Seattle leads 43-27. Kevin Durant needed 18 points to average 20 points a game on the year, becoming just the third teenager to accomplish the feat in a list that includes Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. With 9:59 left in the half Durant already has 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Jeff Green has 13 points for Seattle. The Sonics ares shooting 70 percent from the floor.

Probable starters for the Sonics are Earl Watson, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Nick Collison and Johan Petro.

Probable starters for Golden State are Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Andris Biedrins, Baron Davis and Monta Ellis

If Durant scores 18 points tonight, he’ll finish the season averaging 20 points a contest, become just the third teenager in the NBA to accomplish that feat, joining Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.

Most of the focus on the pregame talk tonight was on what the Sonics need to do during the offseason to get better.

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo talked about the importance of building on the continuity established after this season, with the Sonics having the same coach for a second season for he first time in four years.

Carlesimo also said the Sonics could have a similar nucleus of players back, or they could have a much different team with the draft picks and possible trade opportunities available this summer.

“Our expectations are going to be more. We’re going to want to do more. A lot will be shaped by what we do with all of our draft picks. If we have five or six, first or second-year players next year, that’s going to make it challenging again.

“If we’re able to, however over the summer, make the team young and a little seasoned at the same time, it will be interesting. So I just think a lot questions will be determined by what happens over the next couple months, and before we start in October. I think our roster could be very, very similar, or it might be markedly changed. I’m not looking for one of the other, but I think there’s a potential for that to happen.”

Carlesimo talked for awhile. Listen to the full conversation here and here.

I also talked to Damien Wilkins, who said developing consistency is the key for next season. Wilkins also said the off-the-court stuff has been a distraction this season.

“We think about it, see it and talk about it from time to time. But it’s like this -- it’s hard to really focus on playing the game of basketball and winning when all this stuff is going on. When you don’t know where you’re going to go.

“When you’ve got real estate agents waiting for you after the game with business cards from Oklahoma City and meetings with the owner about moving, it’s hard to win and play basketball when all of that is going on.
“And it has been (a distraction). We shouldn’t be dealing with that stuff, and seeing it as much as we’ve been seeing it, but we are.”

ESPN senior writer Lester Munson, a Chicago attorney and journalist, says Howard Schultz plans to file a lawsuit against Clay Bennett to get the team back is a long shot.

Seattle general manager Sam Presti gave the Detroit Pistrons permission to talk to Sonics assistant general manager Scott Perry.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Pistons are in talks Perry, who worked in the Detroit front office before he took the job with Seattle last summer.

Perry is interviewing to replace vice president of basketball operations John Hammond, who was recently hired as the general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks. According to the Free Press, a deal could happen quickly and Perry could be a Piston again by the weekend.

Washington State senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell drafted a letter in support of keeping the Sonics in Seattle. Like Gov. Chris Gregoire, the two senators ask NBA commissioner David Stern to delay the relocation vote. Check it out here.

All the buzz the past few days has been on Howard Schultz announcement that he plans to file a lawsuit against the current ownership group over breach of contract because he believes the failed to live up to a “good faith, best effort” stipulation that was part of the agreement in the July 2006 sale.

Opinions vary on whether this move is a publicity stunt by Schultz or a legitimate issue that could help keep the team in Seattle.

However, the case would seem hard to prove in court because of the subjective nature of good faith stipulations, and proving whether someone acted in good faith or not could be difficult.

I talked to Sid DeLong, a professor at Seattle University Law School who has taught contract law since 1989, and he had this to say about “good faith, best effort” stipulations.

“If a buyer makes a contractual promise without intending to perform it, the seller can sometimes rescind the sales contract on grounds of promissory fraud,” DeLong said.

“If the buyer intended to perform at the time of the contract, then changed his mind and breached, the usual remedy would be money damages.”

Whether Schultz has a chance to win in court or not remains to be seen. However, I believe if he does file it will help in Seattle’s efforts to try and keep the team because it adds another element that the current Sonics ownership group will have to answer to.

State and local politicians also stepped into the fray, sending a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern asking that he postpone the vote by owners to relocate the team to Oklahoma City.

Gov. Gregoire released a letter asking NBA Commissioner David Stern to postpone the vote by owners to relocate the team to Oklahoman City.

So did Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines will air a special on the situation in Seattle throughout the day today. I'll post a link to the video when one is available.

And if you haven’t viewed it already, take a look at the special TNT put together on Save Our Sonics effort to keep the team in Seattle here and here.

Bill Simmons picks Kevin Durant as his Rookie of the year for these reasons provided at the bottom of this column.

Somehow, Durant evolved into a legitimate scorer after the All-Star Break (21.3 points and 47 percent shooting) even though defenses were keying on him and he weighs about 120 pounds. Check out the sidebar to the right -- he's well ahead of Nowitzki and KG and right there with LeBron and Melo, right? When his 3-point shooting comes around (a safe bet) and he moves to forward and starts getting easier baskets (especially off offensive rebounds), he's going to average 30-plus a game. And it's going to happen sooner than you think. Like, potentially next year.

Durant gets extra credit for his performance in Seattle's last (and potentially final) two home games. In a revenge performance against a Denver team that desperately needed to win, Durant hit game-tying 3s in regulation and OT -- the last one was a 35-foot bomb in which Durant was so far away, you couldn't even see him celebrating when the half-court camera followed the shot into the basket) -- and finished with a career-high 37 points. And then, in an emotional season finale against Dallas, KD scored the go-ahead and clinching baskets in the final minute, celebrated like he just won the championship and admitted he almost cried afterward.

Read the entire article here.

ESPN’s David Thorpe anoints Kevin Durant the rookie of the year here. Jeff Green finished 18th.