The Armchair Athletes' NBA Boycott (slogan: "53 disgusted fans and counting") has apparenly inspired NewsOK.com's Sally Allen:

Me, I've had no trouble ignoring the NBA ever since they decided that it was perfectly reasonable to let a team in Utah be called the Jazz. And I speak as someone who once lived in Los Angeles and never once saw a lake.

Rumors are flying that the NBA's New Orleans Hornets may relocate to Oklahoma City on a temporary basis, perhaps even permanently.

Nothing is graven in stone just yet, of course. The most logical move for the Hornets, I think, is to relocate to LSU's Pete Maravich Center, just up the road in Baton Rouge. The downside is capacity: the Maravich seats only 14,000. Both Houston and Dallas have offered to host the Hornets on a temporary basis, and indeed the team staff has taken office space in Houston, courtesy of the Rockets, while the home office is drowned out.

But there are a couple of advantages to having the Hornets in Oklahoma City. If nothing else, we'd see, once and for all, if there's enough community support for a major-league sports team. The Ford Center holds 18,500 for basketball, slightly more than the New Orleans Arena. (A few Blazers hockey games would have to be bumped to the Cox in 2005-06.)

Whatever happens, it has to happen quickly: the Hornets' season opens 2 November at Cleveland, and their first home game (vs. Sacramento) is only two days later.

Addendum: From OKPartisan's post on this subject:

Another addendum: R. Alex contemplates the fate of that other New Orleans team:

I suspect they'd rather have the Hornets close to home, too.

The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel is all over the court.

Last weekend:

This weekend:

What caused this 180? A note from editor Ed Kelley? A promise of season tickets? I have no idea.

New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn is reported leaning toward playing about a dozen home games in Baton Rouge and the balance in Oklahoma City's Ford Center, a plan which would have two salutary effects: it would test the support for an NBA team here in Soonerland, and it would maintain, for now, the Hornets' ties to Louisiana.

The NFL's Saints, similarly, will be playing at least four games in Baton Rouge.

Mayor Cornett made it official yesterday: the NBA's New Orleans Hornets will play at least some of its home schedule in Oklahoma City's Ford Center during 2005-06. City Council will hold a special Wednesday meeting to approve the lease of city facilities to the team.

The Hornets will have a local staff of about 150, two-thirds of which will be relocating from Louisiana; the balance will be hired locally and will concentrate on sales and promotion.

Two October preseason games are still looking for a location: the season begins on 2 November at Cleveland, with the first home game on the 4th against Sacramento.

(Some of the details of the deal are here.)

That's the price for lower-level season tickets for the 35 New Orleans and/or Oklahoma City Hornets games to be played at the Ford Center this season. (Six games will be played in Louisiana; there are 41 road games.)

The deal that brought the team to town is fairly complex: the city must install an NBA-grade floor and do a couple other improvements at the Ford, and must seek tax credits and benefits from the state on behalf of the team. (One such benefit: a cancellation of the sales tax on Hornets tickets.) The team and the NBA are responsible for business plans and marketing, and there is an option for the Hornets to come back in 2006-07.

But more importantly, the city must guarantee the team a 5-percent improvement over its revenues last year in New Orleans, or make up the difference, which could be up to $10 million. (The state and a local business consortium are splitting the liability with the city.) However, should revenues exceed the 105-percent figure, the city stands to make a killing. This is actually reminiscent of the Skirvin Hotel deal: there is some upside risk, but unless things fall totally apart, the city comes out ahead. (This assumes that sports accounting is not like Hollywood accounting, which may be a lot to assume.)

"Totally apart," in this instance, means a half-full arena: City Manager Jim Couch says they will need to average more than 10,000 ticket sales per game to meet the revenue requirements.

Average ticket price should be around $45-50, and the home opener is 4 November against Sacramento.

(Update, 9 pm: AP is reporting that the Hornets have commitments for 2,000 season tickets already.)

John at OKCTalk.com ran a WHOIS on okchornets.com, and looky here:

Nothing there yet.

Repeat: yet.

Sean Kelley has discovered that his home in Mandeville, Louisiana, in St. Tammany Parish, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, is still more or less intact: there was some siding damage, but it's otherwise in decent shape.

Unfortunately, his job has more or less moved to Oklahoma City for the duration: Kelley was hired this summer to be the radio voice of the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA. (Which reminds me: Is there going to be local radio and television here? Cox Sports carried the games on television from New Orleans, and there was a radio network originating from WODT-AM/WRNO-FM.)

Oklahoma Christian University has agreed to speed up construction on a block of 108 student apartments and make them available to New Orleans Hornets front-office staff for the 2005-06 season.

The project was supposed to be completed by January, for a spring-semester opening, but will be accelerated to make room for the influx of Hornets personnel, who will vacate the premises next summer so that the apartments can be made ready for OC students.

Oklahoma City will compensate OC to the tune of $500,000, which the school thinks will just about cover their costs: "It's probably going to be revenue neutral for us," said OC spokesman Ron Frost.

(Expect to see this title occasionally, if not actually daily.)

Salon.com sportswriter King Kaufman on what's going on here:

No, he's not cynical. Really:

Only time (as distinguished from Time) will tell.

Remind me not to be hanging around the exits when this happens:

I'm sure there's a formal definition for "performance ready," but truth be told, I'm much happier thinking up one on my own.

Don Mecoy of the Oklahoman interviews Hornets owner George Shinn in tomorrow's edition, and, well, judge for yourself:

(Emphasis added.)

I may be wrong, but it sounds to me like already Shinn wants to stay.

(Update: The Oklahoman has now posted the interview.)

From Double Take in the current Urban Tulsa Weekly:

Actually, it's the parking that gets you, not the burgers.

Here's where the numbers come from, for the curious.

I'm trying not to read too much into the purchase of a small Nichols Hills home by George and Denise Shinn; speculation has run rampant that this is yet another sign that the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets will never return to the Crescent City.

The team's PR man isn't suggesting anything like that:

And it's not like you can't find houses bigger than 2400 square feet in Nichols Hills.

Why buy? I suppose the answer is the obvious one: he expects to turn over the property in a year or so for a profit.

A chap named Billy is blogging as "Hornets Fan" at LOOK@OKC. We know this much: he has season tickets, and he has ten questions he'd like to see answered.

Number 2 looks interesting: "Who will have the most bizarre injury and what will it be?" I think he might be right with his first guess: "Coach [Byron] Scott with turf toe from kicking a chair."

Lileks won't be going to any NBA games this season:

I can appreciate this point of view; still, I'll catch a Hornets game or two because, well, when's the last time I went to an NBA game?

Although there's certainly this:

Ah well.

"Meet the Hornets" this afternoon from four to six at Centre Court, Penn Square Mall.

(Yeah, suits. The NBA insists these days.)

Tonight's Hornets-Hawks preseason game is the first I've checked out on the radio, and the broadcast team comes off pretty well: they're not exactly low-key, but they don't scream at you either. (Yes, it's Sean Kelley doing play-by-play.)

Eight stations in Oklahoma are carrying Hornets games; the western flagship, if you will, is KTOK in Oklahoma City. The previously-existing Louisiana/Mississippi network continues pretty much intact.

