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Follow the Sonics off and on the court with reporters Percy Allen and Jayda Evans.

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April 2, 2008 10:40 PM

Final thoughts

Posted by Percy Allen

Here's tonight's Associated Press game story.

Suffice to say, this ill-fated season can't end fast enough, which is a shame in a sense because Kevin Durant is simply spectacular. In the past four games, he's scored 32, 18, 25 and 30 points.

As good as he was, it was clear that he wasn't the best player on the court. That distinction belonged to Elton Brand, who played his first game this season and was fantastic in the fourth quarter when he scored 13 of his 19 points.

Still that doesn't take away anything from Durant's performance. Paired against first-year forward Al Thornton, Durant made it clear that there shouldn't be any debate who should win the Rookie of the Year award. Thorton did some good things and finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, but Durant carried the Sonics and no other rookie is being asked to carry so much dead weight.

The bench gave Seattle just eight points, which was probably expected since Damien Wilkins is away on a personal matter. I'm not sure why, but coach P.J. Carlesimo raved about Adrian Griffin who finished with just three points on 1-for-4 shooting, six rebounds and three assists.

Sometimes I think Carlesimo and I watch two different games and this was one of those times. Griffin didn't embarrass himself, but I didn't see "a great performance" either.

Regardless, he's not the reason why the Sonics lost. They lost because Los Angeles scored 33 points in the fourth quarter and Seattle had just 14.

Knowing the answer, I asked Carlesimo if he wanted Jeff Green to shoot a career-high 25 times. The coach said 25 shots is probably too many for anybody - even Durant - but commended Green for being aggressive. Carlesimo also took part of the blame. He put Green on the floor for 40 minutes and he was prepared to live with the results.

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