't on TV, because you're missing a entertaining game tonight.

There's absolutely no defense being played out here -- just both teams getting up and down the floor as fast as they can and firing at the hoop.

Seattle has the lead again for the third straight game going into the fourth quarter, but can they finish?

Kurt Thomas seems to be sending a message to his old team. He has 17 points and six rebounds in 17 minutes, and is coming out to start the fourth quarter.

Gotta go.

As expected, the Suns made a run in the second quarter and took a two point lead into halftime.

Amare Stoudemire has been pretty spectacular for the Suns. He's the game's leading scorer with 18 points. And that included a nice alley-oop jam off a pretty dish from Steve Nash. Showing his versatility, the big guy also drained a 3-pointer from deep.

It's been an up and down game, but Seattle has proved it can hang with one of the best teams in the league, at least for a half. Phoenix has played its main guys for the most part.

Chris Wilcox leads Seattle with 12 points, and Kurt Thomas has nine points off the bench.

Seattle still holds a 24-18 rebound advantage.

He may be older and a little more laid back, butCarlesimo still is intense when he wants to be. He jumped Wilcox early in the second quarter for something on the offensive end that Wilcox did or did not do. He told a frustrated Wilcox to come sit next to him on the bench and brought in Johan Petro in, who promptly gave up a basket inside to Stoudemire on the other end of the floor, and caused Wally Szczerbiak to lose his dribble on the offensive end.

Wilcox got back in the good graces with Carlesimo by forcing Grant Hill into a travel later in the second quarter.

A well-played opening quarter for Seattle. In particular, Chris Wilcox shot the ball well, going 4-for-4 from the floor with eight points.

And Kurt Thomas came off the bench to score six straight points at the end of the period.

Seattle owns the boards (19-8). But both teams are strugling from the field. Seattle is shooting 39 percent (11-for-28), while Phoenix is shooting 35 percent (7-for-20).

For the third straight game Seattle has looked like a more cohesive unit on both ends of the floor as P.J. Carlesimo settles in to a regular rotation.

It's pretty much a Steve Nash lovefest in Vancouver, B.C. tonight. Several kids are wearing Phoenix Suns jerseys with Nash's name on the back. And he was swarmed by autograph seekers when he came on the floor for pregame warmup.

The game is sold out, the first preseason game that I've been to that's been sold out. It's also the first NBA game here since the Grizzlies left here in 2001. It makes you wonder why the NBA left here in the first place, particularly given what's happening in Seattle.

The news of the day is Sonics picked up the options on the rookie contracts of centers Johan Petro and Mouhamed Sene today.

Both first-round picks for Seattle, the two signed two-year contracts with options for another two years.

Petro's option is for the fourth and final year of his contract. And Sene's covers the third year of his deal. The fourth-year option of Sene's contract must be picked up by Seattle by Oct. 31 of next year.

Both players have played sparingly in the last couple preseason games. But Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo still sees potential in both players, as Seattle continues to determine which players they will keep around during its rebuilding process.

In particular, Sene, whose has not played a lot of organized basketball, showed improvement during the preseason.

Starters for tonight are Luke Ridnour (PG), Damien Wilkins (SG), Jeff Green (SF), Chris Wilcox (PF) and Nick Collison (C).

Carlesimo still has not named starters for the beginning of the regular season, but I think it's likely, with the exception of Kevin Durant at the shooting guard and possibly Earl Watson at point guard, that these will be the starters for the first game.

Speaking of Durant, apparently he worked on the treadmill today and took some shots. Durant, who sprained his left ankle against Golden State, is still questionable for Wednesday's regular season opener at Denver.

Carlesimo reiterated that Durant needs to practice before he can play on Wednesday. Listen to the full conversation with Carlesimo here.

Swift is also on the inactive list tonight. Swift has swelling in his right knee.

Seattle lost its fifth straight preseason game, and again could not hold onto a lead late in falling to Portland.

Seattle native Brandon Roy led the Trail Blazers with 14 of his 22 points in the last six minutes.

Roy, who has been nursing a bruised left heel, wasn't even supposed to play in the final quarter.

"I wasn't satisfied with my time. So, I said, 'Can I go back in?' the coaches said 'Yeah.' I felt a lot better. I have rhythm now."

Seattle led by as many as 13 points, but just like the Golden State game a day ago, couldn't close out the win.

Part of the reason is Carlesimo continues to play different lineups, which makes it tough to build continuity with different playing shuttling in and out.

Listen to PJ talk about the game here.

Nick Collison led Seattle with 17 points, Delonte West finished with 16 and Mickael Gelabale totaled 16 points in a surprising 21 minutes of action.

Luke Ridnour started at point guard and also had a solid game, finishing with eight points, eight rebounds and no turnovers. Ridnour talks about his performance here.

“It’s frustrating to lose a game where you feel like you had control the whole way,” Collison said. “In the NBA, you get a lot of these close games. And it doesn’t do you any good to be close and lose. So we’ve got to find a way to win games like that.”

Listen to more of the Collison conversation here.

The Sonics also had trouble stopping Portland big man LaMarcus Aldridge, who finished with 31 points and 12 rebounds.

The Sonics seem to be playing better the last two games, but closing out victories and winning close game is an important thing to learn. We'll see how the team works to get better at that during the year.

A much better effort in the second quarter, as Seattle outscored Portland 36-25 to regain the lead.

Seattle shot 55.6 percent from the floor and 8-for-9 from the free throw line, while Portland shot 48.8 percent from the field, and 12-of-16 from the free throw line.

We had a Mickael Gelabale sighting in the first half. The French swingman had been seldom used in the last two games, but played 12 minutes in the first had, scoring eight points.

Jeff Green also looked solid for Seattle, starting at small forward. Green played solid defense and seems to be in a better rhythm offensively. He finished with six points and four rebounds.

And Damien Wilkins continues to have a solid preseason. Wilkins led Seattle in scoring with 10 points.

Overall, Seattle is doing a better job of moving the ball and finding the open man on offense.

Seattle was down by as many as 13 points in the opening quarter but managed to cut the deficit to seven by the end of the quarter.

Defensively, Seattle still is giving up a lot of easy buckets inside. LaMarcus Aldridge did most of the damage for Portland, finishing with 13 points in the quarter. Once Portland gets Greg Oden back next season those two will be a tough duo to deal with inside.

Delonte West leads Seattle with seven points. West came in halfway through the first quarter and immediately made his presence felt with a drive down the left side of the lane for two.

West ran the point and looked comfortable.

Swift was active, finishing with four board inside.

An MRI and X-Rays revealed no fractures in Kevin Durant's left ankle, which has been diagnosed as an ankle sprain. Durant will be reevaluated next week, and will not make the trip to Vancouver.

Carlesimo he isn't too concerned with the possibility of Durant missing a game of the two of the regular season, and would just assume have Durant back healthy before rushing him back.

Starters for tonight's game against Portland are Luke (PG, Damien (SG), Jeff Green (SF), Chris Wilcox (PF) and Robert Swift (C).

Earl Watson probably will not play much tonight because he's played a lot more at point guard during the preseason than Luke. And Delonte should see some time at point guard tonight.

Here's the pregame conversation with Carlesimo. That is all for now. I'll have an update at the end of the first quarter.

The Sonics got outplayed in overtime and lost to the Warriors, falling to 1-5 overall in the preseason.

The good news is that X-rays on Kevin Durant's sprained left ankle came back negative. However, Durant will not make the trip to Portland. And there is a chance if his ankle swells up that he may sit out the rest of the preseason.

Even those they lost, Seattle looked much better today. P.J. Carlesimo only played nine guys. Chris Wilcox played well inside alongside Nick Collison. Wilcox finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Collison had five points and nine rebounds.

Seattle also got solid production from the wings, with Damien Wilkins finishing with 27 poins, Wally Szczerbiak knocking down 24 points, and Durant contributing 21 before leaving the game with an ankle injury.

Defensively Seattle finished with 15 steals and led Golden State in fastbreak points, 34-26. However, the Sonics turned the ball over 25 times and only shot 41 percent from the field.

Seattle seemed to match up well with Golden State because they could use their smaller bigs, with Jeff Green and Wally Szczerbiak both playing some power forward.

Earl and Luke also did a nice job distributing the ball. Watson finished with 14 assists and eight points, while Ridnour had eight assists and six points off the bench.
It will be interesting to see how they do against Portland tomorrow, which will pose a much bigger lineup than Golden State.

Carlesimo said it's important for the team to build on its performance against Golden State. He said so far during the preseason the team has taken two steps forward then nine steps back, and he would like to see more steady progress.

Listen to PJ talk more here. And listen to Wally and Wilcox talk about the team's performance here and here.

Golden State had a chance to win it at the end but a Earl Watson steal allowed Seattle to get to overtime. Entertaining game for preseason. Still waiting for more information on Kevin Durant injury.

Kevin Durant injured his left ankle with just over two minutes left and is getting X-Rays. I'll have more later.

Golden State made a late run but Seattle managed to hold onto the lead.

Damien Wilkins is really looking for his shot tonight, and so far he's been filling it up. Wilkins is 9-of-17 on the night and has 22 points and 4 rebounds. Kevin Durant has 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting.

Seattle is beating Golden State at its own game, leading in fastbreak points 24-17. The Sonics also are doing a nice job of limiting Golden State to one shot and rebounding as a collective unit. Wilcox leads the team with 8 rebounds. But Collison has 7, Szczerbiak and Thomas 6 ,and Green has 5.

We'll see if Seattle can put together another good quarter.

Seattle went on a 19-11 run to close out the quarter and take a 8-point lead.

After struggling from the field in the first quarter Seattle heated up in the second quarter. Seattle shot 6-for-8 from the 3-point line in the second quarter.

Damien Wilkins (17 points) and Wally Szczerbiak (16) have been the main scorers.

Chris Wilcox (8 points, 6 rebounds) has been tough inside, and Durant (13 points has gotten out and ran the floor.

It's amazing what making some shots can do for you defensively. Now that Seattle is making shots the Sonics can get back and set up defensively. Seattle's zone has given Golden State problems.

A good first half on both ends of the floor for Seattle. Let's see if they can keep it up.

Seattle's struggles offensively continue. The Sonics shot 8-for-25 (32 percent) in the first quarter, while allowing Golden State to shoot 12-for-23 (52.2) percent from the field.

Golden State also leads Seattle in fastbreak points, 11-7.