Salon's King Kaufman predicts the NBA season, and no surprise as to the identity of the dweller in the Southwest Division cellar:

I dunno. Could they beat the 1996-97 Oklahoma City Cavalry of the CBA, who actually won the league championship?

We'll never know for sure. At this moment, a few hours before the season begins, I'm inclined to think that finishing 31-51 would qualify as a moral victory. (I'm expecting more like 25-57.)

Hornets 93, Kings 67 in front of 19,163. A proper christening for the Ford Center.

Two factors: the Hornets owned the boards, and Sacramento, down only one point after the first quarter, went from indifferent shooting to cold to downright glacial.

Last year's Bees started the season with a 2-29 run. Not gonna happen this year.

During halftime of last night's Hornets/Kings game, Mayor Cornett, interviewed on the radio, was sticking to the script: when New Orleans is ready once again, the team will return home.

But that word "ready" is open to all manner of interpretation, and while it's still a fact that there is no commitment beyond 2005-06, anything can happen. Cornett, a sportscaster most of his life, knows this perfectly well.

It's way too early to predict anything, of course: the Bees were an indifferent 3-5 in preseason, and there are still 81 games to go. But if the Sacramento Kings, one of the most consistent teams in the league, can stumble this badly at the Ford — well, I'm betting they're relieved that they don't have to come back here this season. (There will be two games in Sacramento, and one in Baton Rouge.) And if the Ford itself becomes something of a "secret weapon," if other teams become spooked at the very thought of coming here, it will be that much harder to pack up and move after the season ends.

But we won't know anything about that until a week from Wednesday, when Orlando comes to town. In the meantime, I'm going to work on pronouncing "Bostjan Nachbar."

Well, okay, two in a row might have been a bit much to hope for.

But you have to figure that any night that LeBron James hits five 3-pointers in a row is a night you're not going to enjoy — unless, of course, you're a Cavs fan.

109-87. Next to Houston, to take on the Rockets.

The Oklahoman's Jenni Carlson is pretty sure the Hornets will be back here next year:

Of course, things have a way of happening faster than usual when it comes to the Hornets — for an indication of just how fast, see Scott Cooper's cover story in last week's Gazette — but the factor here is not how fast Shinn's organization can move, but how fast New Orleans can be rebuilt. Says Carlson:

If you're thinking from this that C. J. Peete was otherwise functional before Katrina, think again: the Housing Authority of New Orleans started demolition in 1998. Things apparently don't move quite so quickly in the Big Easy.

Carlson concludes that a second year for the Hornets here in the Big Breezy is pretty much inevitable, and she's probably right, but what happens after that? Everybody — George Shinn, NBA Commissioner David Stern, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett — is absolutely positive that the Hornets will go back home.

Eventually.

Whenever that is.

Chris Sheridan of ESPN thinks two years is the limit:

So the real-life deadline, in effect, is January 2007. Certainly by then there will be substantial progress toward the restoration of New Orleans. Let's hope so, anyway.

Hornets 91, Rockets 84, at Houston. Apparently the Bees can win on the road.

What's impressive here is that the Rockets had a six-point lead going into the fourth quarter, and held it for a few minutes more before the Hornets went on a berserk 17-2 run. What's more, five Hornets scored in double figures.

Next game is Wednesday at the Ford, against the Magic of Orlando.

David Aldridge writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Hornets aren't going to stay 18-64. (Last year, they won two of their first 31 games; this year, they've won two of their first three.) And there's already an indication that the Saints might be on the way out the door. I do, however, like Aldridge's idea that the NFL, which doesn't exactly have an abundance of Super Bowl sites, should assist with the Superdome repair and/or replacement.

As to the question of whether the Hornets should stay, I admit that right now, I'm more concerned with whether they beat the Orlando Magic Wednesday night.

(With thanks to Doug Loudenback.)

The Hornets, trailing by one at the half, went totally cold in the third quarter, and didn't recover quite fast enough in the fourth; Orlando wins it, 88-83. Attendance was 18,508.

The Mavericks will be here Saturday, and it won't be on Cox 7.

A lot of shots taken, and a lot of shots made; it's just that Dallas made a couple more of them along the way.

Mavericks 109, Hornets 103. This moves the 4-2 Mavs ahead of the 2-3 Bees in the Southwest Division.

Next game: at Miami on Tuesday, before returning to the Ford on Wednesday to play Denver. (McDonald's has a promotional deal; they ask, presumably rhetorically, "Are the Nuggets Chicken?" Now that's irony.)

Later: The Oklahoman notes that the game was a sellout, even with both OU and OSU home football games the same day.

Nemesis, thy name is Dwyane Wade. With the Hornets up by seven with two minutes left, Wade went on a seven-point run that came within a rim width of being a nine-point run.

So there was overtime, and Miami prevailed, 109-102. Let us hope the Nuggets aren't in a prevailing mood this evening when they drop into the Ford.

For about ten minutes tonight, the Hornets were as good as any team in the NBA. Unfortunately, that left 38 minutes when they were consistently inconsistent, and while Denver wasn't exactly wonderful, "wonderful" wasn't necessary: Nuggets 91, Hornets 81.

The Hawks will be here Friday; the Bees hit the road immediately afterward.

From LOOK@OKC's Hornets Fan:

The only problem with this, from the standpoint of a team that's 2-5 on the season, is that there aren't that many games they should win.

Then there's the situation with the Atlanta Hawks, who come to the Ford tonight 0-8 — but who beat the Hornets in preseason. Twice.

Oh, and Speedy Claxton and PJ Brown got onto the NBA All-Star ballot. I would, of course, never, ever encourage anyone to engage in ballot-box stuffing, at the Ford Center, via T-Mobile T-Zones, or at NBA.com.

You can't get much scarier than this: the Hornets at one point had a 26-point lead and watched it shrink to one in the waning seconds before Chris Paul sank the last two free throws and put the game away, 95-92. It was Atlanta's ninth loss in a row, but the Hawks picked up 60 points in the second half — 42 in the fourth quarter — while the Bees floundered. A smaller crowd than I expected on a Friday night: 17,554.

The Hornets are now 3-5, the same record they amassed in the preseason.

Tomorrow: on the road at Orlando; then to Philadelphia on Monday.

The Magic won when they visited Oklahoma City; tonight the Hornets got payback in Orlando, winning 98-95 and running their record to 4-5. David West scored a career-high 34 points, hitting 15 FGs in 22 tries and picking up 4 out of 5 free throws, not to mention 8 rebounds.

The Sixers are next.

That is to say, Allen Iverson, who played only about 34 minutes tonight, but who scored 24 points in a 103-91 Sixers victory over the Hornets that wasn't as close as that twelve-point margin suggests: the Bees shot less than 40 percent.

Back to the Ford on Wednesday against the Timberwolves, before a holiday road trip.

A genuine nailbiter in front of a sellout crowd at the Ford. The Hornets trailed Minnesota by as many as 18 in the second quarter and were down 48-36 at the half, but would not be denied; the Bees pulled it out, 84-80.

