Arvydas Macijauskas, who spent most of last season on the Hornets' bench and was cut loose this spring to sign with the Euroleague's Olympiacos basketball operation, has torn his Achilles' tendon in an exhibition game with Skafati, and will be out for two to three months, maybe more.

Macas, who earned $2.5 million a year in the NBA, is being paid €9 million (about $11.4 million) over his four-year contract with Olympiacos.

Maciej Lampe, nailed to the Hornets' bench for part of last season, then traded to Houston, where he was promptly epoxied to the Rockets' bench, will apparently get some serious minutes this season:

Lampe played two years in Spain before signing with the NBA in 2003.

Odds are pretty good that Oklahoma City will eventually get an NBA team on a permanent (in the NBA sense of the word, which translates to "so long as the money's good") basis. It probably won't be the Hornets; it might be, but doesn't have to be, the Sonics.

And it won't be the Magic:

Team president Bob Vander Weide says this will keep the Magic in Mouseburg for the next 25 years.

Meanwhile, a new arena deal has been reached in Sacramento, though it's contingent on voter approval of a new quarter-cent sales-tax, and that approval may be difficult to come by.

Still theoretically in a moving mood: Portland, though the Blazers have a long lease at the Rose Garden yet, and what talk there was this summer had them moving to Seattle to replace the allegedly-departing Sonics.

Update, 1 October: The Grizzlies aren't leaving Memphis any time soon, either; according to the Commercial Appeal, the deal in which Michael Heisley sold his 70 percent of the team will not change the existing contract between the Griz and Memphis/Shelby County, which provides that the team must stay put for ten years — this season will be year 6 — and prescribes penalties if they leave after that. (To avoid the Commercial Appeal's registration, read this at HoopsHype for the first of October.)

After all, it's a preseason game, and the first preseason game at that.

Still: Hornets 84, Mavericks 81, and as we all know, the Bees never beat Dallas.

At one point in the third quarter, the Hornets and the Magic were tied, 66-all.

The fact that Orlando won it 100-85 should tell you what happened after that.

Yes, I know: still preseason. Six more of them to come.

Gerry V., during the fourth quarter, recounted a conversation he'd had earlier with Coach Byron Scott:

V.:  See that? The rookie [apparently Marcus Vinicius Vieria de Souza] is putting mayonnaise on pizza.

Scott:  Oh, that's never going to work on this team.

Oh, by the way, there was a basketball game of sorts. Heat 109, Hornets 105.

Too tall for the usual hotel bedding? The Colcord will be offering this:

And if that's not enough for you:

(Noted by Hornets247.com.)

And it would help immensely if the Bees could, you know, shoot. (Actually, they didn't shoot that badly, but they fouled a lot: three of them fouled out, something I've never seen before.)

Anyway, this is sort of a tournament: Hornets/Warriors, followed by Clippers/Lakers. Tomorrow night, the Bees will play whoever loses that second game, having dropped the first one, 112-103.

The Lakers lost in the first round of the Shootout to the Clippers; they took it out on the Hornets in the losers' bracket, 113-106. So far in four exhibitions, the Bees have shown occasional offense and sporadic defense; if this team has any playoff aspirations, it's going to have to tighten up at both ends. The talent, I think, is there.

Five losses in six preseason games, that is: in an exhibition in Reno, the Kings put the hurt on the Hornets, 117-93, as once again the Bees showed sporadic signs of brilliance but couldn't put together one whole quarter.

One more to go, and again it's against the Kings — in Sacramento on Tuesday. Season opener is on the first of November in Boston.

Brian Robinson's take in Hoopsworld:

It's still not known whether the Clay Bennett group will replace the lot, integrate its own people, or stick with the existing crew, but morale seems to be up:

Of course, the most basic question is still up in the air, and will remain there for a while, but I'm hoping that Bennett and company keep in mind the fact that what they bought is a Seattle operation, and that hauling it halfway across the country should be the last resort, not one of the first ones.

The Hornets were maddeningly inconsistent through their first six preseason games, at least partly due to the fact that you never saw the starting five on the court all at once. Last night in Sacramento started out just as weirdly despite the presence of all the starters, but down 79-70 with five minutes left, the Bees put together a 14-2 run to stun the Kings, 84-81. Still, if they'd been able to do that for the first three quarters, they'd never have been down nine with five minutes left.

So a lot of questions remain unanswered. One thing is for sure, though: if this team is going to win the 45 or 50 games it's going to take to make it into the playoffs, they're going to have to be really good for more than five minutes a game.

Regular season starts next week in Boston.

The Hornets have pared their roster by two: guards Scooter McFadgon and Luis Flores, both free agents invited to the Bees' training camp, have been waived. Both got some play time, and I got to marvel at the pronunciation of "McFadgon." (Pretend there's no G.)

Meanwhile, backup center Marc Jackson is still out with a strained hamstring and will miss the season opener at Boston. So far this year, Jackson has logged zero minutes.

Then again, I had a good excuse: dinner date. We hit the Elephant Bar east of Penn Square. No political implications, and the food was pretty decent: I had the misoyaki pork loin, she had something called the Shrimp Adventure Platter. I never thought of shrimp having adventures, but maybe that's just me.

Meanwhile, the Hornets began the regular season with a W: 91-87 over the Celtics in Boston, and from a cursory look at the box score, I have to assume that it wasn't pretty. Still, it's a win, and I'll take it.

