The smoking remains of last year's Sonic team meet the smoking remains of last year's Wolves squad in a matchup of ... the teams with the two worst records in the league.
The Wolves are struggling mightily on offense, barely scoring 94 PPG most nights. Randy Foye is out with a kneecap injury for the next and so far Corey Brewer and Ryan Gomes have had a great deal of difficulty finding the basket. As expected Al Jefferson has continued his solid play from last year, looking like vintage Kemp crossed with Emeka Okafor's bigger, nastier cousin. Many fans have talked about how passing over Jefferson in favor of Robert Swift could come back to haunt the Sonics; given Robert's long run of bad luck with injuries it's tough to disagree with those fans right now. In addition to Jefferson forward Craig Smith has played very well to start the season, but Gerald Green, Rashad McCants and Chris Richard's games are all appearing on milk cartons throughout the Twin Cities area.
I consider this a very winnable game. Jefferson is a beast but I think it's OK to let him have his points and focus on stopping the rest of the Wolves, who like the Sonics haven't found a consistent second option most nights but don't have quite the level of talent on their bench that Seattle does ... Antoine Walker, anyone? Didn't think so.
"I'm lookin' California ... and feeling Minnesota, oh yeah ..."
--Soundgarden