Now 5-6 on the season, the Hornets will hit the road and head west, playing at Seattle on Saturday, Golden State on Monday and Denver on Wednesday. (Next home game, against Philadelphia, is on the 2nd of December.)

Last year, the post-Thanksgiving road trip for the Hornets was horrid: they lost them all. This year they start off with a win at Seattle; down by twelve with two minutes left, the Sonics made a quick eight-point run, but the Bees prevailed, 105-99, bringing their record up to 6-6.

For the fourth game in a row, David West scored over 20 points. Next game is Monday night against Golden State at Oakland.

Three in a row? Not if the Warriors have something to say about it, and they did, breaking open what had been a close game in the third quarter and dancing away with it.

Golden State wins it, 99-83, and ex-Hornet Baron Davis, who promised to kick in $500 for Katrina relief for every point he scored, will write a check for $8500.

The Bees now head for Denver; they'll play the Nuggets Wednesday before coming back to the Big Breezy.

Carmelo Anthony's injury didn't matter much: Andre Miller pulled 33 points to lead all scorers. Still, the Hornets, cold in the first quarter and only up 1 at the half, held on to beat the Nuggets in Denver, 102-95, finishing the West Coast trip 2-1 and jumping back up to .500 ball. Desmond Mason, making his first start this season, picked up 26 points.

The 76ers will be here Friday.

A full house at the Ford got to witness some scary stuff tonight. At one point in the second quarter, the Hornets led the 76ers by fourteen points; at the end of the third quarter, the Sixers were up by one.

It wound up Hornets 88, Sixers 86, with Allen Iverson missing a three-pointer right before the buzzer. These Bees are going to give me a coronary, I swear. (Iverson snagged 34 points anyway.) Now 8-7, the Hornets will head out on a two-game road trip against division opponents (Dallas Saturday, Memphis on Tuesday) before returning next Wednesday to take on the Celtics.

And it didn't. The Hornets scored exactly zero in the first three and a half minutes in Dallas, and while they managed to squeak to within one point in the third quarter, they never got the lead, and the Mavericks pulled away at the end, 97-88.

Dirk Nowitzki poured in 30, twenty-two in the second half, to power that fourth-quarter run. Chris Paul had a good night — 25 points and six rebounds — and Speedy Claxton scored 21 from off the bench, but it wasn't enough.

The Bees, now 8-8, head next for Memphis, who likely won't be any easier than the Mavs, who improved to 11-5.

If the Grizzlies play for the rest of the season like they did tonight, they'll win the division: they didn't do much of anything wrong.

The Hornets didn't do much of anything right, which is why they lost at Memphis, 89-73; it's the Grizzlies' sixth straight win, and the Bees' second straight loss.

The Celtics come to town tomorrow, and there should be snow to greet them.

Not quite a sellout, but almost — 18,753 officially — despite weather which can be charitably described as "uncomfortable." Still, this game is played indoors, which doesn't explain why the Hornets' shooting was so cold tonight. The Celtics trounced the Bees, 101-87, leaving both teams at 8-10 and putting an end to a three-game winning streak at the Ford. David West led all scorers with 29, but it takes five guys to play this game.

This is definitely a rough month. Coming up: another West Coast tour, starting with Portland on Friday night.

Definitely a nailbiter at Portland tonight: with two seconds left the Blazers tied it up at 89 and sent it into overtime, then won it in the extra five minutes while the Hornets failed to drop a single field goal until the final buzzer. The final was 98-95, the fourth loss in a row for the Bees.

Sunday to Sacramento, then Monday at Phoenix. Like I said, a rough month.

The headquarters of the Sonic drive-in restaurant chain is right here in the Big Breezy.

Now think of the possible sports tie-ins:

And it's not getting any better, either:

What's this got to do with Oklahoma City? Plenty. If the Hornets return to New Orleans, as everyone involved swears they will, this is the most likely spot the Sonics will end up: team support here is running well beyond original expectations, and NBA Commissioner David Stern would much prefer to have another team move here than to deal with angry Hornets fans in Louisiana.

This calls for cherry limeades all around.

At least tonight, when Sacramento got revenge for its loss in Oklahoma City earlier this season: the lead traded hands half a dozen times, but the Kings pulled away from the Hornets late in the fourth, winning it 110-100. The Bees, now 8-12, have lost five straight.

Tomorrow night: at Phoenix, before returning to Oklahoma City on Wednesday to take on the Clippers, and then heading to Louisiana for a rematch with the Suns at Baton Rouge. Winning any of these could be considered a moral victory at this point.

Russ Eisenstein, the studio host for the Hornets network, had an interesting halftime feature on Sean Banks and the rest of the 66ers, the D-League squad in Tulsa, although what made it most interesting was Eisenstein's misidentification of that tall guy standing by an oil well as the "Golden Miner."

The Suns, slightly dimmed by injuries, trailed most of the night, yet made a tremendous run in the last couple of minutes. But what the heck: the Hornets got away with a road win against a team with a far better record, and how often do you get to see that? NO/OKC 91, Phoenix 87, and they'll come back to the Ford only three games below .500. The Clippers will arrive Wednesday, followed by a rematch with the Suns Friday at Baton Rouge.

Maybe it's easier to beat the first-place teams after all. And it helps to run up a twenty-point lead early; even with the usual Hornets fourth-quarter drought and a couple of technicals — Jackson Vroman was actually tossed from the game — the Bees made life miserable for the Los Angeles Clippers, 102-89.

We'll find out whether this works Friday night in Baton Rouge, where the 10-12 Hornets, who won at Phoenix on Monday, will have to take on the Suns again.

Attendance at the Ford was a modest 17,490, but the decibel level was as high as ever.

NBA trading season starts today, and Hornets reserve guard Arvydas Macijauskas, who has played only 26 minutes this year, will probably be glad to go.

Coach Byron Scott says only that the team needs a little more size and more scoring off the bench — and that if it were up to him, he wouldn't want to see a deal for Pacers guard Ron Artest:

Assuming Artest remains with the Pacers and avoids both injury and suspension, the Hornets will have to tangle with him twice this season.

New Orleans may be getting their football team back next year:

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue hasn't said anything officially yet, but this sounds very much like getting the team ready to come home.

How does this affect the Crescent City's other major sports squad? Ron Hitley at Hornets247.com (he doesn't do permalinks, so look for 15 December 10:47 am, "Links and Random Shizzle") says it will hurt:

Which would tend to support sportswriter David Aldridge's premise:

With the New Orleans market now smaller by a quarter, maybe a third, it's clearly not going to be any easier.

Hornets owner George Shinn and NBA Commissioner David Stern still say that the Bees will go back to New Orleans. And that's exactly what they should say. But a lot can happen between Now and Then. Meanwhile, says Hitley:

I thought so myself.

In spectacular fashion, at that, putting together a 37-10 (!) fourth quarter to more than erase a big Hornets lead and drop the Bees, 101-88, in front of a small (not quite 7500) but vocal crowd in Baton Rouge; clearly this was payback for the Hornets' victory at Phoenix earlier this week.

Once again, the Hornets fail to put together a three-game winning streak, and they drop to 10-13; the Spurs show up at the Ford Sunday night.

