Things You Already Know:
As predicted, the Sonics are one of the worst teams in the league records wise and haven’t shown many signs this year of improving anytime in the near future. One of the lone bright spots on the team has been rookie Kevin Durant who averages 20 points a night, but on only 40.6% shooting. Chris Wilcox is also having a solid year for Seattle, scoring 13 points and pulling down over seven rebounds per game.
The Lakers were victorious in their last meeting with the Sonics in November, 
winning 106-99 in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates. While Kevin Durant went off for a relatively quiet 25 points, Kobe scored a much more noticeable 35 points that was instrumental in the Lakers’ win. Lamar Odom also had one of his better games this season, notching 20 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Things You Might Not Know:
The Sonics are in the midst of an five game losing streak to open up the New Year and have lost eight of nine overall.
Seattle is a franchise in flux with widespread speculation that the Sonics will be the next team to relocate after failing in its latest attempts to secure a new arena deal. Emerald City fans haven’t exactly come out in throngs to support their young team either as the team averages only 13,612 fans per game.
Chris Wilcox is a player with whom the Lakers seem to have problems dealing with as evidenced by his 18 points and seven rebounds in the teams’ last meeting. With a bull-dog mentality and a relatively soft touch around the basket, Wilcox is not unlike the Lakers’ Turiaf, albeit a more polished version. Wilcox is listed as out in the Sonics’ game notes, but the teams official website is reporting that he is set to return tonight after practicing yesterday.
Things You Need To Know:
For whatever reason, Key Arena has always proven itself a tough place to play for the Lakers, even going back to the dynasty days at the beginning of the decade. With Phoenix looming, the Lakers need a win to extend their season-high six game win streak and establish momentum heading into Thursday night’s showdown with the Suns.
The Lakers will be without Andrew Bynum–injured in the third quarter of the team’s win last night–on the second night of a back-to-back, an area the team has struggled in this season. In his absence, the team needs Kwame Brown and Ronny Turiaf to step up and body Wilcox, Kurt Thomas and Seattle’s other bigs. Thankfully for the Lakers, the team’s depth is one of their strongest assets this season so they should be able to weather Bynum’s injury–for a night anyway.