Overall, the energy was better for Seattle in the first quarter from the past two game. The Sonics competed. And having Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison on the floor together has helped Seattle defensively. Seattle is a better rebounding team with both guys in the floor.

Wally, Luke and Jeff Green all subbed in the game in the first quarter, as Carlesimo tightens the rotation.

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo said he'll cut the rotation to 10 players today with the purpose of getting a look at a possible rotation for the regular season.

Starters include Earl Watson (PG), Kevin Durant (SG), Damien Wilkins (SF), Chris Wilcox (PF) and Nick Collison (C).

Carlesimo is particularly interested in seeing how Wilcox and Collison play together. Collison could possibly earn the starting role at center if he proves he can handle himself defensively inside.

He says the other three starters are arbitrary, and that others could be in the lineup on Wednesday

Delonte West will sit out his fourth preseason game, nuring a bruised right thigh. West should be able to go on Wednesday.

Robert Swift also will sit out against Golden State and play against a bigger Portland team on Wednesday.

Listen to the full, pre-game conversation with Carlesimo here.

The Seattle SuperSonics waived guard Jermaine Jackson today, bringing their roster to 14 players, all with guaranteed contracts.

Jackson, 31, signed a nonguaranteed contract with Seattle before training camp. He was an NBA journeyman who had played for five different teams, most recently for Milwaukee in the 2005-06 season.

Jackson saw action in four preseason games for Seattle, averaging 1.3 points and 1.5 assists.

The Sonics practiced for two hours today in preparation for Tuesday’s game against Golden State. It appears that Coach P.J. Carlesimo has switched gears and will only play nine or 10 guys on Tuesday in anticipation of the beginning of the regular season in just over a week.

Carlesimo would not commit to a starting lineup. He said the starting lineup could be fluid for the first month of the regular season as he attempts to find the right combinations to begin games and come of the bench.

“Until we put guys out there in games that matter and see how they do we’re not going to know,” Carlesimo said about determining a starting lineup. “I don’t think it’s something we are going to solve in the near future. Nor do I think it’s something that’s going to resolve itself in a couple a games.
“Regardless of how well or poorly and individual plays, he’s going to have to get some time. We’re probably going to just have to pretty much go with our best guess, out best opinion and say these are the nine or 10 guys we’re going to play right now. And in another two weeks that might change.”

Listen to Carlesimo discuss the starting lineup issue here.

However, don’t be surprised if the starting lineup includes both Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison manning the inside for Seattle. So far, the two power forwards have been the most consistent guys inside for Seattle. And with Robert Swift probably not able to play in the second games of back-to-back contests initially to rest his swelling knee, Collison and Wilcox will probably see a lot of time together on the floor.

Another reason you’ll see a lot of the Collison-Wilcox combo inside is because the Sonics have been outplayed inside in the last two games against the Lakers and the Rockets, and part of that has to do with either Collison or Wilcox being out of those games.

Still no word on who will emerge in the battle at point guard. Either Luke Ridnour or Earl Watson will start against Golden State, and both probably see about the same amount of time on the floor. Eventually Carlesimo will have to choose which way he wants to go here, but expect both to see consistent minutes early on.

Delonte West remains an enigma. He’s looked good both times he’s played, but West was hurt again at practice on Monday (right thigh bruise), and is a game-time decision on Tuesday.

West’s nagging ailments have kept him from competing for a starting role at the point guard position. However, I think he’s done enough to prove that if healthy he can contribute.

I also talked to Jeff Green, who says he’s adjusting to the pace of the league and looking forward to the regular season. You might see Jeff Green or Wally Szczerbiak play some power forward again this week with Seattle playing against smaller lineups in Golden State and Phoenix.

Listen to the full conversation with Jeff Green here.

Another bad performance by the Sonics as they struggle to find some consistency.

The Rockets led by as many as 38 points in the fourth quarter, and inside with Yao Ming, Luis Scola and Shane Battier Houston dominated the middle.

Coach P.J. Carlesimo played 13 guys, and I don't think you're going to see that on Tuesday against Golden State. The Sonics really need to decide on a starting lineup and start to establish some consistency early in games.

Listen to what Carlesimo had to say after the game here.

Delonte West played well off the bench, finishing with 22 points and seven assists. I think Delonte will probably be one of the main guys coming off the bench. He seems OK with the role, and does a nice job of getting into the flow of the game.

West talked about his performance here.
Durant continues to show that he can score, finishing with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting.

But overall the team struggled again defensively. Houston shot up the zone, going 11-for-27 from the 3-point line.

The Rockets are handing out lessons to a young Seattle team on how NBA basketball is played.

Seattle's defense is nonexistent, and offensively they can't get anything going. It's also a disturbing trend as Seattle finds itself getting blown out of its third straight game.

For Sonics fans, hopefully it's not a foreshadowing of what's to come during the regular season.

Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo also got his first technical foul of the year with 1:05 left t go in the third, arguing a call against Kurt Thomas.

Tracy McGrady leads the Rockets with 23 points, as Houston is manhandling the Sonics right now.

Delonte West has been one of the few bright spots for Seattle. He has 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting, and three assists. Kevin Durant has 11 points for Seattle.

Just like against L.A., Seattle appears overmatched inside against Houston. The Rockets have 20 points in the paint compared to Seattle's 10 points.

Seattle's running game has basically been taken away because they can't get any stops.

We'll see if Seattle can get into any kind of rhythm in the second half.

Seattle was down 20-7 and looks out-of-sync offensively. The Sonic are having trouble guarding Yao inside. Tracy McGrady leads Houston with eight points.

The highlight has been the play of Delonte West, who came in midway through the first quarter and has eight points. West also blocked 7-5 center Yao Ming from behind, bringing the the crowd to their feet. Delonte also had a steal and a dunk early in the second quarter.

I'm looking at a pretty empty KeyArena. Maybe 8,000 people here.

Here's the latest heading into tonight's game against the Rockets.

The starters are Luke (PG), Kevin Durant (SG), Damien Wilkins (SF), Nick Collison (PF) and Kurt Thomas (C).

Chris Wilcox and Earl Watson will sit tonight. Jeff Green is questionable (sore knees) but probably will play.

Delonte West (back strain) should see his first action since Sacramento tonight, coming off the bench.

Coach Carlesimo said he'd like to start tightening the rotation but probably will have to keep things a bit more loose than he would like with Wilcox and Watson sitting.

Carlesimo talked about Durant and Jeff Green's transition into the league some more tonight. And he also talked about the top salary players in the league, and said they earn every cent they get because they show up for all 82 games and produce, just like they are supposed to do. Listen to the full P.J. conversations here and here. I broke them up because the audio files are getting too big to upload.

I also talked to former Seattle player and coach Jack Sikma, who is an assistant coach with Houston. Sikma said his main project is working with Yao Ming, and that the 7-foot-5 center is working on improving his mid-range game, which of course was Sikma's forte when he played. He also said he harbors no ill will toward the Sonics, and hopes they remain in Seattle. Listen to Sikma talk here.

Finally, I caught up with former Franklin High and University of Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks, who is a rookie point guard for Houston. Brooks played well during the Las Vegas summer league, but has saw little time so far this preseason with the Rockets stacked at the guard position.

Brooks said he's been getting the rookie treatment by Steve Francis and other veterans, buying dinner and taking them shopping at the mall, among other things.

"They think I'm the one with the money," Brooks quipped.

That's all for now. I'll have an update after the first quarter.

A a few links from around the Northwest Division.

Seattle: A report from the L.A. Times on Kobe Bryant rejoining the team and playing against Seattle.

And ESPN’s J.A. Adande offers this take on the Kobe situation.

Portland: Seattle Prep alum Martell Webster may have earned the starting small forward job according to this report.
Listen to Portland coach Nate McMillan talk about his team here.

Denver: Seattle’s regular season opener against the Nuggets is less than two weeks away. Forward Kenyon Martin seems to be recovering nicely from microfracture knee surgery. And former Sonics point guard Mike Wilks signed a nonguaranteed contract with the Nuggets.

Utah: Carlos Boozer believes he will be headed to Beijing next year with the U.S. Olympic team. And a scouting report left behind by a Sacramento Kings scout on the Jazz is viewed by several more eyes than intended.

Minnesota: Looks like the T-Wolves will keep veteran guard Greg Buckner around.

Not the prettiest game tonight, but definitely something the team will learn from.

The interior defense inside was bad, and made worse by the guards not rotating to help the bigs when they slid over to stop penetration.

Defensively Seattle did not do a good job getting back on on transiton, and for the first time during the preseason Seattle was outscored 24-22 in fastbreak points.

Los Angeles shot 56 percent from the field, 7-of-12 from the 3-point line and 27-35 from the free throw line.

L.A. scored 50 points inside the paint.

Overall, it was not a memorable performance for Seattle, but it may be a sign that we'll see a shortening of the rotation as PJ starts to figure out what guys he wants to go with.

On the positive side, Luke did a nice job of running the offense the second half. Wally again proved he can provide instant offense.

Wilcox is becoming the best scoring option inside and looks ready to take the next step.

And both Kevin Durant and Jeff Green showed glimpses of brilliance followed by young mistakes.

We'll see how they follow up tonight's performance on Saturday.

I'm having trouble posting audio, so I'll have clips from PJ and Wilcox up tomorrow.

I hope you got a chance to watch the game tonight.

Probably the most entertaining stretch of basketball I've seen so far this season. Seattle comes out strong and cuts the Lakers' lead to 69-65. Then Kobe just goes off, scoring the next 10 points for L.A. and pushing the lead back to double digits.

But give Seattle credit for hanging tough. Luke Ridnour has done a nice job of running the offense and Seattle remains within striking distance.

One thing that has been evident so far is Seattle has been willing to continue to grind during games, even when the get down by double digits. We'll see if that happens again tonight.

That was an ugly second quarter by Seattle, as they got outscored 36-23 by L.A.

Seattle's is getting beat down floor and struggling on the defensive end. In particular, Seattle is not getting out on L.A.'s perimeter shooters, and their interior defense has been slow to rotate.

The result is easy looks for the Lakers, and several offensive putbacks.

A prime example of Seattle's struggles on offense? The Sonics do not have a player in double figures. Kevin Durant and Wally Szczerbiak lead the team with eight points apiece. Durant actually had a nice offensive run where he helped cut the lead to 12 (57-45), before the Lakers went on a 7-2 run to finish the quarter.