ESPN and the research firm Markitecture polled fans of the 92 major-league teams in baseball, football and basketball — hockey was given a pass because they didn't have a season last year and all the data would presumably be stale — and then ranked 91 of them (the NBA Charlotte Bobcats get an incomplete because they're so new) from best to worst according to the following criteria:

Based on these criteria, the San Antonio Spurs, who finished no worse than sixth in any category and at the top in two, are the nation's premier major-league sports franchise. Another NBA club, the Detroit Pistons, placed second; the top-rated NFL team was the Pittsburgh Steelers (third) and the top-rated MLB team was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (fifth).

Whither the Hornets? Keeping in mind survey lead time, which means that nothing that has happened in Oklahoma City is a factor, the Bugs are regarded this way:

• Bang for the Buck: 49th (15th in NBA)
  
• Fan Relations: 46th (14th in NBA)
  
• Ownership: 76th (25th in NBA)
  
• Affordability: 3rd (1st in NBA)
  
• Stadium Experience: 47th (11th in NBA)
  
• Players: 65th (23rd in NBA)
  
• Coach/Manager: 51st (18th in NBA)
  
• Championships: 88th (28th in NBA)
  
• Overall: 55th (17th in NBA)
  

One could argue that last year's 18-64 record doesn't augur well for playoff potential, I suppose. Then again, Hornets TV guy Bob Licht says with a straight face that this year's Bees are on track to finish 42-40, which surely would be good enough for a playoff berth, inasmuch as eight out of 15 teams in each division will qualify.

Oh, and the absolute bottom of the sports barrel? The New Orleans Saints, who finished nowhere above 60th in any category and came in dead last in ownership. Tom Benson, call your PR man.

The SRO crowd — 19,297, about 0.5 percent above Ford Center capacity — got to look at the defending NBA champs, which is always fun; what was more fun was watching the mighty San Antonio Spurs actually getting beaten by the Hornets, 89-76.

For a change, the Bees didn't fall apart in the fourth, outscoring the Spurs 29-14 in the final stanza, getting double-digit scoring from five players and just missing the triple-double from Chris Paul, who got 17 points, 12 boards and 9 assists.

Now 11-13, the Hornets hit the road for the frozen North, for a rematch with the Timberwolves and a first look at Milwaukee's Bucks.

While the Hornets were beating the Spurs in Oklahoma City and the Saints were losing to the Panthers in Baton Rouge, there was a basketball game in the city of New Orleans.

It wasn't a big game, particularly — the women of Tulane beat Central Connecticut State 72-60 — but it was the first actual sporting event in the Big Easy since, well, you know when. Admission was free, and about 800 showed up.

(Via Hornets247.com.)

To no one's surprise, Hornets owner George Shinn is seeking local investors for the team.

Team president Paul Mott says that the prospectus will be out next month, and that the minimum buy-in per investor will be two percent, estimated at $4-6 million.

Absolutely no one is saying so, but this looks like the first step toward establishing the Hornets permanently in Oklahoma City. Shinn says that if the team moves back to New Orleans, he will buy back local investors who want out.

If I didn't know better — and technically, I don't — I'd think Shinn was trying to create something similar to the ownership structure of the San Antonio Spurs, which was designed specifically to insulate the team from relocation threats.

It's cold in Minnesota this time of year, but not as cold as the Hornets; the Timberwolves could have phoned it in, 88-69, and it wasn't as close as it sounds. (At one point in the third, the Wolves were up by thirty-two points.) The Bees shot a dismal 32.5 percent, not quite the worst in team history but close.

With the game out of reach in the last quarter, first the Bees and then the Wolves turned matters over to their bench-dwellers, and Arvydas Macijauskas, who must have been wondering if he was ever going to get to play again, scored six points, bringing his season total to 14.

The Hornets, now 11-14, will take on the Bucks in Milwaukee on Friday.

Addendum: The Oklahoman tossed in this line:

Under the circumstances, I think this should have been "The 69 points worsted the team's previous season-low of 73."

What's that? Huh? No, we don't have any wool. Go see the Black Sheep. He usually has three bags around this time of year.

The second of March, 1962, and the Warriors have beaten the Knicks, 169-147.

From the Knicks' point of view, this had to be weird: "We score 147 points in 48 minutes and we still lose?" For that matter, this year's Hornets, over two games, didn't score 147 in 96 minutes.

Then again, the Knicks were witnessing history in the making: Wilt Chamberlain, all by himself, put in 100 of those 169 points for Philadelphia, and forty-odd years later, no one has quite come close.

Annika thinks it may be coming:

Well, it's possible, I suppose.

True enough: Chamberlain was a crummy free-throw shooter (his career record at the line was a fairly terrible .511, though he made 28 of 32 on the Big Night), and every one of those 36 field goals he sank was for two points.

Sixty-two points in 33 minutes (Bryant sat out the fourth quarter, presumably with Phil Jackson's approval) works out to about 90 in forty-eight, a tad short of a hundred, but who besides Kobe is even close these days?

The lead changed hands more than a dozen times, but finally Milwaukee, led by Michael Redd's 36 points, pulled away from the Hornets and won it, 101-94, dropping the Bees to 11-15.

Chris Paul and David West were pretty hot — 24 and 27 points respectively — but overall the Hornets shot only 39 percent.

Four days off, then one game at the Ford, against the Rockets Wednesday, before a quick trip to San Antonio.

Tracy McGrady missed the last Hornets-Rockets game, and I was wondering: Is T-Mac that good?

He's that good. He picked up 38 points; combine that with 26 from Stromile Swift off the bench, and you'd think Houston would have won it in a walk. But the Bees prevailed, 92-90, with six players in double figures, and a welcome return to form for J. R. Smith, who dropped in 16 points. David West and Rasual Butler each scored 15, Butler snagging three treys in four attempts.

Empty seats? Not a one.

The Hornets, now 12-15, are off to San Antonio for another crack at the Spurs tomorrow night, and then back to the Ford for a week with four games: Dallas, Charlotte, Miami and Portland.

The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel seems to be upset that the Hornets, as a team, are worth a mere $225 million, less than any other NBA team, according to the annual Forbes tabulation. Considering that the two smallest markets with NBA activity are the Bees' regular home and their temporary home — and considering that the hapless Knicks and the marginally-hapful Lakers, in the top two markets, place one-two on the Forbes list — methinks Mr. Tramel doth protest too much. And the #30 Hornets only lost a couple of million dollars last year; the #29 Portland Trailblazers (worth a stirring $227 million) hemorrhage almost that much cash in a month, and have been for years.

Besides, Forbes has a more interesting chart: Player Relative Productivity Score, in which the 100 highest-paid NBA players are rated in terms of performance versus salary over the past three years. The Hornets, down in Poverty Row, have only two of them, but both are well ahead of the Forbes average: Desmond Mason ($7.2 million a year) comes in at 117, and P. J. Brown ($8 million) at a startling 157, seventh in the league. If nothing else, George Shinn would seem to be getting (some of) his money's worth. (The cellar-dweller player — name withheld in case his mom is reading — scored a pitiful 29; at the other end, Chauncey Billups of the Pistons, apparently underpaid at $5.9 million, comes in with a score of 189.)

