Opponent: Dallas Mavericks
When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
TV: KONG (Ch. 6/16)
Radio: KJR (950 AM)
Injury update: The Sonics decided to give center Calvin Booth one more game off before he returns from a sprained ankle, meaning he is expected to play, and perhaps be back in the starting lineup, Tuesday in Dallas.
At a Saturday morning practice, “(Booth) was able to go through some offensive drills hard and not really grimace or frown, both offensively and defensively,” Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. “So we’re looking at Tuesday.”
Booth suffered a sprained ankle in Seattle’s last exhibition game on Oct. 26 and has appeared in just four of the team’s 11 games.
Center Peja Drobnjak, who has yet to play this season after spraining his ankle in the preseason, also is practicing and will accompany the team to Texas for the two-game trip.
“If anybody else goes down, we may look at bringing Peja off the (injured) list,” McMillan said. “He hasn’t practiced in four or five weeks. But before he got injured, I liked what he was giving the team. A big guy who can pass the ball, who understands the game, who can shoot the ball. He was doing a pretty good job of rebounding and defending, and a lot better than we were seeing (during the summer leagues).”
Forward Vin Baker, who has a left knee contusion, seems likely to come off the injured list for Friday’s home game against Houston.
Nuggets injuries: Denver was without forward Antonio McDyess, the team’s top player, for Saturday’s game. McDyess had surgery on both knees in mid-October and is expected to return sometime in February.
Also missing Saturday’s game was guard Isaiah Rider, who suffered a sprained right ankle in Thursday’s game against Orlando and did not accompany the team to Seattle.
All-Star update: Voting has begun for the Feb. 10 NBA All-Star game in Philadelphia, and the Sonics are represented by four players on the ballot – guard Gary Payton, forwards Vin Baker and Rashard Lewis, and center Calvin Booth. Seattle fans can cast votes at KeyArena or on the NBA.com web site. Fans will choose the starting lineups from both conferences, and the coaches in each conference will vote for the remaining players on the respective rosters.
Among the Sonics, only Payton seems an All-Star shoo-in. If he is selected, either by the fans or the coaches, it will be his eighth straight All-Star appearance, which would break the team record of seven in a row that he shares with Jack Sikma.
Rich Myhre
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