Seattle Sports: In the Morning

The legend of Brandon Roy continues. He blocked Carmelo Anthony with 22 seconds left to preserve the Blazers' 99-96 win over Denver, their tenth in a row. Martell Webster led Portland with 19 points.

Sonics won 123-115, on 27 points by Kevin Durant (on only 18 shots!). You're gonna want to check out the first highlight here, which is Durant dunking on Raptors' seven-footer Rasho Nesterovic. To add insult, the ball comes through the net and hits Nesterovic in the head. Careful of concussion!

Both Mike Bellotti and Norm Chow took themselves out of the running for the UCLA coaching job.

At the press conference to announce his signing, Carlos Silva was wearing #52, which is George Sherrill's number. Geoff Baker of the Times called Sherrill to get his reaction: "I guess he's the more proven guy, the more established guy. He's the guy they're paying the big money to, that they're counting on. If he wants the number, who am I to say no?"

Eric Bedard isn't likely to get traded, GM Andy MacPhail says it's a "strong likelyhood" he'll be with the club opening day. Apparently the sticking point with the Mariners is that they don't want to give up Brandon Morrow. As I've said, Morrow doesn't thrill me.

Adrian Oliver talks about his Husky days (sub. req) to A.W. Prince of BearTerritory.net. Adrian says he has no hard feelings toward Coach Romar, but details the difference that caused him to leave--Oliver wanted to play shooting guard. "a\Anyone who watched me play growing up that I loved playing the two. It is tough; you play a certain position for 15 years of your life, and now, you have to change." Sorry Adrian, but you're too small to play the two in the Pac-10. Try the WAC. (HT: Bob Condotta's blog)

There's a new judge in the Sonics lawsuit against the city, writes the P-I's Greg Johns. The change was made by the court--no reason was given for switching the case to Martha Pechman's court from Ricardo Martinez'.

Artem Wallace is coming on after a slow start to the year, writes the P-I's Dan Raley. Wallace blames himself: "I was a little out of shape and it affected my performance. I could have done more. It was unfortunate. I didn't really have a good diet this summer, either." Bob Condotta also writes about Wallace, focusing on his emergence as a defensive stopper.

Franklin's going back to 3A, which probably means only one Franklin/Garfield game in the future. Bummer.

Here's how the local high school teams fared in various holiday tourneys.