And consider this: the Knicks, top of the NBA financial heap, are worth $543 million, three times annual revenues. The allegedly bottom-feeder Bees are worth $225 million, 2.88 times revenues. If we could get Madison Square Garden ticket prices at the Ford Center — but never mind, let's not go there. (Heck, we couldn't afford to go there.)

"This isn't a message in a bottle," said radio color guy Gerry Vaillancourt, and indeed it wasn't; the Spurs made it clear from halfway through the first period that they were not going to lose to the Hornets again, especially in front of the hometown folks.

If there's an upside to the 111-84 debacle, it was the chance to give the usual bench-dwellers an outing: both Arvydas Macijauskas and Maciej Lampe got some playing time. (Macas hit a trey, even; Lampe didn't score, but picked up a couple of boards.)

The Mavericks visit the Ford Center on New Year's Eve.

Dallas had beaten the Hornets fifteen times in a row. For a couple of seconds, it looked like the streak might come to an end, but no: Mavs 95, Bees 90, and it took a heroic rally in the waning moments to get it that close.

The Hornets actually outshot the Mavericks, but missed too many free throws. Worse, at some point during halftime Dirk Nowitzki, then a meager 2-11 from the field, got his mojo back, finishing with 24 points.

Next game is Monday against the 10-20 Charlotte Bobcats; the Hornets (who, you'll remember, started out in Charlotte) are now 12-17.

There's no other word for it, but it's a W, and when you've had only twelve in twenty-nine games, you'll take it. (Yeah, I know, the Bees had only two in 29 games last year, but that's ancient history.) It was, said Gerry Vaillancourt, "a game where you just gut it out." Ultimately, the Hornets managed a bit more in the guts department, fighting the Charlotte Bobcats to a tie after the first quarter, building up a mere one-point lead at the half, and finally pulling away in the final four minutes, 103-86.

I don't know if Byron Scott was frustrated coming into this game, but he used only seven players tonight, and J. R. Smith wasn't one of them. Chris Paul got 24 points and 11 assists; David West dropped in 20 points more. Speedy Claxton and Rasual Butler combined for 25 points off the bench.

The Miami Heat arrive at the Ford Center Wednesday; the game will sell out just from people wanting to see Shaq.

They played that on the Ford Center PA about halfway through the third quarter, and by then the Hornets could have been waving at them; it was 72-50 at the time. Miami would narrow the gap, what with Dwyane Wade getting a triple double, Jason Williams banging down the treys, and Shaq being, well, Shaq, but otherwise the Heat were cold after the first quarter, and the Bees chalked up a win, 107-92. Byron Scott played everyone (except the Officially Injured) tonight, and six Hornets got double figures, led by Desmond Mason with 24 and David West with 20.

This is only the second time this season the Hornets have had two consecutive 100-point nights — and the first time, they lost both those games.

One more game in the home stand: Friday night, against the Trailblazers.

Almost unnoticed in the flurry of Hornets vs. Heat and the sideline story of some football game in Pasadena (did I mention "Hook 'em Horns"?) was this little tidbit of information:

The Sacramento game is the one being considered for the Lloyd Noble, what with a Bon Jovi concert booked for the Ford Center that weekend, and I think it's a safe bet the Kings will happily play the Bees anywhere other than the, um, home hive.

No word yet on the last three Baton Rouge games; the official story so far has been that they're considering moving them to the New Orleans Arena. In the one outing in the City of the Red Stick, the Hornets drew a meager 7300, only halfway filling up the Pete Maravich Center, about thirty-eight percent of capacity at the Ford, where the Hornets have sold out four of the last five.

Update, 6 January: The Arena it is.

Well, sort of. The third quarter was an utter disaster: just barely into it, Chris Paul tore a ligament in his right thumb, and he'll be out for at least two weeks; the Hornets managed a pathetic 11 points in 12 minutes. Juan Dixon, who got a season-high 28 against the Bees at Portland, did almost as much damage in Oklahoma City, scoring 27.

And yet the Hornets, having gone from 19 points up to six down, survived, slapping down the Trailblazers 90-80, winning their third in a row for the first time in almost two years. You have to figure Kirk Snyder will be starting for a long, long time; he picked up 22 points, cleared six boards and blocked four shots. David West pulled off the double-double, with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

A quick trip to Atlanta to meet the Hawks, and then the Pistons come to town Tuesday. What happens on Friday is still unclear; Sacramento will be here, but the exact location of "here" is yet undetermined.

Update, 9 January: "Here" has now been determined: it's the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, which officially seats 11,528 for basketball — though legend has it that for OSU and Texas games, they've shoehorned in as many as 13,000.

It could have been much, much worse. Chris Paul is out, Kirk Snyder took ill at halftime, and Speedy Claxton dislocated his ring finger in the second quarter. Claxton made it back — in fact, he scored 29 points, his career high — but the depleted Hornets fell to a comparatively healthy and hot-shooting bunch of Hawks in Atlanta, 101-93. David West picked up 22; J. R. Smith, back in starting rotation, scored 7.

So much for four in a row. The Bees fall to 15-18, with the Pistons coming Tuesday.

Macas Watch: Arvydas Macijauskas got eight points, three rebounds and an assist in about 27 minutes of playing time.

With Chris Paul back and in close to top form, the Hornets played even with the Pistons for half the game — in fact, they had a three-point lead at the half — but Detroit took command in the third quarter and would maintain it the rest of the way, winning 96-86, their 27th win in 32 games. Rip Hamilton did the most damage, scoring 30 points.

It wasn't all bleak: five Hornets scored in double figures, and David West once again pulled down 20. But a loss is a loss, and the Bees fall to 15-19.

Two days off, and Sacramento comes to town — or, more precisely, to Norman.

We'll never know if moving this game from Baton Rouge to the Lloyd Noble Center really made any difference to the players; Desmond Mason has seen the place before, but he played here as a visitor in the Bedlam Series.

The Hornets didn't spank the Kings as badly in Norman as they did at the Ford for the season opener, but 90-76 is nothing to sneeze at, and while the Bees had another one of their patented lousy third quarters — a meager 17 points — Sacramento was worse.

Notable: the return of Bostjan Nachbar, who's been on the bench since the 28th of November; Rasual Butler sank four treys (in four attempts) and a couple of two-pointers; Chris Paul still seems to be well.

Now 16-19, the Hornets head for Houston tomorrow.

The trip to Houston did some good for the Hornets, who beat the Rockets for the third time this season, 86-80.

It wasn't pretty, at least in the first half, as Houston discovered that they can play good ball without either Tracy McGrady or Yao Ming, but the Bees' defense eventually wore them down. Rasual Butler didn't pick up a trey tonight, which is unusual; David West picked up a sprain in the fourth quarter, which is scary.

Five Hornets, including West, scored in double figures; P. J. Brown got the double-double on 13 points and 10 rebounds.

To Charlotte on Monday afternoon, then Wednesday it's the Memphis Grizzlies, in a game moved out of Baton Rouge to the Ford Center.

