Opening Night Cartoon: Ooh, SCARY!

Print and clip your choice of Vanilla or Lime Flavor!

I know, it's too easy. Halloween, Clay Bennett, arena deal deadline, general creepiness... The story and pictures practically make themselves. Although, after looking at/working on this into the wee hours, it started to look like frickin' Greg Nickels to me.

Anyway, we hope you enjoy this, whether you think it looks like Clay, Greg, KOMO anchor Dan Lewis, or whoever. Happy Halloween and GO SONICS!

Artest Determines Sonics' PG

Whaa? Yes, you read that right. According to PJ Carlesimo (gleaned from Kevin Pelton's blog at supersonics.com), Earl Watson is in the lead to be the starting point guard for the Sonics on opening night, and one of the main reasons is the mask Luke Ridnour is wearing after Ron Artest boffed him in the nose in the first pre-season game of the season (wow, that sentence was waaaaay too long).

Anyhow, as was evident in the Suns game, Frodo is having trouble getting used to the mask, and it's inhibiting his play. Pelton also muses that Damien Wilkins will likely start as well, meaning the first lineup of the year could look something like

C - Nick Collison
PF - Chris Wilcox
SF - Kevin Durant
SG - Damien Wilkins
PG - Earl Watson

Of course, Durant's slightly injured left ankle could play a role, and it's possible Bob Swift will have recovered enough to merit a start, but that's the five I would expect to see, with West, Wally, and Thomas the first three off the bench.

We've got a load road to hoe (ho? heaux?), but it appears that's how it looks like it will start.

Sonics Lose (Again)

Stop me if you've heard it all before ...

As in the previous loss to Golden State, the Sonics led or were close the entire game, then came up short at the end. This time Brandon Roy played the assassin, but it all added up to the sixth loss in seven games.

Of note, Earl Watson sat out (no injury reported, and Eric Williams at TNT figured it was due to getting more time at the point for Ridnour and West), Petro got some run, and, as always, showed some talent and more frustration, Mo Sene collected dust on the bench, Ridnour put up good numbers (8 assists, 0 turnovers), and Mickael Gelabale had one of his best games this pre-season with 15 points on 5 of 6 shooting.

On the Kevin Durant front, he will definitely miss the Friday night affair with Phoenix, and his status for opening night against Denver is up in the air. Some reports say he'll play, others say he'll sit. For the sake of all the folks who bought tickets, I hope he can be there. In what promises to be an uncomfortable season for Sonic fans off the court, it would be nice if a few things fell our way on the court.