[narek]

It's a meeting of Top Rookies:

About the SuperSonics: They've been short-handed at point guard because of a foot injury that has been bothering Delonte West. With West unable to play Wednesday in a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, Earl Watson started and played 37 minutes, with swing man Mickael Gelabale playing 11 minutes as a backup. West's status is questionable for tonight.

PLAYER TO WATCH
NICK COLLISON, SuperSonics

He returned with a big game against the Clippers after missing three games because of a broken nose. He finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, both season highs, and provided some much-needed defense. Collison wore a mask to protect his nose. "Getting Nick back was enormous," coach P.J. Carlesimo said.

LINEUPS
PROBABLE SUPERSONICS STARTERS

Player Ht. From
G-Delonte West 6-3 St. Joseph's
G-Kevin Durant 6-9 Texas
F-Chris Wilcox 6-10 Maryland
F-Damien Wilkins 6-6 Georgia
C-Kurt Thomas 6-9 Texas Christian

Coach: P.J. Carlesimo (first season; seventh overall, 187-237).

Injury report: Luke Ridnour (left thigh), Robert Swift (right knee) and Delonte West (right foot) are questionable.

PROBABLE BUCKS STARTERS

Player Ht. From
G-Mo Williams 6-1 Alabama
G-Michael Redd 6-6 Ohio State
F-Desmond Mason 6-5 Oklahoma State
F-Yi Jianlian 7-0 China
C-Andrew Bogut 7-0 Utah

Coach: Larry Krystkowiak (second season, 13-22).

Injury report: Michael Ruffin (left wrist) is out.

THE SERIES
The teams have split their two games in each of the past three seasons, with the home team winning all six games. Seattle will play at the Bradley Center on March 5.

NUMBERS GAME
7 Length, in games, of the Bucks' losing streak in Seattle.

68.2 Golden State's three-point shooting percentage against the Bucks on Wednesday, the highest in the NBA since Toronto shot 70.8% from beyond the arc against Boston on Dec. 3, 2003.

11 Points scored by Milwaukee in the second quarter against the Warriors, a season low for any quarter among Golden State's opponents.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=694216

A winnable game.

[roux2dope]

Where the hell was the bench tonight, we cant rely on Redd like this, bad games from Bogut and Mason, and nobody could man up on Durant. I blamed alot of the Bucks problems a year ago on Stotts and i am hesitant to put them on coach k this soon. The fact is larry is going to be here for at least a couple of years so i am starting to think that some roster changes need to be made, we have a team of soft offensive minded wussies, if they were aggresive offensive players like they have in Golden State it would be one thing but this jump shooting offensive system has to go, i am officially sick of it.

[Chan]

That was a great game, Seattle is 2-0 when Durant drop 30+.

I've always kinda liked the Bucks. Not for Yi, but for Bogut. Yi's performance was okay. He was good defensively and he made it tough for some of our guys to get shots off. But I like my 7 footers in the post and not on the perimeter.

This is the first Bucks game I've seen this year, and I was really impressed with Bogut. A big, strong, tough, smart player that likes to stay in the post. He's good defensively and offensively, but he's no game changer, thus the bust talk. The biggest knock on him would be that he isn't a superstar.

I like the guy and I'd take him on Seattle any day.

[narek]

Originally Posted by roux2dope

Where the hell was the bench tonight, we cant rely on Redd like this, bad games from Bogut and Mason, and nobody could man up on Durant. I blamed alot of the Bucks problems a year ago on Stotts and i am hesitant to put them on coach k this soon. The fact is larry is going to be here for at least a couple of years so i am starting to think that some roster changes need to be made, we have a team of soft offensive minded wussies, if they were aggresive offensive players like they have in Golden State it would be one thing but this jump shooting offensive system has to go, i am officially sick of it.

I think Bogut had a decent game. But bad shooting killed us tonight.

There's personnel problems on this team. Dez isn't the old Dez, and I'm missing Ruben Patterson. I'd like to see CV or Yi play small forward. (Simmons gone for personal reasons again, and may not be back on this trip).

Sometimes this team's offense flows better, and it still needs to find a grove, and rely less on Redd to bail them out at the end of games. More offensive flow to Bogut and Yi would be good.

And someone who could be a consistent backup to Mo. How is Sessions doing down in the "d" league?