Denver’s 168 Reminds Us of How Bad the Sonics Are

By Bethlehem Shoals
The Rockets win again, and it’s starting to get boring. So instead, I’d like to focus on the other end of the NBA competitive spectrum: The league’s mostly lowly losers.
That would be the Seattle SuperSonics, who last night were slashed to little bits by Denver, 168-116. That’s the most points any team has scored all season, of course, and set the Nuggets record for most in regulation. Sadly, it was still 16 points shy of the non-regulation franchise record.
A few fun facts about this game: Neither Melo nor Iverson had particularly big nights, ending up with 26 and 24, respectively. The big statistical news of the night was Marcus Camby’s triple-double which, as I’m sure the whole world has already pointed out, was remarkable for coming on points, rebounds and assists instead of points, rebounds, and blocks. And it wouldn’t be the Nuggets running wild if J.R. Smith hadn’t added one of these:

However, what this all comes back to is the Sonics. The city of Seattle may have misplayed this situation big-time, but I’m not so sure Clay Bennett’s going to come out looking like a genius. When the Hornets spent some time in OKC, they had Chris Paul, lots of emotion behind them, and a team on the rise. That was the try-out that persuaded Stern -- and I guess, Bennett -- that this move was legit. But the Sonics are no post-Katrina Hornets, and unless this team gets a new coach and a supporting cast for Durant when they move, there’s no way the novelty factor lasts for more than a season and a half.
Bennett keeps talking about having an NBA franchise in his city as a prestige thing, but having a team isn’t the same as people wanting to go see it. While I know that the Sonics are trying to cut costs, alienate fans, and make a clean break with everything, but I starting to think they’ve dug so deep a hole that they’ll end up stuck in it for some time. Then again, I don’t expect Clay Bennett to understand how little fans want to watch one scorer wander through a non-existent offense. That’s the kind of ball they favor in the heartland, right?↵