We'll see how they come out in the second half.

The Sonics looked good early, jumping out to a 14-5 lead. Earl Watson did a nice job of pushing the ball, and Chris Wilcox and Damien Wilkins were the offensive catalysts.

But predictably, the Lakers reeled Seattle back in and took the lead at the end of the quarter.

Former Gonzaga star Ronny Turiaf led Los Angeles with 13 points in the first quarter.

The Lakers looked to be pushing the ball just as much as Seattle, which may negate Seattle's ability to run. Teams that like to get out and push it don't like it when other teams do the same thing against them.

A slight change in the starting lineup tonight.

Nick Collison is still nursing a bruised shin, so Chris Wilcox will start in his place. So the starters now are as follows.

PG -- Earl Watson
SG -- Kevin Durant
SF -- Damien Wilkins
PF -- Chris Wilcox
C -- Robert Swift

Delonte West did not make the trip down tonight, and was examined by Dr. Richard Zorn today. According to Sonics PR guy Tom Savage, things went well and West could practice on Friday.

Carlesimo wasn't too concerned with Collison's injury. He knows what Nick can do, and is sitting Collison as more of a precaution.

Listen to more of Carlesimo's conversation here.

Nick's actually out here during pregame working on spot up jumpers and looks fine.

Petro will get some run at four tonight with Nick out.

Swift has been the focus of several interviews here as he returns to his hometown.

It should be interesting to see Durant against Kobe tonight. Initially Wilkins will start out on Kobe, but I'm sure Durant and Kobe will end up on each other at some point. That's all for now. I'll have a report after each quarter, and wrap it up at the end of the night.

Another practice is behind the Sonics as they move through the preseason, with only a couple weeks left before the team’s season opener on Halloween in Denver.

The Sonics got after it a little bit in practice today, and appear ready for Thursday’s nationally televised game on TNT against the Los Angeles Lakers, 7 p.m.

Rookie Kevin Durant returned to action today after catching an elbow from Nick Collison above his right eye during Tuesday’s practice — the first stitches Durant ever received. Durant said he’s fine and will play on Thursday.

But that’s not the case for Delonte West. After returning from Washington D.C. on Tuesday and getting evaluated today by the Sonics training staff, West will have his lower back checked out further by Dr. Richard Zorn and will not make the trip to Bakersfield. West did not practice today.

Nick Collison (left shin contusion) was limited in practice and may not play on Thursday. Wally Szczerbiak (sprained thumb) did practice and should play against the Lakers.

Coach P.J. Carlesimo said this is a probable starting lineup for Seattle on Thursday:

PG – Earl Watson (since Delonte can’t go)
SG – Kevin Durant
SF – Damien Wilkins
PF – Nick Collison (Wilcox could sit and rest)
C – Robert Swift

Carlesimo said he’s put in a couple more half-court offensive sets to get ready for the season.

‘We’ve actually for the first time started to look a little bit like we have an idea what we’re doing halfcourt for the last couple days,” Carlesimo said. “But if you rated the different areas, half-court offense would probably be our worst grade.”

Listen to more from P.J. here.

The Sonics entire broadcast staff was on hand, including long-time play-by-play man Kevin Calabro and new color analysts Steve “Snapper” Jones and Marques Johnson, along with radio play-by-play guy Matt Pinto. Pinto has been attending most of the practices along with Calabro to familiarize themselves with the players. People that I have talked to who have listened to the radio broadcasts say that they like Pinto.

I had a chance to talk to Marques Johnson about Kevin Durant in particular and the team in general, and, as always, Johnson had some interesting insights.

He said because of Durant’s ability to score a lot of different ways, particularly in the open court before a defense sets up, that he’s a “20-point scorer waiting to happen.”

He also liked the open competition of training camp, saying it brings the intensity level up during practice because guys know their competing for playing time.

Listen to the full conversation with Marques Johnson here.

I also talked to Robert Swift about returning home to play in Bakersfield. He said he dreamed about playing in the arena there, only in his dream he wore a Lakers uniform. Swift said he was a Lakers fan growing up and would go watch them play every year they came to Bakersfield. But he’s happy to be a Sonic now, and looking forward to the trip home, with about 15 family and friends planning to attend.

“It’s one of those things everyone dreams about when they first start playing in the NBA,” Swift said. “You dream about playing in front of the home-town crowd.”

Listen to more of the conversation with Swift here.

Not a lot happened at practice today, as the Sonics continue to get ready for the regular season. The Sonics will play their next game on Thursday against the L.A. Lakers in Bakersfield, Calif. The game will be televised on TNT, at 7 p.m.

Here’s a quick injury update. Kevin Durant suffered a cut above his eye and had to leave practice to have three stitches. He should be fine for the game on Thursday.

Wally Szczerbiak (sprained left thumb) and Nick Collison (left shin contusion) also suffered injuries during practice but finished on the floor. … Damien Wilkins was back practicing after suffering a sprained right ankle in the Indiana game. And Johan Petro, who missed practice on Monday to have a cardiologist examine him after experiencing heart palpitations, received medication for the condition and practiced on Tuesday. Delonte West was expected to return from his grandmother’s funeral Tuesday night. He’ll have his strained back evaluated and if cleared he will practice today, and could start on Thursday.

Again, P.J. Carlesimo talked about all the competition at each position, and how there is no clear-cut person at each position. Carlesimo said the competition has hampered the team’s growth, but that the competition is necessary with new coaches, players and management joining the team.

“It’s much easier when you have a hierarchy and you know these eight or nine guys are playing and these five guys are the starters,” Carlesimo said. “You get further quicker when you’re working with that smaller group and the other guys kind of pitch in.”

The competition with the least amount of players is at power forward, where Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison are battling it out. Carlesimo said it’s a tough situation for both players because he believes that each player deserves more than 24 minutes each. However, he wants to start one of the young bigs (Swift, Petro, Sene) or Kurt Thomas at the center position, which leaves Collison and Wilcox’s options limited.

“It’s been our best position,” Carlesimo said. “It’s a problem. There’s not enough minutes there for the two of them unless we give one of them time at the five, and I don’t want to do that initially.
“Nick and Chris have played very well, and very consistently. And they’re both going to be in the rotation, obviously. We just have to figure out how we get them more minutes.”

Wilcox had this to say about the competition.

“Either way we’ll both be coming off with fresh legs,” he said. “I can give him a breather or he can give me a breather. Or sometimes the bigs might be in trouble and we might be in there together. We just have to stay positive, keep each other healthy and make sure we push each other in practice.”

Listen to the full Wilcox conversation here.

Point guard Earl Watson also talked about the leadership issue for the team.

“I don’t think leadership roles can ever be given away,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to appoint myself a leader. I want to earn that. I want to earn the trust of my teammates to even be told that to begin with. It’s something that will emerge over the season.”

Listen to more conversation with Watson here.

One last note. According to the Associated Press the first court hearing in the case between the city of Seattle and the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics has been set. The team and the city will appear Thursday before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez. The case’s initial hearing had been set for last Wednesday, but the city’s suit against the team was moved from state court to federal court at the Sonics’ request.
Martinez scheduled the hearing to begin determining if the case should remain in federal court or be settled by a panel of arbitrators, as the team has suggested. The city has asked for a jury trial in the case.

The team practiced a little over two hours on Monday. Delonte West was not in attendance. He flew back to the Washington, D.C. area to attend his grandmother’s funeral.

Damien Wilkins dressed but did not practice. Sonics coach P.J Carlesimo said his ankle did not swell up on the plane ride back from Indianapolis, and Wilkins is listed as day-to-day.

Chris Wilcox left the Indiana game late with a mild right knee strain but was fine and practiced on Monday.

Johan Petro also missed practice today, due to heart palpitations. Petro had similar issues with his heart last season, and saw a cardiologist today. I hope to know more about Petro’s condition this afternoon.

The other 12 players practiced today, including Robert Swift, who didn’t play at all on the two-game road trip. Swift looked a little stiff but seemed to move fine. He is expected to play on Thursday when the team takes on the L.A. Lakers in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif.

Mouhamed Sene talked about his breakout performance against Indianapolis. The 7-footer from Senegal finished with six points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots in 24 minutes. It was Sene’s first preseason action, and he should get another extended look on Thursday against the Lakers.

Sene said he feels more comfortable on the floor this season, and his English is better, which has resulted in better communication on the floor with both coaches and teammates in terms of strategy and knowing where he’s supposed to be.

Sene also has more peace of mind. He said that last season he was worried about his family, who was in danger back in his native country of Senegal. Sene said people who were jealous of his family were breaking into his family’s home and threatening to harm them because of Sene’s status as a pro basketball player. Sene said his family also lived in a dangerous part of town.

During the offseason Sene helped his family find a new home in a safer area of Senegal, so he doesn’t have to worry about their well-being as much this season.

He said he doesn’t want to go back to the NBA developmental league, and believes he’s ready to play consistent minutes.

“Right now I am more worried about what I have to do to stay on the floor,” Sene said. “So I want to stay here. I’m ready for the NBA.”

Sene and West are the only players that have not started a game, so those two will probably start on Thursday. Carlesimo seems content to wait two more games before deciding on a starting five, eventually tightening the rotation for Seattle’s home game against Golden State Oct. 23.

Carlesimo also said that most of the defensive and offensive transition system is in, but only 10 to 15 percent of the offensive, half-court sets are in. That’s why Seattle has struggled in the half-court offensively.

Listen to Carlesimo talk more about that here.

Nick Collison is in the midst of a tough battle for playing time with Wilcox. Both players have looked good so far this season. But Carlesimo has stayed with the young trio of centers in Swift, Petro, Sene and veteran Kurt Thomas at the center spot, leaving Collison and Wilcox sharing time at power forward. Collison started several games at center for Seattle last season, so he has to again prove that he deserves minutes at both positions.

However, Collison’s offensive skill set and ability to attack the boards should garner him consistent playing time. Whether that’s as a starter or contributor off the bench remains to be seen.

“I just want to get on the court,” Collison said. “And If I can play both positions that will help me get on the court.”

Listen to Collison talk more here.

A quick trip around the Northwest Division. I’ll have an update from practice later today.

Seattle: If you have not seen it yet, ESPN’s J.A. Adande wrote a piece on the Sonics.