The Hornets started out, after all, as a Charlotte team, so I tend to give some additional weight to Charlotte pundits in this matter.

The Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell, looking toward the future of the Bees:

Then again, it's not just up to Shinn, and the NBA's David Stern, who has to sign off on any such thing, isn't giving any hints that he would.

And we will not engage in any New Orleans-bashing, unlike, say Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who will play the Hornets in the Big Easy this season, and is quoted by Bonnell thusly:

Now that's just harsh, Phil. And some of those Louisiana boys are going to be anxious to make you pay for that.

They weren't quite Good Charlotte today, especially during the second quarter, when the Hornets outscored them 41-20. (It was a 25-25 tie after the first.) The Bobcats did what they could, but never quite got back into the game, and the Bees chalk up another W, 107-92.

Six Hornets got into double figures; Chris Paul scored 24, including 12 of 12 from the line, and David West pulled a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Of course, the important number here is 18, which is the number of games the Hornets won in 2004-05 — and the number they've won in 2005-06 with 45 left to play. But you play them one at a time, and in the next one, they face the tough Memphis Grizzlies at the Ford.

The Hornets were up 48-39 at the half, and one of those patented Terrible Third Quarters brought things to a 62-62 tie after three. But the Bees would not be denied this time, dropping the Memphis Grizzlies, 87-79, winning their fourth straight, something that hasn't happened in a couple of years, and squaring their record at 19-19.

Five players in double figures tonight, led by Chris Paul with 16; P. J. Brown scored 15, and David West, with a 10-point outburst in the fourth quarter, got the double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds). Chris Andersen, over the flu, came within one rebound of a double-double of his own (10 points, 9 rebounds). But really, this was a triumph for the defense, who held the Griz to a mere 38 percent from the floor.

(I just noticed: the Hornets, so far in January, are 7-2. P. J. Brown, interviewed after the game, explained: "We're growing up.")

Three games coming up on the East Coast: Washington Friday, New York Saturday, and Boston on Monday. The Spurs come to the Ford Center a week from today.

Apparently my assumption that no one ever takes my advice on anything was off by one.

Which is not quite true — Washington had lost 20 of 37 coming into this game — but tonight I think they could have beaten anybody. The Hornets didn't do anything wrong, particularly: in fact, Chris Paul pulled down 28 points, a new career high; the third quarter wasn't at the usual level of awfulness; and the Bees shot a respectable 49 percent. But it didn't matter: the Wizards came out fast and furious, they led by 11 after the first quarter, and they made it stick, 110-99.

Oh, well. Tomorrow: Knicks at knite.

Chris Paul played his very first college hoops at Madison Square Garden (Wake Forest vs. Memphis), and I think he was happy to be back: he scored 27 and contributed 13 assists as the Hornets piled up some serious points at the expense of the Knicks, 109-98.

What's more, the Bees forgot to go cold in the third quarter, outscoring New York 31-20 over the period; there was a brief drought in the fourth, but by then the damage was done. Five Hornets scored in double figures; Rasual Butler got 12 points on four treys.

Back to .500, and off to Beantown to meet the slumping Celtics on Monday before returning Wednesday to the Ford, where the Spurs will be waiting.

Once in a while I take a look at Hornets Central, an OKC-based message board devoted to the NBA team temporarily housed here, and as you might expect, there is a lot of back-and-forth between Oklahoma City fans and New Orleans fans regarding the team's future.

Most of said dialogue is pretty predictable, but this one piece of snark is so spectacularly barbed I had to sneak a copy of it over here. It's used in the .sig block by a user/moderator identified as "JWHornet," and, well, it speaks for itself:

The problem with that cliché about "pure as the driven snow": have you ever actually driven in snow? We're talking some seriously scuzzy stuff.

Some of that scuzzy stuff was on the ground the last time Boston played the Hornets, and the Celtics spanked the Bees rather convincingly.

Some of that scuzzy stuff was on the ground tonight as the Hornets visited Boston, and the Celtics, once again, spanked the Bees rather convincingly, 91-78.

It didn't help that the Hornets shot a horrid 35.5 percent from the floor, and that the dreaded third-quarter slump not only returned but managed to persist into the start of the fourth. On the upside, David West dropped in 21 points, and J. R. Smith looked like the J. R. of old, scoring 16 in the fourth.

And while they're back under .500 again, 20-21 at the halfway point is six or eight games better than anyone predicted back in October. Not that this makes anyone feel any more comfortable about playing the Spurs day after tomorrow.

Macas Watch: Arvydas Macijauskas got half a dozen minutes on the court: he connected on one shot, pulled down an offensive rebound, and got a steal.

What kind of night is it when the league champions shoot a meager 37 percent and still win by sixteen points?

Yep. The Spurs were flat; however, the Hornets were utterly wretched, shooting 31 percent. On the radio, Sean and V. wound up in a Biblical discussion with 2:30 left, perhaps in the hope that lightning would take out the Ford Center and put an end to the misery. No acts of God, though, and San Antonio finally won it, 84-68, in a game apparently nobody wanted. I expect someone to report tomorrow that the weird January weather in Oklahoma City caused the rim diameters to shrink.

Somehow I don't think Memphis will be quite so ragged come Saturday night.

No one will ever accuse Hornets coach Byron Scott of beating around the bush. The de rigueur radio debriefing after last night's debacle never came off, and I'm willing to bet it's because he used the time he normally spends on chatting with the broadcast guys to chew out the team for a lackluster (read: "awful") performance.

And when it was rumored in the fall that the team might deal with Indiana for the occasionally-problematic Ron Artest, Scott said that he'd rather not:

Artest, incidentally, will not be joining the Bees: the Pacers swapped him to Sacramento for Peja Stojakovic.

Was the front office listening? Maybe.

Of course, the biggest question facing the Hornets is "Where are we going?" Scott says he likes it fine here in the Big Breezy:

Is the front office listening? Maybe.

Hornets forward Chris "Birdman" Andersen, 27, has been tossed out of the NBA for a violation of the league's anti-drug program.

Under the agreement between the NBA and the Players Association, exact details of the matter are not available to the public; however, cause for disqualification, instead of a mere fine and/or suspension, would include use of cocaine, meth, acid, or opiates. Andersen will be barred from the league for a minimum of two years.

This year the Birdman, in 32 games, averaged 18 minutes per game, 5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

The first two Grizzlies/Hornets games were won by whichever team was at home; after falling behind early, the Bees won the third at Memphis, 95-86.

With the Birdman gone, P. J. Brown played longer than usual, and he seemed to be enjoying it, picking up 18 points and 9 rebounds. David West disappeared into the locker room near the beginning of the second half to get retaped; once back on the floor, he hit nine shots in a row, singlehandedly disposing of the third-quarter curse. (West finished with a double-double, 19 points and 12 rebounds.) And Speedy Claxton got 20 from off the bench, 18 in the first half. Pau Gasol played all but two minutes of the game and scored 25 for the Grizzlies despite heavy Hornet defense.

Now up to 21-22, the Bees open a three-game home stand on Monday against the Bucks, followed by the Bulls on Wednesday and the Lakers on Saturday.

