Sonics vs. Timberwolves | Absence of stars deflates matchup

On Thursday, fans at KeyArena witnessed the beneficiary of two offseason trades: the Boston Celtics, a team with a trio of stars, content role players and a following that multiplies with every win.

Tonight, the scene will be vastly different. The Sonics host the Minnesota Timberwolves in a battle between the former teams of Celtics stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.

"In this locker room, we built such a rapport with each other to where statistics don't matter," Allen said before he contributed 10 points Thursday to help defeat the Sonics, who traded him on draft day in June. "We've gotten pretty much every team's best effort because we're supposedly the team to beat. Everybody is gunning for us. Individually I want to play well, but statistic-wise, it just seems between myself, Paul [Pierce], and KG that we're not as impressed with trying to make all-star teams or scoring 50. We've done a lot of that the majority of our careers. Now, it's a great feeling when we're playing and win the game."

So, with the star power gone from KeyArena, camera phones will probably stay tucked in pockets. Outside of Sonics rookie Kevin Durant and Minnesota's Al Jefferson, there's just not much to hype.

Minnesota (4-24) is the worst team in the NBA, and Seattle has the third-worst record at 8-21. The Sonics and Timberwolves are in need of point-guard help. They're battling it out for lottery seeding for a draft that could bring them players D.J. Augustin of Texas, Derrick Rose of Memphis or O.J. Mayo of USC.

The Sonics defeated the Timberwolves 99-88 at the Target Center on Dec. 14 behind forward Chris Wilcox's 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Wilcox, who has one season remaining on his contract, has been inconsistent this season, and has been critical of his role in the offense. He says he's capable of more — if he plays with a pass-happy point guard consistently feeding him an assortment of passes.

Against Boston, Wilcox scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, giving way to the bench in the second quarter that helped the Sonics pull to 47-46 at halftime.

Wilcox helped the Sonics limit the Celtics to a season-low 18 points inside the paint and was a complement to center Kurt Thomas, who had four blocks to help Seattle tie a season-high with 10 blocks.

"Kurt Thomas was magnificent," Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said. Thomas also had 14 rebounds before fouling out after 29 minutes. "He didn't have many points [seven], but the way he defended and rebounded was great. We played well for three quarters, but we did not play well in the fourth quarter."

The Timberwolves are on a five-game trip; they lost 109-98 Friday at Portland.

Jefferson leads Minnesota in scoring, averaging 20.4 points. In the Timberwolves' loss to Portland on Friday, he finished with 22 points and 7 rebounds.

Jefferson had 19 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass, in Wednesday's 105-101 loss to Golden State to join former Minnesota players Garnett and Felton Spencer as the only Timberwolves players to grab that many offensive boards.

Sene update

Sonics center Mouhamed Sene made his D-League debut Wednesday. Sene, who was demoted Sunday, had seven blocks, nine points and 10 rebounds Friday in a 91-75 victory over Anaheim.

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com