Sick Sonics blow out Nuggets, 98-83

Ray Allen wipes his runny nose on Greg Buckner.

Despite Ray Allen's nose and Antonio Daniels' tonsils, the Sonics managed to beat the even sorrier Nuggets last night, 98-83 at the Key.

Allen, battling an upper respiratory infection, still played 41 minutes and scored 20 points. Daniels missed the game because of tonsillitis.

Danny Fortson, eager to join his ailing friends on the bench, managed to foul out in only 10 minutes of play, which may be a new Supersonics record.

Seattle didn't really need any of them. The Nuggets, missing star forward Carmelo Anthony, only scored 38 points in the first half and were never really in the game.

This was the last game for the Supes before Christmas. Seattle plays the Jazz in Utah on Monday.

Game Night # 25: Denver Nuggets

In the halcyon days of my youth, the Nuggets represented the pinnacle of excess, led by scorers like Alex English, TR Dunn, Dan Issel, Calvin Natt, and Fat Lever.

To put that team in context, English attempted 1812 field goals in 1984-85, a year in which the Nuggets averaged 120 points a game. Last season, Kevin Garnett led the NBA with 1611 FGA, 200 less than English, or almost 2.5 a game. My, how times have changed.

Well, enough rambling. The current edition of the Nuggets is a woefully underperforming group, especially considering they added K-Mart to a roster that made the playoffs last season. You wouldn't have thought that Voshon Lenard was one of the most important players in the Western Conference, but, hey, that's the NBA sometimes.

Ordinarily you'd look for a high scoring affair, as the Nugs have surrendered at least 108 points in their past six games. With the flu invading the Sonics' roster, though, and with Carmelo Anthony on the bench, I think this game will be tighter than anticipated.

Good Sign: No Carmelo.
Bad Sign: The Nuggets nearly toppled Phoenix in their last game and the Sonics could have accumulated some holiday rust since their game last Friday. Ray Allen, Jerome James, and A.D. all appear to be under the weather.

Trivia: How many times did opponents hold the Nuggets to under 100 points back in 1984-85?

Vegas line: Sonics by 9 1/2
Prediction: Sonics 101 - Nuggets 95
Record Against the Spread: 10-4

Viva la Sonics!

Team France loves Supersonicsoul!

After the Steve Nash debacle, Supersonicsoul was in dire need of a feel-good story. Luckily my new best friend from France, Romain Casolari, wrote me this e-mail:

Hello,

I'm a BIG Fan of the NBA. I created a Blog which speaks about the NBA and I wanted to present it to you.

basketblogger.com (in French)

basketblogger.com (In English, through a web translator)

I like very much your Blog and I would have to like that one makes an exchange of link. Would you be ok?

Excuse my bad English
Live the NBA!

- Romain Casolari "Mr Basketblogger"

The "translator", of course, makes for some unintentionally hilarious reading, especially this article about Danny Fortson:

Danny Fortson is one of the men in form of this beginning of season NBA, however when one looks at the sheets of match of Sonics his statistics remain honest but without more!

But attention! brought back to 48 minutes of play, the evaluation of Fortson would go up to +31.72 and would place it at the 12éme row of players NBA... With its 52.1% to 2points and 86.6% with the frank throws, its stats brought back to 48 minutes of play per match would await tops: 24.4 points 17.3 rebounds!!!

The question is: Why prefer Evans to him?

"Why prefer Evans to him" indeed, my friend. The English may not be perfect (or even English for that matter), but Romain clearly understands what I've been yelling at my TV all season: Da Fort needs more minutes! (Of course, it would help if he didn't foul out every game, but I digress.)

Anyway, go check out Romain's excellent site and read about the NBA Frenchy Style!