Seattle (8-19) at Portland (15-12)

When: 5 p.m., Rose Garden, Portland.
TV: ESPN. Radio: 770-AM.

Series: It’s the first game of the year between the two teams. Portland and Seattle split the series two game apiece last season.

Scouting the Blazers: Portland hasn’t lost since Dec. 2 at San Antonio, tallying the longest winning streak – 10 games – in the NBA this season despite having the youngest team in the league. The Trail Blazers only have two players born before 1980: Raef LaFrentz and Joel Przybilla. The winning streak is Portland’s longest since the Blazers won 12 straight during the 2001-02 season.

Seven of the 10 wins in this streak have come at home, where the Trail Blazers are 12-3 overall.

The Blazers will wear red uniforms tonight for at home for the first time this season. And most will wear read shoes to go along with the uniforms, although it was not a unanimous choice.

Several of the older players did not want to wear the red shoes because they reminded them of the circus, including LaFrentz, who had a new, shiny pair of Nikes sitting in front of his locker.

“The young fellas decided they wanted to do something a little different, so what the hell,” LaFrentz said. “I’m going with the flow.”

Brandon Roy gave Przybilla the business as the big guy laced up a pair of red Adidas that would make Bozo the Clown proud.

The Blazers have won five games during their streak without LaMarcus Aldridge, who was battling plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

Aldridge, averaging 18.5 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds, has totaled 33 points and 15 boards in two games since returning.

Scouting the Sonics: Seattle’s Delonte West will be in uniform and could see his first action tonight since the team’s Nov. 30 win over Indiana. West has missed 10 games with plantar fasciitis.

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo said West probably will see more action at shooting guard this time around.

The key for the Sonics will be containing Brandon Roy, who is averaging 23.6 points and 6.8 assists during Portland’s winning streak. Damien Wilkins will start on Roy, but expect Kevin Durant and perhaps Delonte West or Mickael Gelabale to see some time against Roy.

It’s moves like this that have garnered Roy Western Conference Player of the Week honors two weeks straight.

Wilkins talks about guarding Roy here.

Carlesimo said he’s interested to see how the Sonics deal with playing on Christmas, with many of the players competing on Christmas for the first time.

“That will be a big part initially -- which team does a better job of handling that,” Carlesimo said. “It’s not like totally different from anything we do all year, but being on the road, playing on Christmas day and playing at 5 o’clock, all three of those things are a little different. So yeah, I want to see how we handle that, because it’s different.”

Next: 7:30 p.m. Thursday vs. Boston, KeyArena.