Sonics Pregame

Seattle (2-12) at Los Angeles Lakers (7-6)

When:7:30 p.m., Staples Center, Los Angeles

TV: FSN. Radio: 770-AM

Series: This is the first meeting of the season between the two teams. Seattle was 1-3 against the Lakers last season, with the Sonics only win a 117-101 victory at home on Nov. 5.

Scouting the Lakers: Los Angeles is ranked fourth in the league in scoring, averaging 105.2 points a contest. … Lakers center Kwame Brown has missed the last four games after spraining his knee and ankle a week ago against the Bulls. ... Los Angeles recently made a trade with Orlando, sending forward Brian Cook and guard Maurice Evans to the Magic for defensive stopper Trevor Ariza, who saw his first minutes for the team for the Lakers, playing seven minutes and scoring four points against New Jersey. … Twenty-year-old 7-footer Andrew Bynum is averaging a double-double for the Lakers, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10.2 rebounds a game. … Gonzaga product Ronny Turiaf has started eight games for the Lakers, averaging 7.3 points a contest.

Scouting the Sonics: Having lost the last four games Seattle will try to get a win against a team that dominated them inside the paint during an exhibition game in October.

Again, Seattle will need a strong effort from its frontcourt, including Kurt Thomas, Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison.

The Sonics also must take care of the ball and get out on the break when they have opportunities in order to get easy buckets.

Delonte West will start for the first time this season. Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo said West is getting his chance to start just like Earl Watson and Luke Ridnour before he got injured. West has finished the last two games because he’s been playing well, but Carlesimo said the last five guys on the floor are basically the one’s who have earned it by playing well during the game.

The Lakers hurt Seattle inside in the exhibition game in October, so Carlesimo said the key tonight, besides containing Kobe Bryant, will be matching the Lakers’ intensity inside.

Listen to the rest of the conversation with Carlesimo here.

Marques Johnson will call his second Seattle game of the season tonight. Johnson talked about Seattle’s late-game struggles.

"It just seems like this team has these breakdowns in the third quarter, usually defensively, like against San Antonio," Johnson said. "They give up a lot of interior buckets, a lot of miscommunication and bad turnovers on offense.

"And it kind of spoils 40 minutes of good basketball – these five to eight minutes stretches where they don’t play well, which on the flip side is something I think is real correctable."

So can you blame Seattle’s struggles late in games on being a young team?

"You can only use that as an excuse for so long," Johnson said. "They’ll develop it. But they’ve got veterans, enough guys that have been in the league for awhile, Earl Watson has been around seven years, guys like that, who have to do a better job of kind of stabilizing and settling the team down when they sense things are getting out of sorts."

Injured: Luke Ridnour (torn left quad) and Robert Swift (right knee tendinitis) are out. Johan Petro (lower back strain) is a game-time decision.

Next: Wednesday vs. Orlando, 7 p.m., KeyArena