Portland: Trail Blazer coach Nate McMillan calls out his big men and they respond with a good win at Atlanta. Bremerton’s Marvin Williams had a team-high 18 points for Atlanta in the loss. More about the game from Mike Barrett’s Blazer Blog.

Denver: Regulars Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony sat out as coach George Karl gave some of his reserves an extended look in the Nuggets 109-106 loss at Detroit. Former UW standout Bobby Jones took advantage of the veterans sitting, totaling 17 points, six rebounds and four assists in 27 minutes.

And Eddie Murphy films a scene of his upcoming movie Nowhereland with cameos from Iverson and Anthony. Read more about it in this Nuggets notebook.

Utah: A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune contemplates a potential Andrei Kirilenko for Wally Szczerbiak trade in this Q&A session.

And Jazz owner Larry Miller says point guard Deron Williams is definitely part of the team’s long-range plans.

Minnesota: Looks like the T-Wolves are in a similar situation as Seattle, as Minnesota coach Randy Wittman says there are no guaranteed starters.

Not related to anything, but just thought I would share this clip that shows Adam Morrison talking about crying.

Talk to you this afternoon.

The Sonics hung in there but ultimately couldn't stay with Indiana, who just executed better on both the offensive and defensive end than Seattle.

Specifically, Indiana did a nice job of attacking Seattle's zone and man defense. The Pacers shot 11-of-26 from the 3-point line. And defensively Indiana forced Seattle to shoot 37 percent from the floor.

Rookie Kevin Durant eclipsed the 20-point mark for the first time in his NBA career, finishing with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting. In particular Durant shot the ball well from the perimeter, going 3-for-5 from the 3-point line. He also finished with five rebounds.

Listen to Durant talk about the game here.

In his first action Mouhamed Sene also played well. In 24 minutes Sene finished with six points, 15 rebounds and four blocks. Coach P.J. Carlesimo said Sene was the best player on the floor against Indiana.

X-Rays on Damien Wilkin's right ankle came back negative. I talked to Damien after the game and he said his ankle did not swell that much, but he could only put a little bit of pressure on it. He'll be evaluated by the team on Monday.

Overall Carlesimo would have liked to see Seattle play better, but he credited Indiana with a solid game on both ends of the floor. Listen to P.J. comments after the game here.

Seattle plays again on Thursday against the L.A. Lakers in Bakerfield. I think we'll see one more game of evaluation before P.J. starts to hone in on a starting lineup and consistent rotation.

Seattle cut the lead to four points early in the quarter but the Pacers pushed the lead back out to end the quarter.

Mouhamed Sene has looked decent inside. He's so long he changes a lot of shots inside. P.J. is giving Sene extended minutes tonight and he seems to have taken advantage of the opportunity.

If Seattle can shoot decent in this last quarter and play solid defense they might have a shot to grab this one.

Seattle is shooting terrible from the field right now ( 37%, 16-of-43) while Indiana is 22 –of -49 (45 percent) from the field, including 8-of-17 from the 3-point line.

Mike Dunleavy leads Indiana with 12 points.

Seattle went zone most of the second quarter and Indianapolis has made them pay by making shots from the perimeter.

Damien Wilkins twisted his ankle on a drive to the basket with 10:59 to go before halftime, going down hard on the baseline. He’s got a sprained right ankle. X-rays came back negative, so his ankle is not broken. Wilkins will be reevaluated when the team gets back to Seattle.

The play of Jeff Green (12 points) and Kevin Durant (8 points, 4 rebounds) have been one of the few bright spots for Seattle as they try to find a rhythm offensively.

Damien Wilkins went down hard on a drive to the basket and is down on the floor. It looks like it's his right ankle. Collison and Wilcox took Damien to the looker room. It didn't look like he was able to put any pressure on it. I'll try to get more info by halftime.

UPDATE: Wilkins has a right ankle sprain and is getting x-rays. He will not return.

Pretty evenly played game until the end of the quarter, with Indiana finishing out on a 6-0 run. Seattle looks good offensively early. Great ball and player movement, and guys are finding the open man. Starters include Luke Ridnour, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Kurt Thomas.

Ridnour seems to have adjusted to the mask well. He played the first six minutes and had an assist and a steal. Durant is stroking it tonight. He’s got 8 points already, including two 3-pointers. This could be his first 20-point game.

Mo Sene got his first run of the year tonight in the first quarter. He had a dunk from the baseline off a nice feed from Wilkins. Seattle finished with Watson, Wilkins, Gelabale, Petro and Sene on the floor to end the quarter. That group struggled on offense.

Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo canceled the early morning practice and let the guy’s sleep in after getting in from Cleveland. Here are the starters for the game against Indianapolis.

PG – Luke Ridnour
SG – Kevin Durant
SF – Jeff Green
PF – Chris Wilcox
C – Kurt Thomas

Earl Watson, Mickael Gelabale, Damien Wilkins, Mouhamed Sene an Johan Petro should all see action tonight.

Delonte West is still nursing a mild back strain and will not play. West also has return home to Washington, D.C. for a funeral. Robert Swift will keep off of his knee another day. And Nick Collison and Wally Szczerbiak will rest this game.

Swift did participate in shootaround during pregame, but trainer Mike Shimensky told Carlesimo that Swift was a no-go this morning. I imagine Swift still has some selling in his knee and the team is just being cautious.

“We’re just trying to give certain guys starts,” Carlesimo said. “Luke really hasn’t played a lot of minutes because he got hurt in Sacramento. It’s Mo’s (Sene) first time to play. Kurt (Thomas) wanted to go a little bit back to back. Wally (Szczerbiak) did not. So it’s just kind of spinning a lot of different people and playing different combinations.”

Rookies Durant and Green will get their first taste of back-to-back NBA games. But the flight from Cleveland to Phoenix is about an hour – not as long as other flights will be later on in the year.

“We’re probably making more of it than they are,” Carlesimo said. “But yes, it is a back-to-back with a flight in between, so it’s a different level. But we’ve talked about it and I don’t anticipate any problems.”

My Internet access is sketchy courtside, so I can’t promise you too much during the game. But if it’s working I’ll have quarter updates, and of course a post-game wrap up at the end of the game.

The Sonics got their first preseason victory, cruising past Cleveland. Seattle led by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter but let the Cavaliers sneak back into it at the end of the game.

Chris Wilcox led Seattle with 20 points and eight rebounds. Kevin Durant finished with 15 points and seven boards. And Wally Szczerbiak in his first action of the year finished with 14 points.

"This is a big step for us," Wilcox said. "It's the second game we've played, and you could tell there was a big difference. Guys came and worked hard the last couple days, and it showed on the court."

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo was pleased with his team's overall performance after the Sonics loss to Sacramento on Tuesday.

"The thing that I’m most proud about is they got some carry over, and they got some reward for how hard they worked the last two days (in practice)," Carlesimo said. "You could what they worked on, and it was evident on the floor."

Listen to Carlesimo's full conversation here.

Seattle's veterans Szczerbiak and Kurt Thomas seemed to provide more stability out on the floor for this young team. Szczerbiak played 24 minutes and his legs seemed to hold up okay. And Thomas also played 24 minutes, finishing with five points and nine rebounds.

"We definitely had a better defensive effort out there," Thomas said. "We're still growing. It's still early. We're still trying to learn each other out there on the floor, and find that comfort zone for each other. And it just comes in time."

Overall, Seattle's big men played well. Nick Collison finished with nine points and 11 rebounds. And Johan Petro totaled seven points and eight rebounds, fouling out with about eight seconds left.

A quick look at the stat sheet showed Seattle how thoroughly controlled this one. They outrebounded Cleveland 54-42, outscored them in the paint 40-24 and doubled the Cavaliers in second-chance points 24-12.
And defensively Seattle’s zone gave Cleveland fits. The Sonics held Cleveland to shoot 39 percent from the field (31-of-79), and forced 14 turnovers.

Now the next challenge for this team will be to see how they respond to playing back-to-back games on the road. Seattle will face Indianapolis on Saturday.

Probably Seattle’s best quarter of basketball all preseason. The Sonics outscored Cleveland 28-17 in the quarter.
Jermaine Jackson, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Nick Collison and Johan Petro started to open the second half, and the Sonics exploded to a 12-point lead with 8:35 left in the third quarter.

Seattle’s rookie combo of Jeff Green and Kevin Durant consistently beat the Cavaliers down the floor, leading to a frustrated LeBron James calling a timeout after a Durant lay-in made it 63-51.

Durant has started to show why he was the No. 2 pick overall. He has 10 points and six rebounds so far, and has been matched up against James at times during the third quarter. Durant looked the most comfortable he’s been on the floor during the third quarter.

Defensively, Seattle’s zone continues to give the Cavs fits. The Sonics held Cleveland to 39 percent shooting and has forced 10 turnovers. And Seattle has a 34-22 advantage in points in the paint. We’ll see if they can finish it off.

The Sonics have played solid so far, with Chris Wilcox (12 points) and Wally Szczerbiak (11 points) leading Seattle offensively.

Szczerbiak continues to prove that he can score, not only hitting open jump shots but creating his own shot as well.

And Wilcox is doing a nice job of running the floor. Wheezy is 5-of-5 from the field in the first half.

Seattle's zone defense gave Cleveland problems in the second quarter. The Sonics held Cleveland to 40 percent shooting in the first half. And the outscored Cleveland in the paint 20-14.

After falling behind by seven points early the Sonics battled back to tie the game at 24-all, but trailed by two at the end of the first.

Seattle seems to be rebounding the ball better, outrebounding the Cavs 16-12. Seattle also outscored the Cavs in the paint 14-10.

A matchup you probably don’t to want to see a lot of during the season – Wally Szczerbiak vs. LeBron James. Not that anybody can really slow LeBron down, but Wally is probably not going to be known as the LeBron Stopper. James had 12 points in the opening quarter.

Two former Kansas players also matched up when Nick Collison checked in and drew Drew Gooden on defense.

Even when the Sonics presumably a slower lineup with Szczerbiak and Kurt Thomas on the floor the Sonics still were able to get out and run. In particular, Mickael Gelabale did a nice job of running the floor, getting two easy buckets off of fast breaks.

Gelabale, Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison all have four points each for Seattle.

Jermaine Jackson, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Johan Petro are on the floor for Seattle to begin the second quarter.

I forgot to mention the Sonics chairman Clay Bennett is in Cleveland for the game, and watched the team go through practice sitting along side Sonics general manager Sam Presti.

