Part crash, part burn

"If you were wondering if it could get worse," said Sean Kelley, "it has."

Indeed. With 1:18 left in the first quarter, Chris Paul came down hard on his right ankle, and had to be carried to the bench. The Hornets, who had been up by ten earlier, finished the quarter one point ahead of the Sonics, and inevitably things got, as Sean says, worse.

At the half, Seattle had a smallish lead — 49-47 — the Bees tied it at 72-72 in the third. But the Sonics started hitting treys and the Hornets started missing free throws, and Seattle came away with a 102-94 win.

Byron Scott played only seven tonight, which made for some interesting point totals. Tyson Chandler pulled 11 rebounds and scored 14 points; Jannero Pargo, who started at the two, got 23 points; Desmond Mason had 21. Devin Brown, finding himself with more minutes than he had anticipated, scored 16 and swept 9 boards.

The Sonics had three players over 20: Luke Ridnour with 27, Chris Wilcox with 22, Ray Allen with 21.

It's a back-to-back, with a trip to Portland tomorrow. The first x-rays on CP3 indicate no broken bones; maybe he'll be back for the Nuggets game.

Posted at 11:18 PM to Net Proceeds