Christmas dinner prevented me from watching last night’s Sonics-Blazers game in its entirety (Blazers won 89-79), but here are a few notes from what I did see:

-Even though he had an awful night shooting the ball, it was still a great pleasure to watch Brandon Roy. His handle is flawless and he changes speeds and directions with ridiculous ease for a man his size. He’s like a bigger, slower, more ambidextrous version of Manu Ginobili: both can always find their way into the paint, no matter what the defense does.

-In other not-really-news, Damien Wilkins provided minutes and not much else, Jeff Green didn’t play enough, Wally Szczerbiak scored, and Earl Watson was the team’s best point guard.

-Who would have thought that, at this point in the year, Kevin Durant would be playing the two spot and his most consistently effective weapon would be his crossover? Maybe I just didn’t watch enough of him in college, but I wasn’t expecting a 6′10″ Jamal Crawford.

-Now that Mo Sene is in the D-League, will Mickael Gelabale be following? He had the league’s highest shooting percentage in the immediate basket area last year, but he still looks lost and tentative. I’ll go out on a limb and venture that he’s thinking too much. He seems concerned about his handle, but on a fast break last night, he quickly wrapped a dribble around his back while moving at a decent clip to avoid a defender who suddenly appeared–an instinct play that showed some dexterity with the leather. Yet just seconds later, after he crossed halfcourt, he looked indecisive and sloppy when facing down the waiting-in-defense Jarrett Jack (who unwisely fouled him). If you’re reading this, Mik, know that the time has come to uncage the ballyhooed Franco baller with in. Go get ‘em, tigre!

-Finally, who in Seattle isn’t jealous of Portland for the Trailblazers? Their coach is Mr. Sonic; their star the best Husky ever (sorry, Detlef); their owner a rich dude with Seattle roots who isn’t likely to sell the team to guys who look like this:

And they don’t draft seven-footers unless those seven-footers are good.

Maybe we can engineer a trade–say the Sonics, the S.L.U.T., and Chris Gregoire’s expiring contract for the Blazers? Hell, we’ll even throw in one of our American Apparels. You guys like those, right?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 6:30 pm 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.