Once again, Milwaukee's Michael Redd had the Hornets' number, picking up 32 points and six rebounds, but this time the Bees won it, on a last-second (literally) shot by David West, 94-93, evening the series at 1-1 for the year.

West got yet another double-double with 24 points and 15 boards. Neither team shot particularly well, but Redd owned the second quarter, and while the Hornets weren't bad in the third, the Bucks poured in 35 points during those 12 minutes to grab the lead.

The Bees are now back to .500 (22-22), with the Bulls and the Lakers due later this week.

The quick-and-dirty broadcast package put together for the Hornets when they fled New Orleans for higher-and-drier Oklahoma City called for all 82 regular-season games on the radio, with Oklahoma affiliates added to the existing Louisiana/Mississippi network, and 65 games on Cox Sports Network, which, conveniently enough, had been doing the games on New Orleans-area cable. Something similar is no doubt in the works for the 2006-07 season.

If you don't have cable, you go to a sports bar that does, or you listen to the radio. Simple enough. But as King Kaufman points out at Salon.com, the trend is toward fewer options, not more:

Yeah, well, it sucks to be poor. No surprise there. But:

The Hornets, to their credit, have kept prices comparatively low: admittedly, it costs more to be right behind the bench, but it's still possible to get $10 seats, though the average is more like $30-40. And while Oklahoma City's agreement with the team guarantees them a specific return, the city isn't having to write big checks; local fan support has been more than enough to meet the revenue guarantee. (Which, of course, will be a sticking point for 2007-08, when New Orleans expects the team to return, but that's another issue.)

For cities where access to games is becoming limited, Kaufman recommends:

Cox's lowest-end package (Limited Basic), at least in Oklahoma City, does include Cox Sports coverage of the Hornets.

And at least he didn't propose Federal Ticket Stamps.

From NBA.com (and how come it isn't NBA.net?):

Which I, cynical to the last, read as "You have to give us something."

From my New Year's odds:

Like that was difficult.

In their previous game, the Bulls were losing to the Mavericks by 30 points; they only lost by four. So you have to figure that the Hornets' 17-point lead in the second quarter wouldn't hold up, and it didn't; Chicago managed to retake the lead with three minutes left. But the Bees, in Sean Kelley's phrase, hit the switch at the right time, winning 100-95.

Now this is dedication: Aaron Williams, just acquired from Toronto, arrived at the Ford at 6:15, less than an hour before tipoff, and suited up. What's more, Byron Scott put him in four minutes into the game. (And the sellout crowd gave Williams a standing ovation when he set foot on the court, which had to be gratifying for everyone; he responded with 8 points, matching his season high, five boards, and two blocked shots. And five fouls, but you can't have everything.)

Incidentally, Williams is wearing the same number — 34 — that he wore for the Raptors; I have no idea what number Steven Hunter, due in from Philadelphia shortly, will be wearing, since Rasual Butler already wears 45.

Five Bees in double figures tonight; Chris Paul knocked down 25 and 13 assists.

There's still the question of what the Hornets, now 23-22, will do with Kobe and the Lakers this weekend — but that will be answered soon enough.

(Addendum: Brian Hanley of the Chicago Sun-Times heads his writeup: "Hornets cast a Paul on road trip." And Hunter's been assigned number 31.)

Some day we may be worrying about this:

Someone thought to ask the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James what he thought of this, and he said:

And you know, at five-foot-nine, she's not much shorter than Speedy Claxton.

Philadelphia 76ers center Steven Hunter, traded to the Hornets this week, apparently flunked his physical, putting that transaction on hold and ensuring that Hunter won't suit up for the Hornets/Lakers game tonight.

Sixers president/GM Billy King says he hopes to have the matter resolved over the weekend.

Everybody talks about Kobe Bryant's bazillions of points, but it's almost just as important to the Lakers that he's second on the team in assists, and with Lamar Odom out, it fell to Kobe to feed the rest of the offense. And he certainly didn't hog the spotlight. (Well, there was that hissy fit in the third quarter that got him a technical, but he got over it.) But four minutes into the fourth, Phil Jackson pitched a fit (and got a T of his own), and pulled his starters in disgust. He thought better of it after four minutes more, but it didn't matter by then: the Hornets, who shot almost 57 percent from the floor, sent the Lakers on their way, 106-90.

Attendance was reported as 19,344, 181 over capacity. Chris Paul pulled yet another double-double — 19 points, 13 assists — and five other Hornets pulled down double figures. Rasual Butler hammered it home with a trey (he was 3 for 3 beyond the arc) with six seconds left; Desmond Mason started out strong and finished with 21 points.

Oh, and Kobe? 35 points and 5 assists. Good numbers, but this time they weren't good enough.

The Bees, now 24-22 and seventh in the Western Conference, next head for New Jersey; they'll be back at the Ford at midweek to meet the Sonics, and later the Knicks.

New Jersey had won ten straight at the Meadowlands, and they weren't about to let the Hornets break that string, so when the Bees took a 12-point lead at the half, the Nets poured on the pressure in the third quarter, and iced it midway through the fourth when the Hornets' offense went cold; even a pair of patented Rasual Butler treys couldn't salvage matters, and the Nets got their 11th in a row, 99-91. ("An industrial-strength tail-kicking," quipped Russ Eisenstein about that second half.)

It was the Bees' bench that provided most of the scoring: Speedy Claxton got 23, and Rasual Butler pulled down 18. Even J. R. Smith and Bostjan Nachbar were seen; Nachbar got a board and a dime, and J. R. hit both his shots, one a trey.

Fortunately, as road trips go, this is a short one: one game. The Hornets return to the Ford Wednesday to meet the Sonics.

Marty Burns' NBA Notebook at SI.com reveals that the Players' Association is fighting the dismissal of Hornets forward Chris "Birdman" Andersen, who was suspended from the league in January for reasons which went unstated but whose penalty was consistent with severe violations of the NBA's drug policy.

The case will go to arbitration in New York Friday before Calvin Sharpe, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Notes Burns:

That should about cover it.

Senate Bill 1022, by Mike Morgan and Todd Hiett (as heavyweight authorship goes, you can't get much heavier), adds one new sales tax exemption to the 50 already in existence:

Which, of course, applies to the Hornets: this was part of the package deal that brought the Bees to OKC, but the legislature was out of session at the time.

(Full text here, in Rich Text Format.)

Yours truly, engaging in some guesswork a couple months ago:

Stern, I suspect, has modified his position somewhat, if only because he's figured out that sending the Hornets back to New Orleans is going to cost a lot more money than any conceivable buyout. He's not crazy enough to say so, though.

With that in mind:

Number of NBA seasons, 2005 through 2015, in which there will be no team in Oklahoma City: 0.

Update, 10 February: Bennett and Oklahoma Professional Sports LLC, the ad hoc business consortium that backed Oklahoma City's bid to host the Hornets from 2005 through 2007, have set up a corporation to seek an NBA franchise for the city, be it the Hornets if they stay, or another team should they go. Meanwhile in Seattle, Schultz is making noises about selling out.