Also, storm play-by-play radio Broadcaster Alan Horton has taken a similar job doing play-by-play for Minnesota's NBA and WNBA team. Horton was only here for a season. Read more about Horton here.

The Sonics had a spirited, hour-long workout session this morning before tonight’s game against Cleveland, and coach P.J. Carlesimo seemed pleased with what the team accomplished afterward.

“We got better just now,” Carlesimo said. “And I hope to hell we get better tonight. I don’t think we got better against Sacramento. But we just got better this morning.”

Listen to Carlesimo’s full conversation here.

The starters for tonight are:

PG – Earl Watson
SG – Mickael Gelabale
SF – Wally Szczerbiak
PF – Chris Wilcox
C – Kurt Thomas

I imagine Mouhamed Sene, who did not play on Tuesday against Sacramento, will get some run in tonight, probably with this opening group.

Carlesimo said veterans Szczerbiak and Thomas will play about 20 minutes each.

Luke Ridnour (broken nose), Robert Swift (knee tendonitis), and Delonte West (lower back strain) will all sit out tonight.

Ridnour practiced with the group today, but Carlesimo said he wants to give Ridnour time to adjust to the mask he’ll have to wear to protect his nose. West practiced a little bit and could go if he had to, but Carlesimo is sitting him out as a precaution. And Swift did not practice at all this morning, resting his surgically repaired right knee. But if Swift feels OK tomorrow could play against Indiana on Saturday.

Rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green should see extended minutes on the floor together with the second unit. Carlesimo said they’ll probably also play against Indiana on Saturday, in part to get used to playing back-to-back nights in the NBA.

Cleveland is playing rare back-to-back home games. They defeated Detroit 96-90 on Thursday, and will play Seattle tonight, then travel to China Saturday for a two-game trip against Orlando.

I talked to Durant for a few minutes. He’ll face LeBron James for the first time in an NBA game. But the two faced off during Team USA camp over the summer.

“I talk to LeBron a lot,” Durant said. “We talk pretty much on and off. He just told me to have fun, and to just go through your rookie year and take it all in stride.”

Listen to the full conversation with Durant here.
I’ll have a pre-game report and will be blogging throughout the game tonight, so check back.

I'm headed out to Cleveland this morning and won't have another update until later this evening. The Sonics are having a short practice this morning and then flying to Cleveland this afternoon. In case you missed it I had a short story on Ridnour breaking his nose against Sacramento. He'll have to wear a mask for the next four to five weeks.

Also, on the arena front the Sonics filed a motion to move the KeyArena lease dispute to federal court.

I'll should have more information later today.

The Seattle SuperSonics ownership group filed for a notice of removal Tuesday in King County Superior Court to have the City of Seattle’s lawsuit against the team moved to U.S. District court in Seattle.
The team’s request was granted, and the matter is now in the hands of the federal court, where Judge Ricardo Martinez will hold a hearing Oct. 19.
King County Superior Court Judge Harry McCarthy was scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter Wednesday, potentially determining whether the issue would be heard in King County Superior Court or as the Sonics ownership group requested by the American Arbitration Association.
But McCarthy signed off on a motion to remove the matter.
Sonics chairman Clay Bennett announced in September that the ownership group filed for arbitration over the team’s lease agreement with the City of Seattle last week.
In response to the Sonics’ filing, the City of Seattle filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court a few days later, which seeks to block the case from going to arbitration. It also seeks a judgment that upholds the specific performance clause of the lease, and it asks for the Sonics to pay for the city’s attorney’s fees.
The Sonics ownership group filed for removal of the case to federal court, stating under federal law the team has a right to move the cased based on “diversity jurisdiction.” The term allows for disputes between groups from different states to have their issues heard in federal court instead of a local court. Seattle’s ownership group is Oklahoma based, while the City of Seattle is a municipality in Washington state.
The City of Seattle could request that the matter be moved back to King County Superior Court, but the city attorney’s office is has not determined if they will make that request.

A look around the Northwest Division today.

Seattle: Here’s our game story from yesterday along with notes.
Some national perspective on Kevin Durant’s performance is provided here.

Also, ESPN analyst John Hollinger published his Player Efficiency Rating (PER) rankings for all NBA players. And Hollinger provides an overview explaining what PERS is.

Seattle’s highest ranked player is Chris Wilcox (75), followed by Luke Ridnour (114). View the Sonics full team listing here.

And here’s an update on former UW player and current Sacramento King Spencer Hawes, who will have knee surgery today.

Portland: Good news for Blazers fans, as the pain in Brandon Roy’s heel seems to have subsided enough for him to practice. The Blazers prepare for their preseason opener tonight at the Rose Garden against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Denver: The Nuggets kicked off their preseason with a win over the Clippers. But apparently Denver fans are still caught up in the euphoria of the Colorado Rockies still being in the playoffs, and have not yet turned their attention to the NBA.

Utah: The Jazz open their preseason schedule against Milwaukee tonight. This story looks at how Jazz fans will react to Andrei Kirilenko, who asked to be traded earlier but has now mended fences with the organization.

Minnesota: The Timberwolves and former franchise player Kevin Garnett, now playing for Boston, will meet for the first time today in Europe. Minnesota coach Randy Whittman said playing NBA regular season game in Europe could be unfair for the teams involved.

I’ll have a report from practice later today along with an update on the arena situation. The City of Seattle and the Sonics are supposed to have a hearing in court today regarding the lawsuit over terms in the lease agreement.

As most of you probably have heard already Seattle lost it's opening season game to Sacramento, 104-98.

Damien Wilkins led all Seattle scorers with 18 points. Rookie Kevin Durant has 12 points in his debut on 5-of-9 shooting. Delonte West chipped in 14 points and Earl Watson had 12 points and three assists.

Wilkins talks about the game here.

Luke Ridnour had to leave the game with 6:49 left in the first quarter after getting elbowed by Ron Artest trying to work through a screen. Ridnour will be checked to see if he has a broken nose on Wednesday.

It was a pretty good effort by Seattle, specifically on defense. The Sonics, using the zone they worked on all week. held Sacramento to 41 percent shooting. However, head coach P.J. Carlesimo wasn't pleased with the defensive effort.
“The way we played defense tonight was terrible, considering that’s been an emphasis for the first five or six days of practice,’ Carlesimo said. “And the way we rebounded was disappointing.”
Listen to Carlesimo's full conversation here.

Durant seemed to be moving too fast, twice losing his footing while trying to drive to the basket. He also got pushed around a bit by stronger defenders. However, he still managed to get 12 points in only 21 minutes of action.
“It was just what I thought it was going to be,” Durant said. “I knew it was going to be a fast-paced game. But you’ve got to slow your pace down. I was going too quick at first, but toward the middle of the game, I just told myself to calm myself down and let the game come to me.”
Listen to the full Durant conversation here.

Big man Robert Swift also played well, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds in a little over 22 minutes of work.

Carlesimo went with Earl Watson (12 points, 3 assists), Delonte West (14 points), Wilkins, Nick Collison (9 points, 9 rebounds) and Johan Petro in the fourth quarter. That group responded by cutting Sacramento's double-digit lead to four points at the end of the game, but the Sonics couldn't get any closer.

Overall, I think the Sonics did some decent things offensively and defensively, and got the benefit of playing and coaching in a close game. We'll see how they improve against Cleveland on Friday.

For not playing that well the Sonics are still in it, trailing 86-80 after three quarters.

Seattle was down by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, but battled back to cut the lead to single digits heading into the final quarter.

Kevin Durant played better in the third, getting to the foul line. Durant has nine points after three quarters, but is 1-4 from the line. Sacramento is really playing physical against Durant, and he’s struggled with the tough defense.

Wilkins leads all Sonics with 15 points. We’ll see if Seattle can rally in the fourth.

The Sonics led 42-36 midway through the second quarter, but the Kings made a run and took a 59-56 lead into halftime.

Seattle had another player got to the locker room. Chris Wilcox looked like he may have got a finger caught on the rim, and went into the locker room early.

After playing pretty solid for most of the first half Seattle’s youth begin to show with lazy passes inside. The Sonics also let the Kings get some easy put backs off of offensive rebounds.

So far I’ve been impressed with Robert Swift. He’s played solid defensively, getting out to help out on pick and roll plays on the perimeter. He’s rebounded well, and he’s been somewhat of a defensive presence inside, something this team sorely needs.

The Sonics are up d 42-36 with 8:36 left in the half.

Damien Wilkins shot the ball well during the opening quarter, finishing with 9 points on 4-of-4 shooting.

And Delonte West came in and put on a show in the second quarter. He’s got 14 points.

Luke Ridnour had to leave the game with 6:49 left in the first, suffering a bloody nose. It looks like he might have caught an elbow and was staggering coming off of the court. Ridnour won’t return, Sonics’ PR man Tom Savage has told us along press row.

Swift looked solid, but fatigued as Johan Petro subbed for him with about four minutes left.

Kevin Durant hit a jumper from the wing in his first NBA action, but otherwise seemed to be getting the jitters out.

Overall the team is playing OK. The defense could be better, particularly help defense on the weak side as Seattle is getting beat off the dribble. Carlesimo can’t be happy with giving up 33 points in the first quarter. And they haven’t been able to get out and run as much as they would like.

But overall the Sonics are beating Sacramento down the floor and look like the better conditioned team.

Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo announced his starting five during his pre-game talk with the media.

They are:

PG — Luke Ridnour
SG — Kevin Durant
SF — Damien Wilkins
PF — Nick Collison
C — Robert Swift

The second five will be:
PG — Earl Watson
SG — Delonte West
SF — Jeff Green
PF — Chris Wilcox
C — Johan Petro

Wally Szczerbiak (left knee swelling), Kurt Thomas (left thigh contusion) and Mickael Gelabale (left hamstring strain) sat out to rest minor injuries.

Carlesimo gave no specific reason for the starters other than he wanted balance in both lineups, and said the starters will change as the preseason rolls along.

“In some cases it was the guy that was healthier if there was a choice between guys," he said. "In other cases I kind of wanted to balance the team and look at different combinations.”

Carlesimo said he plans to start tightening the rotation and figuring out a startling lineup with two or three games left in the preseason. Although he believes that lineup will fluctuate in the first part of the regular season as the coaching staff learns more about what the players can do.

Listen to the full conversation with Carlesimo here. And I'll have another report soon after tip-off.

