Luke Ridnour, Earl Watson and Delonte West all are auditioning for the starting point guard position in an ongoing evaluation period that will last until the end of the season. West, who makes $1.9 million this year, becomes a restricted free agent at the end of this year. Seattle General Manager Sam Presti has said he will revisit contract talks with West this summer.

?I kind of have been playing with a heavy mind just thinking about the rotations and all of the point guards here,? West said. ?And thinking about how that affects the business aspect moving forward. And I just decided to put everything aside and to get back and have fun playing basketball and see where that takes me."

?You?ve got to be mentally strong in this league. But it?s not like we have a veteran guard here and then we have a rookie guard that we just brought on, and then you kind of have a pecking order. We have three quality guards that have all started and proved their worth in this league, and it?s just more how we?re going to balance the time out between the three of us. With that being said, and me being in my contract year there?s a lot on your mind.?

An injury to the team's franchise player overshadowed a nice win by the SuperSonics.

Wally Szczerbiak and rookie Jeff Green each scored 18 points, and Seattle overcame the loss of Kevin Durant to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-90 on Saturday night.

The Sonics played the final three quarters without Durant, their leading scorer. The second pick in the 2007 draft, who is averaging 20.2 points, sprained his left index finger near the end of the first period. X-rays were negative, but Seattle held Durant out as a precaution.

With 9.2 seconds left in the first period, he came off the floor to the Sonics' bench holding his hands together.

"I just ran into somebody and sprained my finger. It was kind of hurting more than it usually does," Durant said. "I hit it in every game and the pain usually stops, but tonight it started throbbing and swelling up a little bit. I wanted to play, but our trainer just wanted me to sit out for the rest of the game."

As always, Ray Allen arrived at KeyArena hours early, getting his pregame shooting completed before anyone started arriving.

Just like every other game he's played in the arena during the last five years, Allen started heading toward the SuperSonics' locker room when he was done.

Boston's All-Star guard then caught himself and realized on this night, he's a visitor.

"It's definitely an odd feeling," Allen said.

Allen returned to Seattle for the first time Thursday night since being shipped to Boston on draft-day in a trade for Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and the No. 5 pick in the draft that became rookie Jeff Green.

Nerves might have had something to do with one of Allen's worst games of the year. He shot only 4-of-13 for 10 points, but the Celts don't rely on one person these days. Paul Pierce picked up the slack with 37 points, and Boston cruised to a 104-96 win.

After the Trail Blazers won their 11th straight game, normally stoic owner Paul Allen looked directly at a camera and jubilantly held up one finger on each hand to signify the streak.

That's what winning is doing for the surprising Blazers.

"We're going out there with all the confidence in the world and a sense of urgency at the same time," forward Martell Webster said. "It's resulting in wins."

The latest win came Tuesday night when Brandon Roy and Jarrett Jack each scored 17 points and Portland beat the SuperSonics 89-79.

The Seattle Sonics announced today that the team has assigned center Mouhamed Sene to the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League.

Under the affiliation system with the D-League, NBA teams can assign up to two players who are rookies or in their second season to their D-League affiliate. Players can stay with the D-League team for as long as the team wishes and be recalled back to the NBA at any time. A player can only be sent to the D-League a maximum of three times during the season.

Despite rampant speculation that the Sonics will select Memphis freshman Derrick Rose in next year's draft to assume the playmaking duties, the new coaching staff and first-year General Manager Sam Presti still have not made up their minds about Ridnour, who is signed through the 2009-10 season and scheduled to earn $19.5 million over the next three seasons.

It appears the Sonics want to further evaluate Ridnour, who is averaging a career-low 5.4 points and 3.1 assists in just 11 games and two starts, before the Feb. 21 trade deadline.

"Luke hasn't played a lot of minutes with the first team, and that's something we want to look at," Carlesimo said. "To me there's no timetable to that. I wish in one sense it could have been done already, but it's not. It's like trying to evaluate the centers. We'll evaluate the centers when Rob [Swift] gets back."

"I think it will be awhile before we say Luke's healthy, Delonte's healthy, Earl's healthy, and we'll play whoever we want based solely on how they're playing and nothing to do with injuries or time constraints. To me, that's a wish. I think that's a ways away. And I'm not overly concerned. We will make some moves. We'll change up the lineup and look at different combinations. We may do the same thing with the 5s [centers] and everything."

Some NBA followers envision Clay Bennett moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, with the Hornets then shifted to Seattle after their New Orleans lease expires in 2012, assuming a new arena could be built in the Emerald City in the meantime.

Despite an exciting team and a successful start of 2007-2008, the Hornets have had difficulty drawing fans.

Sonics' center Kurt Thomas pulled himself from the starting lineup after suffering a sprained right ankle in the win against Minnesota on Friday.

Thomas said the injury occurred with about four minutes remaining when he landed after grabbing a rebound. Thomas fell but continued to play and capped the 99-88 win with a two-handed dunk off an assist from guard Luke Ridnour.

"That could have had something to do with it," said Thomas, who makes it clear his dunking days are over at age 35 after 13 years in the NBA. "I'm not a dunker, but the adrenaline had me going."

While the Sonics are thrilled with the contributions of Kurt Thomas, the veteran is a free agent after the season and could draw major trade interest for a team needing a defensive-minded big man. Thomas, who has grabbed 10 or more rebounds five times, makes $8 million and said he wants to play at least two more years.

Thomas was asked before the game whether he liked Oklahoma -- implying the Sonics are headed there next season -- and he said he was more of a "Texas guy." When a reporter mentioned that he had to be re-signed to potentially play in Oklahoma, Thomas smiled.

The Sonics say they're still a unified bunch and winning only six games hasn't splintered the roster.

That's why it's a little hard for guard Earl Watson to hear his name continue to swirl in trade rumors.

The latest trade talk has him or Luke Ridnour going to Miami. Ridnour was involved trade talks with Atlanta before the season, but that deal fell through.

"I'm here now, I'm growing and I'm having fun, enjoying my teammates," Watson said. "I know this is a business, and you can't mix business and personal, so whatever happens I just leave to God."