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.