I'm filling in again as the substitute Roundup Guy, Xteve has more important things he is preparing for.
Let's start with Gary Washburn's less than cheery account of the loss last night. Reading that Gary sounds like a Portland fan. Washburn also writes about how Clay Bennett has been putting in overtime since acquiring the team to get a new arena.
Bennett told the committee he would like to model the new arena after the Pepsi Center, a 4.6-acre facility near downtown Denver that houses the NBA Nuggets and NHL Avalanche, plus concerts and other events. The Pepsi Center has an on-site practice facility for the Nuggets.
The Pepsi Center is a FANTASTIC facility if you haven't been there. I think you would be hard pressed to come up with a better site to model a new arena after.
Art Theil has a very interesting article on the swank elbow-rubbin'-and-grubbin' event held by Clay Bennett where Mr. Bennett was working it hard.
Nick Collison takes the blame for last night's loss in Percy Allen's recap.
"This one is my fault," Nick Collison said after the 110-106 heartbreaking defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers in front of an announced season-opening sellout crowd of 17,072 in KeyArena.
"We needed that rebound and there's no excuse. I just slipped and he got around me. ... There's times in the game when you know this is a big play and that was one of them that killed us."
Nick does seem like a Git R Done kind of guy, so I think he will rebound from this bad showing.
From Frank Hughes:
Key stats: The Sonics’ new defense allowed the Blazers to shoot 55 percent and score 62 second-half points, 34 in the fourth quarter. They also allowed Portland to shoot 15 more free throws (35-20), something coach Bob Hill attributed to the new rules.
Key observations: Bob Hill has handed off the responsibilities of determining which players are on the inactive list to assistants Jack Sikma and Ralph Lewis. On the list Wednesday were Robert Swift, Desmon Farmer and Kareem Rush.
From Frank's Blog:
Bob Hill said that eventually the team is likely to replace Robert Swift. Desmon Farmer and Kareem Rush are, in the long term, redundant, and so after they establish which of those players they want to keep, they will likely go out and sign a big man. Hill said there is no great rush but that they would like to have an additional six fouls along the front line if need be.
This need was made more apparent after Mo Sene twisted his ankle mid-game last night.