Former University of Washington center Spencer Hawes, now with the Sacramento Kings, will not play tonight and will have arthoscopic surgery on his knee surgery performed in Seattle, according to this report, and will be out indefinitely.

Hawes injured his knee during offseason conditioning drills in September.

It's a tough start to his NBA career for Hawes, but hopefully he'll only be out for a few weeks.

The Sonics practiced for about two hours today. And in an unusual move, Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said the team will work for an hour before the game at Sacramento on Tuesday. For the next two weeks that will be the routine before preseason games.

The shootarounds will be more like mini-practices so the coaching staff can get more work in, Carlesimo said.

Only about 10 or 11 members of the team will play against Sacramento, but Carlesimo said he won’t decide on a rotation until an hour or two before game time.

Carlesimo said part of his decision not to play certain players could be related to sitting them out in order to let them rest nagging injuries. I imagine veterans like Kurt Thomas and Wally Szczerbiak could fit that description.

“Certainly as we get closer to Denver and Phoenix we’ve got to tighten the rotation,” Carlesimo said. “We’ve got to figure who we’re going to start, we’ve got to figure out rotations and we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to play. But at this stage it’s just a lot of evaluating of personnel, and a lot of evaluating of what we put in so far.

“There’s a couple of areas tomorrow night where we will probably get exposed in and we’ll talk about it after the game because we haven’t put it in. We can’t expect them to do something if we haven’t even put it in on the floor. But the things we have covered I hope we see carry over to tomorrow night. The things that aren’t in, I’m not concerned about.”

Listen to the full conversation with Carlesimo here.

All 15 players practiced on Monday. We saw about the last 20 minutes of practice. The team worked on offensive sets against air for about five minutes, then they went 5-on-5 fullcourt working on zone defensive rotations and getting back defensively.

The Sonics finished the session off with a perimeter shooting drill and free throws.

Nick Collison and Mickel Gelabale missed free throws at the end of practice so the team had to run a set of lines. And the team then ran some more as Gelabale missed two in a row before finally draining a shot from the line to end practice.

During the foul shooting drill assistant coach Paul Westhead, Damien Wilkins and Chris Wilcox talked about an athletic, up-and-under move Wilkins attempted that just lipped out during he scrimmage. Westhead said the move reminded him of Julius Erving’s famous up and under move against Los Angeles Lakers’ defender Mark Landesberger that’s been replayed over and over throughout the years.

The three talked about the athleticism it took to perform the famous feat, then Westhead sprung this on him — he was coaching the Lakers in Game 4 of the 1980 NBA finals when Erving made the famous, spectacular play. Wilcox’s jaw dropped on hearing that news, and Wilkins chuckled.

Wilcox wasn’t born and Wilkins was just months old when Westhead won the NBA championship with the Lakers.

Here’s the play as part of a short Dr. J montage for those who don’t remember.

With the focus on conditioning and running this past week, the guys seem pretty excited to finally play a game, even though it’s preseason. Specifically, Kevin Durant said he’s ready to see his first NBA action.

“I just want to get acquainted with the NBA game, and how quick it is,” Durant said. “And like I’ve been saying for awhile I just want to help my team as much as possible and get better.”

Luke Ridnour, who looked good in the scrimmage on Saturday, said he’s feels comfortable with Carlesimo’s defensive-minded, up-tempo philosophy. Luke had 11 points in the scrimmage, and seems to be developing some chemistry with rookie Jeff Green.

“It’s exciting just because you get to go up and down,” Ridnour said. “So there’s freedom in that, and everyone’s running hard. So if we just do that and get up and down we’re going to be a team that’s making a lot of stuff happening.”

Listen to the full conversation with Ridnour here.

I’ll have some pre-game notes before the Sacramento game on Tuesday, and I’ll be blogging throughout the game.

The game against Sacramento won’t be shown on TV locally. Seattle’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, Oct. 18 in Bakersfield is the only Sonics preseason game that will be televised. That game will be on TNT at 7:00 p.m.

Let me know some of your questions and concerns before game time and I’ll try to address them tonight or tomorrow.

Some news and notes from the Northwest Division over the weekend.

Seattle: Although it he doesn’t say it directly, New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn hints that he would vote for the relocation of the Sonics to Oklahoma City if a feasibility study performed by the board of governers says it’s the right move.

This projection has Seattle finishing out of the playoff race again this season.

Portland: The Oregonian’s Jason Quick offers some thoughts on Portland after the team’s Saturday scrimmage. And here’s a feature on former Seattle Prep star Martell Webster looking to take the next step in his career.

Denver: At $83.3 million the Nuggets are way over the NBA’s luxury tax level, but owner Stan Kroenke says it’s worth it if Denver can compete for a title. And George Karl will try to limit Allen Iverson’s minutes this season to keep his fresh for the long haul. The Denver coach looks forward to the possibility of facing his son, Coby Karl, who trying to claim a roster spot on the Los Angeles Lakers during training camp.

Utah: A quick overview of the Jazz as they head into their first preseason game on Wednesday. And Ronnie Brewer seems poised to earn some minutes at shooting guard for Utah.

Minnesota: The Timberwolves held off Turkish professional team Efes Pilsen 84-81 in the first game of the NBA Europe Live tour. Efes PIlsen's Drew Nicholas led all scorers with 24 points. Minnesota forward Mark Madsen said the wealth of new players has brought a renewed energy to the organization.

The Sonics will have one practice later today, and I’ll post some notes from practice this afternoon.

The Seattle SuperSonics hosted their annual community practice Friday at Seattle Pacific University. The event was well attended, with over 2,000 fans packing the Royal Brougham Pavilion.

The fans got their first glimpse of rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. And they also got a chance to see how the Sonics will play this year, which is fast.

Point guards Luke Ridnour and Earl Watson pushed the ball up the floor at every opportunity, with wings Jeff Green, Delonte West, Durant and Damien Wilkins running the floor well.

“We’re going to try and play at this pace,” Carlesimo said. “It’s not easy to play at this pace all of the time and to be a good defensive team. That’s not an easy combination. Nor is it easy to play man and to play zone. But we want to try and do that. We want to try and play at a quick pace. And we definitely want to be a good defensive team.”

Listen to the full conversation with Carlesimo here.

Luke Ridnour looked good in his first action of the year, and may have taken the lead in the competition to see who will start at point guard. Ridnour led the white team with 11 points in the first scrimmage. The white team, consisting of Ridnour, West, Jeff Green, Robert Swift, Nick Collison and Jermaine Jackson defeated the green team 24-14 in the first scrimmage.

Ridnour looked like the Luke of old, and seems to be flourishing in Carlisemo’s fast-paced system. He also seemed to develop a nice rapport with Green, as the two hooked up on two alley-oop finishes.

Listen to a conversation with Green after the scrimmage here.

Watson played solid as well for the green team, finding Durant and Damien Wilkins for several scoring opportunities.

The green team, consisting of Watson, Durant, Wilkins, Chris Wilcox, Johan Petro, Mouhamed Sene and Mickael Gelabale played better in the second scrimmage, but lost 18-17 when West drained a long jumper from the wing with less than 30 seconds left.

Watson and Durant jumpers at the end of the game came up short.

Speaking of West, he was probably the most impressive player on the floor on Saturday. I hadn’t seen him play much, but for 6-foot-4 he has great bounce and got to the hole several times for easy buckets. He had several authoritative dunks during drill work. And he shot the ball well during the scrimmage. I think he could become a fan favorite during the year.

Green showed off his versatility, running the floor well, playing solid defense and showing a nice mid-range game.

Durant showed a nice shooting touch and quick release from the outside, and an ability to get to the basket.

Wilkins also continued to play well during the camp, hitting a couple jumpers during the scrimmage and playing good defense.

And along with West, I also was impressed with Robert Swift. He seemed to be struggling with conditioning and soreness in his rehabilitated right knee early in training camp. But Swift moved well during the scrimmage on Saturday, blocking Wilkins shot attempt under the basket out of bounds, and finishing with a nice turnaround jumper on the other end.

“I was trying to push it as hard as I can to get back as fast as I can,” Swift said. “But at the same time I know have to be smart about it. So I’m compromising by taking some time off.”

Listen to more of the Swift conversation here.

Veterans Kurt Thomas (left thigh contusion) and Wally Szczerbiak (left knee swelling) sat out the scrimmage, but it seem like more of a precaution to rest those guys and I imagine they will be ready to next week.

Overall, I think the team played solid, and I’m interested to see how they play against Sacramento on Tuesday.

The Sonics will take Sunday off, and go through a light practice on Monday before flying down to Sacramento.

There’s a good crowd here tonight, which perhaps bodes well as far as interest in the team when the regular season starts. It looks like the gym seats about 2,500, and it’s full with about 15 minutes before the team shows. Word is people starting showing up about 4 p.m.

The NBA preseason opened up today in Italy with the new-look Boston Celtics slipping past Toronto, 89-85. Former Sonic Ray Allen had 10 points in his Celtics’ debut, shooting 4-for-13 from the field.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with with 21 points, and Kevin Garnett finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
T.J. Ford led the Raptors with 15 points and five assists. Read the full report here.

And while we are checking on former players, former Sonic Rashard Lewis says he is ready to put on a show for his new team, the Orlando Magic, against Atlanta on Monday.

I just got set up and will reporting from the Sonics open scrimmage this evening at Seattle Pacific University.

There's a pretty good crowd already here, with a line of fans around the building, several of them with balls, posters and other items ready to be signed.

Former Sonic Slick Watts is here as well, along with the teams strength and conditioning coach Dwight Daub. The team should be here a little before 6 p.m. I'll have another report later tonight once the scrimmage gets started.

The Sonics had a light practice this morning with head coach P.J. Carlesimo again mostly focusing on basic drill work like how the team will defend simple offensive plays like pick and roll, down screens, cross screens and screen the screener. The team also went through zone rotations defensively.

Carlesimo said he wants the Sonics to have the ability to play a good zone defense, and that if they can do that he believes it will help them during the season.

“Where most of us (coaches) come up short is we don’t put the time into it,” Carlesimo said about the zones employed in the NBA. “We all have a zone that we can throw out there but most of them are (crap) zones.
“Sometimes they work because the other team is missing shots or the other team doesn’t attack zones well. But it’s not usually because it’s a good zone and has good slides and the players understand it. Our goal this year is to have a good zone, and see if we’re right. See if a zone really is something that will bother teams, and will be able to help us in given situations."

