One game off their first home victory and the first truly dominant performance by Kevin Durant, the Sonics soiled the bedding against Don Nelson’s run n’ gun Golden State Warriors. A few notes from the game:

-In a comical turn of events that will only give David Stern more fodder for his Seattle-trashing, the scoreboard caught fire in the first quarter and had to be lowered to the court so a couple of Seattle’s Bravest could crawl inside with fire extinguishers and put out the blaze.

-Name for artist’s rendering of Sonics offense: Still Life on a Basketball Court.

-As I took my seat before the game, I noticed a scout sitting next to me, a tall gentleman sucking on a wad of chaw. So I asked him a few questions, hoping he could help me know my Sonics better. “Have you ever seen Delonte West finish with his right hand?” I asked. He paused, spitting some brown juice in a dixie cup. “Never,” he said.
“How about Chris Wilcox–you ever see him finish with his left hand?”
He paused longer this time, raising his head and squinting in concentration. “Yeah.”

-New nickname for Delonte West: The Clock. (As in shot clock, which he dominates; also because, like a clock, he goes in only one direction).

-Andris Biedrins, the Latvian George Hamilton, did a one man tip-drill (not that kind, gutter-minds) on the Sonics front line, collecting a double double by the end of the first quarter.

-For a short while in the second quarter (and maybe at other times as well), former UCLA teammates Earl Watson, Matt Barnes, and Baron Davis were all on the court at the same time. Consequentially, this observer grew a little nostalgic for the old Steve Lavin UCLA teams, and remembered how he once grew so excited at a Dan Gadzuric dunk in the NCAA tournament that he spilled red wine on the couch and lap of his then girlfriend.

-We were treated to an appearance by Austin Croshere, a guy who, in true NBA fashion, turned a nice playoff run in 2000 into seven years of big-time paydays (the luck ran out this season, as he’s only at $770,000). One thing I noticed–his bald spot appears to be the same size today as it was when he was scoring big off the bench in the 2000 finals. (Anyone else nostalgic for the John Tesh theme song? Walton and Snapper? I miss the NBA on NBC.) Its steady size made me wonder if it’s the balding equivalent of Rasheed Wallace’s always-the-same-size grey spot. Did he have it when he was a kid?

-With about four minutes left in the game, Kevin Durant finally got the memo (you know, the one that says “you’re an athletic guy with a 7′5″ wingspan–maybe you should try dunking on people instead of always twisting and contorting to go under or around them.”) One attempt got him to the free throw line and the other caromed off the back rim. But it was nice to see him add that sort of aggression to his repertoire. Let’s hope it sticks and wasn’t just a garbage time dalliance.

-Finally, while one was listed as a point guard and the other as a shooting guard, Delonte West and Monta (pronounced MON-tay) Ellis spent the beginning of the game matched up, making for one of the league’s few non-same-name, rhyming matchups. Other potential rhyming matchups: Deron Williams vs. Baron Davis, Devin Harris vs. Kevin Martin, Zarko Caparkapa vs. Darko Milicic, Glen Davis vs. Ben Wallace, Matt Harpring or Matt Barnes vs. Pat Garrity, Matt Harpring vs. Pat Burke (Burke and Barnes are teammates and thus can’t constitute a rhyming matchup unless it’s in practice).

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 2:59 am and is filed under Supersonics, Roundball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.