"Young guys" can't rescue feeble Sonics

PHILADELPHIA — Two weeks ago, coach P.J. Carlesimo dedicated the last third of the season to developing the four players he calls the young guys, but now the Sonics coach is thinking of focusing entirely on rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green.

After 10 games as a starter, Johan Petro is on the verge of falling out of favor with the coaching staff. And swingman Mickael Gelabale, who was given quality minutes for a stretch, has seemingly resumed his role as a substitute.

For the second straight game, Petro struggled to contain the opposing center and allowed Philadelphia 76ers center Samuel Dalembert to put on a dunk show in the Sonics' 117-83 loss Friday night in front of 17,762 at the Wachovia Center.

When the second half started, Petro was on the bench — replaced by Nick Collison — and Gelabale didn't enter in second half until 7:15 remained.

Afterward, Carlesimo said it's too early to pull the plug "on the experiment," but he hinted that Petro's days as a starter could end after Sunday if he doesn't rebound against the Toronto Raptors and center Rasho Nesterovic.

"I don't want to say he [Petro] can't be a starter, but if he keeps struggling then maybe it will get him going to let somebody have a go at it, bring him in, give him some good minutes and try him again starting," Carlesimo said. "Looking at this, night in and night out, particularly when the rest of the team is struggling too, maybe the best thing for him is to prevent him from getting beat down."

During Wednesday's loss at Milwaukee, Petro collected a career-high 15 rebounds, but he failed to grab an offensive rebound and was thoroughly outplayed by Bucks center Andrew Bogut, who had 21 points and 13 rebounds.

On Friday at Philadelphia, Dalembert put up a similar performance. The 6-foot-11 center finished with a game-high 22 points, two shy of his career high, and 13 rebounds. He corralled four offensive rebounds and converted 10 of 11 field goals, including six dunks and two layups.

"I felt a lot of guys were looking for him down the middle of the court because we had a lot of dribble penetration," Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said. "So we ran a couple of plays for him. Rebounding the basketball was something we talked about before the game, and he was being very consistent about rebounding the ball and clogging up the middle."

Andre Iguodala (18 points and seven assists) connected with Dalembert on consecutive alley-oop dunks with more than four minutes left in the second quarter. The Philadelphia center was fouled as he flushed the second dunk over Chris Wilcox. He connected on the ensuing free throw to put the Sixers ahead 53-40.

The Sonics trailed 61-52 at intermission and with Collison starting the second half, they trimmed their deficit to five points (63-58) with 9:44 left in the third quarter. Seattle scored just eight points the rest of the period; Philadelphia scored 25 to put the game away and improve to 29-33.

Petro's struggles weren't the only reason the Sonics dropped their third game in a row, fell to 16-46 and suffered their second-most lopsided loss of the season.

In addition to Dalembert and Iguodala, five 76ers scored in double figures, including rookie Thaddeus Young, who had 18 points.

Wilcox finished with 20 points, Durant had 14 and Green 12 for the Sonics, who converted 38.9 percent of their shots in the second half. Seattle scored 14 points in the third quarter and 17 in the fourth.

Gelabale finished with two points for the fifth straight game in which he failed to score in double figures.

"Like I said earlier in the season, some people were having success off the bench, but when you go against the other team's front-line guys, it's a different animal," Carlesimo said.

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com