How can you buzz when you're slow? Chris Paul got knocked out of the game in the second quarter with bruises to the ribs; Speedy Claxton suffered a mild concussion after only thirty seconds in. The remaining Bees were game, and did their best to slow down Seattle's scoring machine, led by 34 points from Rashard Lewis, who got five treys in the fourth quarter — and to the delight of the Ford Center crowd of 18,807, somehow it worked: Hornets 109, Sonics 102.

Once again, five Hornets in double figures. David West got the double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds; so did Kirk Snyder, with 16 points and 12 assists. And P. J. Brown came this close: 21 points, 9 rebounds. But the Big Shot was yet another patented Rasual Butler trey which broke a 102-102 tie with 15 seconds left: P. J. and Desmond Mason drew Seattle fouls and calmly dropped two free throws each to ice it. (Mason had 15 points; Butler had 14; the resurgent Bostjan Nachbar played seven minutes, scored 4 and got 3 boards.)

What happens between now and Friday when the Knicks come to town is anyone's guess. We now know that Steven Hunter won't be here: the deal has been called off. And I'd bet that CP3 will be back; after all, he tried to start the third quarter tonight before discovering that he wasn't quite up to it.

So what's it like when Speedy Claxton starts? It's different, to be sure; with Chris Paul sidelined, the Hornets had to work yet another variation on their offense, and it didn't really start working until midway through the second quarter, at which point Slovenia's favorite son, Bostjan Nachbar, went on an 11-point rampage to finish off the half and cut the New York lead from 10 to 2; the Bees gradually pulled away in the third and after a couple of anxious moments in the fourth, put the Knicks away, 111-100.

Both sides had balanced attacks: the Knicks had seven players in double figures, the Hornets five. Two Hornets pulled double-doubles: David West (21 points/10 rebounds) and Speedy Claxton (18 points/11 assists).

The Bees are now 26-23; another one-shot out of town tomorrow night, against the Timberwolves, and back to the Ford to meet the Wizards on Monday.

The Hornets blew hot and cold at the Target Center: after fighting back from a 14-point deficit halfway through the second quarter to an 11-point lead late in the third to five points behind midway through the fourth, they finally put Minnesota away, 100-94.

Not that the T-Wolves were any more consistent, but they owned the boards, and it's hard to argue with Kevin Garnett, who snagged 21 of those boards along with 19 points before descending into visible bitterness in the last couple of minutes.

All five starting Bees got double figures: Speedy Claxton got 28, within one of his career high, and Kirk Snyder got 28, six more than his.

The Hornets have Sunday off. The Wizards come to the Ford Center on Monday, followed by the TrailBlazers on Wednesday.

The Hornets were down 17 at the half, down 19 early in the third quarter, and refused to lie down and die; a David West shot with 0.2 second left won it.

(I wrote four different versions of the opening paragraph in the last minute and a half: that's how wild this game was.)

Let it be said that Gilbert Arenas was incredible — he got 43 points — and that Washington played as hard as it's possible to play. And yet: Hornets 97, Wizards 96.

West got 19 points; all five starting Bees hit double figures, and Speedy Claxton, starting at point guard again while Chris Paul recuperates, got the double-double with 16 points and 10 assists.

And the new number-three point guard, Moochie Norris, just arrived from the Rockets in a swap for Maciej Lampe and "cash considerations," suited up and put in six minutes: he picked up a trey, a rebound, and an assist.

The last game before the All-Star break is Wednesday, against Portland. The Bees are now 28-23 overall and 16-6 since the first of the year.

There seemed to be an awful lot of "Hey, we get six days off!" floating around the woodwork at the Ford Center; the play on both sides was a little bit less than inspired, but the Hornets never trailed the Blazers and finally chalked up the 29th W of the season, 102-86.

The return of Chris Paul was relatively placid: he scored only one free throw, but pulled down five boards and served up seven assists before exiting in the third quarter with the wind knocked out of him. Jackson Vroman disappeared early with a twisted ankle and did not return. But all twelve Bees on the active list (meaning everyone other than Brandon Bass and Arvydas Macijauskas) scored, and half of them scored in double figures; Aaron Williams got 14, his season high, and Kirk Snyder led all scorers with 22.

The Hornets got their fifth straight win, their 9th in the last 10. The season resumes next Tuesday with a road trip to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers.

The Hornets kept within striking distance of Indiana for the first twenty-four minutes, but the Pacers held the Bees to 17 points in the third quarter (and 15 in the fourth) and won it going away, 97-75.

Both teams were missing key players — Jermaine O'Neal was inactive for the Pacers, and David West was away from the Bees — but Indiana, with five players in double figures, was able to shrug off O'Neal's absence. Chris Paul had a welcome return to form with 27 points, hitting 8 of 15 including three treys, but the rest of the team shot a miserable 29 percent.

In the fourth quarter, the benches were emptied, and all the Hornets (except J. R. Smith, who was bumped to inactive) got at least six minutes of playing time; neither Jackson Vroman (who started in place of West) nor Brandon Bass scored, but each hauled down three boards.

Macas Watch: Arvydas Macijauskas played nine and a half minutes, scored four points and pulled off a steal.

Tomorrow the Jazz come to the Ford Center; Saturday the Bees fly to Salt Lake City to play the same Jazz.

And the Jazz, after a pathetic 12-point first quarter, demonstrated that they were, if not all that, certainly most of that, coming back to dispatch the depleted Hornets, 82-76.

Come to think of it, depleted doesn't even begin to describe things: Speedy Claxton was out with a sprain; Jackson Vroman, starting in place of David West, broke his forearm on a two-handed dunk in the third quarter; a minute or so later, Desmond Mason retreated to the locker room with a bruised tailbone.

Bright spots: Aaron Williams pulled down 13 boards, his season high, and Bostjan Nachbar dropped in three treys and two from the line for 11 points, one short of his season high.

Still, there's not so much depth in the ol' depth chart, and there's only one more day of trading.

The Bees start a four-game West Coast trip with a rematch with the Jazz on Saturday, followed by the Blazers, the Sonics and the Clippers. Under the circumstances, they should consider none of these games easy wins.

Well, here's a surprise: the Hornets are swapping Bostjan Nachbar to the New Jersey Nets for center Marc Jackson and forward Linton Johnson, a deal presumably at least partially motivated by the Nets' desire to clear some salary-cap space, and one which addresses the Bees' most immediate need: another big man in the middle.

Nachbar, injured in the fall, has been fighting his way back to the second string; he played 25 minutes in last night's debacle with the Jazz, and was the only Hornet to hit anything from beyond the arc.

Johnson will presumably slot in behind Rasual Butler in the small-forward position; Jackson will back up P. J. Brown at center, replacing Jackson Vroman, who is out for the season with a broken wrist.

On second thought, don't; in that game, the Hornets led for three quarters and fell to the Jazz in the fourth. And it almost happened again tonight, but the Bees held on and dropped four clutch free throws in the waning seconds to win it, 100-95.

David West was back, and delivered 20 points and 8 rebounds; Chris Paul picked up 23 points and served up 8 assists. And the two new guys not only got minutes, they got results: backup center Marc Jackson scored 4 points and snagged 4 boards, and third-string forward Linton Jo