Listen to the full interview with Carlesimo after practice here.

Chris Wilcox joining the growing list of players filling team trainer Mike Shimensky’s training room. Wilcox has a left quadriceps hip flexor contusion and sat most of Friday morning’s practice.

Wilcox joined Mickael Gelabale (left hamstring strain), Robert Swift (right knee tendinitis), Delonte West (left big toe nail removed) and Kurt Thomas (left quadriceps contusion.)

The injuries left Seattle with only 10 players available. The Sonics were supposed to go hard this afternoon, but Carlesimo said he might take it slow again to avoid other guys getting injured.

Again, the media has only been able to watch the last 30 minutes of practice, which either consists of a controlled scrimmage or drill work. But in talking to the guys afterward it seems like they’re doing a lot of running. So that might be why some guys are coming up with some of the nagging injuries. If guys didn’t come into camp in shape they should be by the end of next week.

“We sure are running,” Szczerbiak said. “We’re getting up and down the floor, and this is probably the most running I’ve done in training camp. But it will pay off in the end.”

I also talked to Johan Petro. The Frenchman said he’s likes Carlesimo’s system because it fits what he does best, which is run the floor. Petro said he needs to get better defensively, and he's get his chance to improve because he is one of the three big men not sitting the sidelines.

With Thomas, Swift and Wilcox out, Jeff Green saw some time at the four spot during practice.

Rookies Green and Kevin Durant have avoided the injury bug, so they have been able to get a lot of learning in this week. I imagine by now most guys are anxious to play a real game.

The Sonics will practice again this afternoon. And on Saturday they will have a light practice in the morning and a full practice Saturday evening, 6 p.m. at Seattle Pacific University that’s open to the public.

Again, no real formulation of a potential starting lineup at this point so I’m not going to mention who was in green and who was in white because I think at this point they are just trying to put 10 healthy guys on the floor. But I think a couple more players should be healthy enough to scrimmage on Saturday, and the team is just taking the necessary precautions to make sure guys get through the preseason healthy.

Wally Szczerbiak seems to be fitting in well and getting comfortable as a Sonic. I’ll have a story on his transition coming out West on Sunday. You can listen to an interview with him here.

Today's look at the Northwest Division.

Seattle: Here’s my story from today on the Sonics dealing with nagging injuries. Kevin Pelton from supersonics.com also has an update from Thursday’s practice.

Portland: Blazer center Joel Przybilla is looking to stay injury-free this season. And Brandon Roy is confident rest will be the cure to his injured heel getting better.

Denver: Allen Iverson’s contract is up in two years. And he could be headed elsewhere after that if he believes the Nuggets can’t compete for a championship. Iverson also comments on the $44,000 lawsuit filed against him over canceling an appearance at a youth rally in Omaha, Neb.

Newest Nugget Stacey Augmon says playing basketball beats spinning class.

Utah: Jazz owner Larry Miller says a sit down with coach Jerry Sloan helped sway Andrei Kirilenko’s to stay in Utah.

Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer still are not participating in camp. Williams had his wisdom teeth pulled, and Boozer is with his son, who is recovering from a bone marrow transplant in Miami.

Minnesota: Big bodies Craig Smith and Chris Richard should compete for minutes at power forward.

Ryan Gomes has been impressed with rookie teammate Corey Brewer’s defense in practice.

ESPN Insider John Hollinger predicts the Sonics to finish 10th in the Western Conference. Look at the complete rankings here.

Somewhat expected with only 15 players in camp, the injury bug has bit the Seattle Sonics.

Kurt Thomas, Robert Swift and Delonte West all spent time on the sidelines during Thursday morning’s practice, the only practice of the day for the team.

Thomas suffered a contusion to his left quad, catching a knee to his leg on Wednesday. Swift has tendinitis in his surgically repaired right knee from the daily grind of practicing for the first time. And West is still suffering from a sprained ankle he suffered on Tuesday, and also got his left big toe nail removed, which was caused by breaking in some uncomfortable tennis shoes.

Mickael Gelabale also is hobbled by a sore hip from taking a hard fall when he tried to dunk over someone on the first day of practice. But Gelabale practiced on Thursday.

Coach P.J. Carlesimo knew he was taking a calculated risk in only inviting 15 players to camp. And after three days of pushing his players hard, he’ll now have to ease back a bit to avoid any further injuries. Listen to Carlesimo’s full conversation here.

Carlesimo said he didn’t invite more players to camp because he wanted to have time to work with the guys he knew were going to be on the team. The flip side of that is when your numbers get small it’s hard to get a decent look during 5-on-5 scrimmages. But Carlesimo said by easing back and letting some of those guys get healthy the team should be able to limp through until the team's open public practice on Saturday.

“We’re kind of right on the edge of pushing to hard and you start to get injuries,” Carlesimo said.
“But I think we’ll be able to get to Saturday night with what we have, unless somebody else comes up lame tomorrow. If we get Robert or Kurt back, that will get us through tomorrow. If we don’t we’ll just have to be a little more conservative tomorrow to get through Saturday.”

Carlesimo said he may keep 15 players, which bodes well for Jermaine Jackson, the only player with a non-guaranteed contract. Jackson can play the one or the two, and adds more versatility to the backcourt.

However, the 31-year-old Jackson, who has played for five different teams, said he’s not worried about the numbers game and is more focused on doing what he can to improve the team. Listen to an interview with Jackson from media day here.

Orginally the Sonics were scheduled to go two, 10-minute quarters, but Carlesimo cut that to one 10-minute quarter with the injuries. As far as how the team looked during the scrimmage, the white team beat the green team handily.

The fact that the white team was more dominant isn’t surprising. They had a more veteran squad, with Earl Watson, Jermaine Jackson, Mouhamed Sene, Damien Wilkins, Nick Collison and Michael Gelabale. The Green team consisted of rookies Jeff Green and Kevin Durant along with Luke Ridnour, Wally Szczerbiak, Chris Wilcox and Johan Petro.

Nobody really stood out in the scrimmage expect for Gelabale, who seemed a bit reserved the first few days but did a nice job of going hard to the basket during the scrimmage.

The most interesting thing is it appears the Sonics might play a lot of zone, really focusing on protecting the basket and forcing teams into uncomfortable shots. From there, Seattle will look to push the ball for easy baskets.

It makes sense. Since the Sonics will be young and don’t have a lot of continuity with all of the new faces, the hardest thing to do is develop a rhythm in a half-court offensive set. So the Sonics will probably look to get as many easy buckets in transition as they can get.

That’s all for now.

Another look at what's Seattle's main opponents are doing.

Seattle: In case you missed it, I had a story on Damien Wilkins in today’s paper. Wilkins talked about returning to the family No. 21 jersey, and making more of an impact this season with Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen gone. Some notes from camp also are included in the report.

Portland: Looks like Brandon Roy, who re-injured his left heel during the opening day of training camp on Tuesday, may sit out the rest of the preseason as a preventive measure according to this report from Jason Quick of The Oregonian.
Mike Barrett has some odd and ends from Wednesday’s practice on his blog.

Denver: Dust off that old Earth, Wind and Fire record and throw it on the turn table. The Nuggets signed Plastic Man, former UNLV guard Stacey Augmon, 39, to a nonguaranted contract. Yes, I know, I can’t believe Augmon’s still playing either.

Allen Iverson is being sued for $44,000 for not showing up for a booked speech in Omaha, Neb. Iverson canceled because of a family emergency.

And Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post has a story on Marcus Camby, who was supposedly shopped around this summer because of the $9 million salary he'll earn season. The Nuggets are up against the salary cap. Camby says he’s happy that he stayed in Denver. Dempsey also has a Q & A with Chucky Atkins.

Utah: Former Jazz shooting guard Jeff Hornacek has signed on as a part-time coach, and will help players like Andrei Kirilenko with shooting. And Salt Lake Tribune columnist Kurt Kragthorpe says the Jazz will try to mix the old with the new this season in terms of the team’s offensive system. Utah coach Jerry Sloan may be a little long in the tooth, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Minnesota: Some camp notes on the Timberwolves, who are in Turkey right now. And Minnesota big man Mark Madsen is blogging from the trip to Europe.

Another day at training camp and the Sonics are still in learning mode. Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said he was unhappy with the intensity level in the second practice on Tuesday, but the team picked it up in the morning practice today (Wednesday).

Carlesimo still is taking things slow. He says because of all the learning no one has really stood out in practice. Even the veterans are struggling to get any rhythm because there’s a lot of coaching on the floor by Carlesimo, who wants to make sure the players are doing the drill work the right way.

“You can see it’s hard to think as much as we are thinking right now,” Carlesimo said. “When you get to the point where you understand what’s going on, you can kind of go out and play. You still think but you’ve done it before so you get a comfort level. We don’t have that comfort level right now.”

Listen to the rest of Carlesimo’s comments after practice here.

An injury note, Delante West rolled his right ankle toward the end of practice during some of the drill work and is listed as day-to-day. And Jermaine Jackson caught an elbow in his eye just at end of practice from Nick Collison, but appeared to be okay.

I saw the last 15-20 minutes of practice, which included a controlled scrimmage with referees. Carlesimo said it was the most the team had scrimmaged so far during training camp. Here are a few thoughts on the action.

Damien Wilkins looked comfortable on the floor, hitting a couple jump shots, going strong to the basket and playing solid defense. Wilkins, who changed his number to 21 this season from 12 — the same number his father Gerald and uncle Dominique wore during their NBA careers — has kind of been the forgotten man. But he said during media day that he’s in the best shape of his career, and can play either the two or the three for Seattle. The problem is Wilkin’s main competition for playing time are rookies Jeff Green and Kevin Durant and veteran Wally Szczerbiak. But if Wilkins continues to play well he could make things interesting.

Luke Ridnour looked like his old self on the court. He played a lot looser than he did last year and seemed more relaxed on the floor. Ridnour and Earl Watson matched up during the scrimmage, as they did all of last year, and Watson looked solid as well. So it should be an interesting competition to see who earns the starting job.

Robert Swift seemed to move better than the first day, so maybe the soreness in his knee is feeling better. He had a couple nice put backs inside, and did a better job of getting back defensively.

Wally Szczerbiak continues to shoot well. You can pretty much count it when he’s left open.

