Kia Surprising Stat: 2/24 vs. L.A. Lakers

After holding opponents to sub-40% shooting just nine times all of 2006-07, the Sonics have done so 14 times this year, including four of the last six games and both matchups against Portland.

The Sonics are 9-5 when holding opponents below 40% shooting.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/22 vs. Portland

Last night's Portland victory over the Sonics moved the Blazers to within two wins of evening the all-time series. The Sonics and Blazers have played 190 times in the regular season over the last 38 years, with the Sonics winning 96 and Portland 94.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/21 at Portland

Today's surprising stat is actually a graph. I wanted to look at Portland's record relative to .500 over the course of the season. Check it out.


The 13-game winning streak stands out, obviously. After the end of their streak, the Blazers split games for a period of a couple of weeks before the team's current five-game losing streak.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/19 vs. Memphis

In their first game after the 2007 All-Star break, the Sonics hosted the Memphis Grizzlies and defeated them 121-105.

Kia Surprising Stat - 2/13 vs. Utah

Sonics guard Luke Ridnour continued his march up the list of all-time Sonics assist leaders Friday. With five assists, Ridnour passed Brent Barry (1,668) for eighth place in Sonics history. Ridnour now has 1,671 assists.

It will be a while before Ridnour makes any further progress, however. Slick Watts, who sits in seventh, is 603 assists ahead of Ridnour.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/8 vs. Phoenix

The Sonics and the Suns were the only two teams to win the Pacific Division in a six-year stretch from 1992-93 through 1997-98. Phoenix won division titles in 1992-93 and 1994-95; the Sonics claimed the crown in 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1997-98. The two years the Suns won the division, the Sonics finished second. Phoenix finished second behind the Sonics in 1993-94.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/6 at Sacramento

With two 20-20 efforts in the last three games (22 points and 21 rebounds Jan. 30 vs. Charlotte; 22 points and 20 rebounds Feb. 2 vs. Chicago), Brad Miller has joined Chris Webber as the only players with multiple 20-20 games for the Kings since they moved to Sacramento.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/4 vs. Chicago

With Jeff Green missing Saturday's win over New York with a sprained left ankle, no Sonics player has played in all 47 of the team's games this season. Green, Wally Szczerbiak and Damien Wilkins all played in the team's first 44 games, but Wilkins missed Tuesday's game and Szczerbiak missed Thursday's before Green's injury.

Green, Wilkins Kevin Durant and Earl Watson have missed one game apiece.

Kia Surprising Stat: 2/2 vs. New York

The Knicks media notes report that Seattle natives and Knicks guards Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson are currently the NBA’s only set of teammates who also played together in high school. During Jamal’s senior year and Nate’s freshman year at Rainier Beach 1998-99, they were teammates. The last pair of players to play together on the same team in both high school and the NBA were Muggsy Bogues and David Wingate who played at Dunbar HS in Baltimore, Mary. and with the Charlotte Hornets from 1993-95.

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/31 vs. Cleveland

Sonics point guard Luke Ridnour continues to move up the team's all-time assist leaderboard. On Tuesday, Ridnour handed out the 1,653rd assist of his Sonics career, moving him past Detlef Schrempf and all alone into eighth place in franchise history.

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/29 vs. San Antonio

The Sonics shot 52.6% from the field in their Nov. 25 with San Antonio, which was the first time in 2007-08 they had topped 50% shooting. The Sonics have shot at least 50% five times this season, going 3-2 (beating New York, Toronto and Minnesota and losing to the Spurs and Houston).

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/27 vs. Sacramento

Sonics Head Coach P.J. Carlesimo and Sacramento's Reggie Theus are the only active NBA head coaches who went directly from the NCAA coaching ranks to their first NBA head-coaching job.

Kia Surprising Stat - 1/25 vs. Atlanta

Both the Sonics and Hawks saw their individual season high for scoring set in Seattle's 126-123 double-OT victory Nov. 16 at Philips Arena. Damien Wilkins scored 41 points to lead the Sonics, while Joe Johnson had 39 points for Atlanta.

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/23 vs. Houston

The last time the Sonics played a home-and-home set was against the Los Angeles Clippers last February 28 and March 1. They lost at L.A. 96-91 before returning home to beat the Clippers 96-89.

Houston won Monday's first game of this home-and-home series 96-89.

(Moral of the story: Score 96 points and win!)

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/21 at Houston

Rockets rookie Carl Landry had a streak of 11 consecutive field goals snapped Saturday against San Antonio. Landry had last missed on Dec. 9 against Toronto. In that game, Landry was 1-for-6 from the field against the Raptors; the rest of the season, he is 15-of-16 (93.8%).

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/19 at Dallas

Sonics point guard Luke Ridnour has boosted his assist-to-turnover ratio recently. Through Dec. 19, Ridnour's assist-to-turnover ratio was just 1.61 (29 assists, 18 turnovers). Since then, however, Ridnour has handed out 27 assists against just five turnovers (5.4).

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/18 at Memphis

Tonight's game will be, as noted by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a celebration of rookies. Of the seven NBA rookies averaging at least 23.8 minutes per game, four will be on the court tonight: Sonics Kevin Durant (33.2 mpg, first) and Jeff Green (24.9 mpg, fifth) and Memphis' Mike Conley, Jr. (24.8 mpg, sixth) and Juan Carlos Navarro (23.8 mpg, seventh).

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/16 at New Orleans

The Sonics have been getting effective rebounding from their big men recently. The Sonics PR Department notes either Nick Collison or Kurt Thomas has pulled down at least 10 rebounds in each of the last 11 games. In four of those games, they’ve both grabbed 10+ rebounds.

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/14 vs. L.A. Lakers

The Lakers have reduced their reliance on scoring from All-Star guard Kobe Bryant this season, but that's also made them more dangerous when Bryant has had big nights. They are 11-2 this season when Bryant has topped the 30-point mark. One of those 11 wins came Nov. 27 against the Sonics, when he finished with 35 points on 12-of-22 shooting.

Kia Surprising Stat: 1/11 vs. Dallas

Mavericks center Erick Dampier has set a Mavericks record by making his last 14 shot attempts. His accurate shooting has improved Dampier's field-goal percentage for the season to 68.8%. While he doesn't officially qualify for the NBA's leaderboard because he has not made enough field goals, Dampier is on pace to post the second-best field-goal percentage in NBA history, minimum 100 field-goal attempts.

Wilt Chamberlain's 72.7% shooting in 1972-73 is the only time in league history a regular player has made at least 70% of his shots. Chamberlain's 68.35 accuracy in 1966-67 currently ranks second all time.