Chris Wilcox was impressive as well, exploding past Swift for an easy lay-in and running the floor well. This could be a breakout year for Wilcox if he’s focused and ready to go.

The teams were divided up with seven players on each squad, but Carlesimo again said that the groupings had nothing to do with who may start or not, and that he wouldn’t start formulating a starting lineup until toward the end of the preseason.

“No one is distancing themselves from anyone else and no one is burying themselves right now,” Carlesimo said about the first two days of camp.

Here are the groupings from today.

White squad — Luke Ridnour, Kevin Durant, Wally Szczerbiak, Nick Collison, Chris Wilcox, Kurt Thomas and Mickael Gelabale.

Green — Earl Watson, Jermaine Jackson, Johan Petro, Robert Swift, Damien Wilkins, Mouhamed Sene, Jeff Green.

Let me know if you have other questions or concerns about the team and I’ll try to address them in the comments section.

I’ll have a short feature on Wilkins tomorrow, focusing on his potential role on this team and his push to emerge as a go-to player this season. You can listen to an interview with Wilkins here.

A quick look at what’s happening with the Sonics’ main competition.

Portland: Seattle native Brandon Roy hurt his ankle during a practice on Tuesday, and is listed as day-to-day. An MRI on Roy’s left ankle found that he had injured his left heel — the same injury that caused him to miss 20 games last year. Read more here.

University of Arizona product Channing Frye, brought to Portland in the Zach Randolph trade, will be counted on more with Greg Oden out for the year, according to this story.

Denver: Nuggets coach George Karl preached defense in his team’s first practice. The former Sonics coach wants to improve his team’s 26th ranking in points allowed last season.

The Nuggets may have the shortest backcourt in the league with 6-footer Allen Iverson and 5-11 Chucky Atkins expected to start.

Utah: Jazz point guard Deron Williams is sitting out of training camp after having his wisdom teeth pulled, and the reconciliation between Andrei Kirilenko and the team has begun.

Minnesota: A few odds and ends from the Timberwolves. The team is traveling through Europe for 10 days before the season starts.

Also, ESPN Insider John Hollinger’s Eastern Conference preview is worth a read.

That’s all for now. I’ll have a report on the second day of practice later this afternoon.

The media only gets about 30 minutes to watch the end of practice, so it’s hard to pick up too much in that amount of time. But here are my observations, along with comments from P.J. Carlesimo, which you can listen to in full here.

Carlesimo said the team worked about 60 percent on defense and the rest on offense during the two-and-a-half hour practice.

“They worked hard,” Carlesimo said. “They bought into what we were trying to do and their enthusiasm was very good.

“If we practice like we practiced today we’re gong to be a good team. But it’s also the first practice. I’ve got to think if you go around the league 30 teams had good practices.”

The team will practice twice today (Tuesday) and Wednesday, once Thursday and twice on Friday and Saturday. The second practice on Saturday includes the practice open to the public at Seattle Pacific University.

During the last part of practice the team worked on running the offensive break and secondary offense out of the break during the first 10 minutes, with assistant coach Paul Westhead leading them through the drill. Westhead took time to make sure players were getting to the right spots and in the right running lanes.

After that, P.J. ran the team through a 5-on-5 full-court drill with a focus on getting back on defense and matching up. Here we got to see the team scrimmage a little bit. Kevin Durant and Jeff Green both looked impressive running the floor. In particular, Green did a nice job of getting to the basket, moving with a fluidity that belies his 6-foot-9, 235-pound frame.

No surprise here, but Wally Szczerbiak can still stoke it. He drained several open jumpers during the 5-on-5 drill and got good lift on his shots. He seems to have recovered nicely from off-season ankle surgery.

Robert Swift seemed to be laboring at the end of practice, struggling to get up and down the floor during fast-break drills. That’s to be expected. He’s still less-than a year out from off-season knee surgery and will need some time to get into game shape. And he’s carrying another 40 pounds, which makes it harder for him to get up and down the floor.

With that said, Swift still moved well around the basket and had decent lift. But I think the Sonics will ease him into the season and try not to push him too hard in order to avoid Swift reinjuring the knee.

Carlesimo divided the team into three squads during these drills, but he made it clear after practice that there were no specific reasons for the groupings.

“Each team had five guys on it, and they had a couple big guys and a couple small guys,” Carlesimo deadpanned. “One of the teams was red, one of the teams was green, and one of the teams was white. If you go anything beyond that you would be extrapolating.”

I’ll give you the groupings anyway.

The red squad consisted of Delonte West, Jeff Green, Mouhamed Sene, Nick Collison and Damien Wilkins. On the white squad included Kevin Durant, Kurt Thomas, Mickael Gelabale, Johan Petro and Earl Watson. And the green squad consisted of Szczerbiak, Luke Ridnour, Jermaine Jackson, Robert Swift and Chris Wilcox.

I’m writing a feature on Delonte West for tomorrow’s paper. P.J. likes West’s intensity and ability to pressure the ball defensively — particularly West’s ability to block shots from the guard spot and harass smaller point guards. Expect West’s ability to play both the point and shooting guard to get him minutes on the floor. Listen to a conversation with West from media day here.

That’s all for now.

Here's an update between the two parties over the KeyArena lease agreement.

The court battle between the City of Seattle and the Seattle SuperSonics continued this week.
On Monday the team filed a motion to stay the city’s lawsuit against the Sonics, seeking King County Superior Court Judge Harry McCarthy to permit the disagreement between the two groups over the KeyArena lease to be decided by arbitration.
In its motion the team argued that language in the lease agreement regarding arbitration is ambiguous. Further, Washington case law points to a preference for arbitration over court decisions.
The Sonics motion set a hearing for Thursday without oral arguments.
As required by the motion, the city filed a cross-motion in response asking the court to enforce language in KeyArena lease that states a specific performance requirement that the team play all of its home games in KeyArena until Sept. 30, 2010 must be decided in court, according to the city’s interpretation of the lease.
The city also requested oral arguments on the issue, with a new hearing date of Oct. 10.
McCarthy now must make a ruling on the two motions, deciding whether to allow oral arguments as the city requests, or no oral arguments as the Sonics’ motion seeks.
McCarthy could rule by the team’s Thursday request for a hearing date, or McCarthy could wait until the Oct. 10th date requested by the city to make his decision.
“We’re just in the wait-and-see mode and waiting on the judge’s ruling,” said Ruth Bowman, a spokesperson for the Seattle City Attorney’s office. “We’re hoping he will grant the city an oral argument.”
Bowman said the city requested oral arguments in order to respond to questions McCarthy could have about the case in person.
“We believe we have a strong case and we want to go in front of a judge and argue our case,” Bowman said.

Paying homage to the folks filling the blogosphere at Seahawks Insider, I have borrowed (stolen, really) their linkage moniker and added an NBA twist. I’ll try to do a daily update on what’s happening with each team in the Northwest Division.

Seattle: Sonics players say their focused on the season and not on the periphery issues, and head coach P.J. Carlesimo says all positions are open. Read more in my main Sonics story here. And TNT columnist Dave Boling says it’s time to talk basketball.

I also wrote stories on the start of the Durant era, and two Sonics fans filed a lawsuit against the team over what they perceive as fraudulent tactics to get people to renew season tickets.

Read Associated Press writer Tim Booth’s overview of media day here. Kevin Pelton of SuperSonics.com provides some insights from Sonics media day, including a photo gallery.

And Damon Agnos of the Seattle Weekly’s Buzzer Beater takes an offbeat approach to media day

Portland: The Oregonian’s Jason Quick focuses his story on the team’s summer workouts that helped create a bond for this young team.

Mike Barrett’s blog at the team’s official site provides some good analysis on this year’s team, along with a photo of former Sonics coach Nate McMillan looking like he’s ready to take the court

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune says the players will miss Greg Oden, but the show must go on.

And Brian Hendrickson of the Vancouver Columbian writes that the Blazers have more answers than questions heading into camp.

Denver: There’s not too much coming from Denver, with the media focus on the Colorado Rockies amazing run to the MLB playoffs. But Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post writes about Denver’s J.R. Smith dealing with the death of friend Andre Bell, a result of a car accident where Smith was driving.

Utah: Most of the reports from Jazz camp focus on Andrei Kirlenko, who asked to be traded earlier this summer. It looks like Kirilenko may stay now. He met with coach Jerry Sloan and vice president Kevin O’Connor on Monday.

Salt Lake City Tribune columnist Kurt Kragthorpe said the relationship between Kirlenko and the team is beyond repair. And Steve Luhm writes about the competition at shooting guard.

Minnesota: The Timberwolves are traveling to Europe for their 10-day training camp, and made a stop in Instanbul, Turkey on Monday. Third-year player Ryan Gomes comments on the trip here. And beat writer Jerry Zgoda talks with coach Randy Wittman about the changes his team faces with franchise player Kevin Garnett gone in this interview.

The Seattle Sonics media day is behind us and I’ve put together a collection of sound bites from players, coaches and fans.

New Sonics head coach P.J. Carlesimo had some interesting things to say about this year’s team and the opening of training camp, which starts in earnest on Tuesday.

It appears all starting spots will be up for grabs, which will make for a competitive training camp this season. Listen to Carlesimo’s conversation with the media here.

Sonics rookie Kevin Durant seems to be settling in and looking forward to getting things going. Listen to his conversation with the media here. Durant talks about Greg Oden’s injury and the possibility of being a playoff contender this season.

Each player was available for interviews during 20-minute intervals. I got around to talking to most the players, and I’ll provide more audio from media day this week.

For now I’ll leave you with conversations from Nick Collison and Earl Watson. Collison wants to earn a starting spot and could take on more of a leadership role this season with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis gone.

Watson shares his thoughts on rookies Durant and Jeff Green, and looks forward to the competition in training camp.

Robert Swift looked healthy and seemed to be carrying the weight well. Luke Ridnour was in good spirits, and Wally Szcerbiak said he ankles are healthy.

In other news, two Sonics season ticket holders filed a lawsuit against the team claiming the new team owners sought to defraud ticket buyers with assurances they would keep the team in Seattle.

Read more about the story here. And you can also hear from one the plaintiffs, lifelong Sonics fan Carolyn Bechtel, shown at the right, here. The suit was brought forth in part with the help of Save Our Sonics and Storm. Brian Robinson of Save our Sonics talks about the suit here.

That’s all for now. I’ll have an update on the first day of training camp tomorrow.