I am now prepared to argue that the Hornets have learned to play defense. The Bees picked up a startling 53 rebounds, led by Tyson Chandler with 15. (And after fouling out in the first game, Chandler was cooler tonight, getting called only twice.) And there was offense: five Hornets in double figures. There was just the faintest hint of Third-Quarter Drought™, but a 12-2 run at the beginning of the fourth put the Hornets back in front to stay, spoiling the Pacers' opening night in Indianapolis, 100-91.

Thirty-nine of those 100 points (and 19 of those boards) came from the bench, another indication that maybe this team actually has depth. And since Peja isn't hitting the 3-ball — he's 2-9 so far this year — it's a good thing that Rasual Butler can still drain the occasional trey. (He had two tonight in the fourth quarter.)

And there's this: against the Celtics last year, the Bees were 0-2; against the Pacers, 0-2. Personnel changes or no, I have to believe that there was some sense of payback out there. Moreover, last year's Hornets won only 14 road games all season. Getting two early has to be gratifying.

Having ruined opening night for two teams now, the Hornets will have two opening nights of their own: Sunday in New Orleans against the Rockets, and Tuesday at the Ford Center against the Warriors.

The revamped Houston Rockets are way better than they were last season, and the Hornets found that out early, falling behind in the first quarter, fighting back with a 16-2 run, and watching an 11-point lead evaporate in the second. But the Bees once again showed some serious D, and David West sank two free throws in the last five seconds to ice it, 96-90.

Chris Paul managed a double-double in the first half, scoring 10 and dishing 10 in 18 minutes; he wound up with 16 assists, tying a career high. Tyson Chandler swept 11 boards, and David West dropped in 22 points, raising his season average to an even 20. And Peja's mojo put in an appearance: Stojakovic hit five of eight treys. In fact, the Hornets shot better from beyond the arc (9 of 16, 56.3 percent) than from inside (33 of 70, 47.1 percent).

The Bees still can't hit consistently from the charity stripe: they improved markedly in the fourth quarter, yet still wound up at 60 percent. This is, notes Russ Eisenstein of the radio crew, only the second time the Hornets have started a season 3-0; they've never started 4-0. Will history be made this week? The Warriors will be coming to the Ford Center Tuesday, and it's probably not too much to hope that the Mavericks will thrash them the night before.

Well, the Mavericks didn't dispatch the Warriors last night as anticipated, and Golden State wasn't even tired when they showed up at the Ford Center: the Hornets opened up leads as wide as 15, but still found themselves behind by 1 with five minutes left. It's probably a good thing I missed this game; I don't know if my old heart could take this sort of thing. The Bees prevailed, 97-93, and it was a lot closer than that sounds.

Issues: the Third-Quarter Drought™ persists; the bench wasn't quite as effective this time around. The starters, though, shone, with all five in double figures and three pulling down double-doubles: Chris Paul dropped 22 and dished up 11 assists; David West picked up 16 points and 11 rebounds; Tyson Chandler scored 10 and grabbed 14 boards.

And who would have figured that one week into the season, there'd be only two undefeated teams — and the Hornets would be one of them? Not me.

Thursday, it's a rematch, and this time it's on Golden State's court.

"What cruelty is this?" I thought. "A West Coast game on a school night?" So I cranked up the radio, made it through the first quarter, noted with dismay that somehow the Hornets had managed to duplicate their infamous Third-Quarter Drought™ halfway through the second quarter, and pulled a blanket over my head.

As it turns out, it was just as well; the Bees were indeed outscored in both the second and third, and a late rally fell short as Golden State got its revenge for Tuesday night at the Ford. Final: Warriors 121, Hornets 116.

You might expect from those numbers that there was a lot of shooting, and there was: both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor, and 3-balls filled the air. The Warriors knocked down thirteen of them, four by Mickael Pietrus alone. But the big story was ex-Hornet guard Baron Davis versus current Hornet guard Chris Paul, and the two of them put on quite a show: by the time I drifted away, both of them were in double digits and running at top speed. Davis wound up with 36 points and dished up 9 assists; Paul scored 34 (a career high) with ten dimes.

All the Hornet starters scored double figures except Tyson Chandler, and he got 11 boards; Bobby Jackson added 12 off the bench. David West, still hovering around the 20-per-game mark, picked up 21. But ultimately what sealed the Bees' doom, it appears, was the dreaded turnover: 19 of them, while the Warriors gave up only ten.

Still, 4-1 is probably a game or two better than anyone expected at this point. The West Coast action continues at Portland tonight, where the Blazers aren't anywhere nearly as hapless as they were last year.

The Hornets were feeling pretty good in Portland. They were up a startling 38-13 after the first quarter, and Zack Randolph hadn't even made a shot yet.

Then things started to unravel. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Bees were up by four, 71-67, and even that lead wouldn't last. Tyson Chandler was gone — ejected in the third quarter after a particularly exasperating T — and Randolph owned the court. With four seconds left, Peja dropped a trey to tie it at 91, and with two seconds left, David West fouled out and sent Randolph to the line. Zack missed one of the two free throws, but it didn't matter: the Blazers won it, 92-91.

Randolph wound up with 31 points and 12 rebounds, all in the last 30 minutes of the game. None of the Hornets came close, though Desmond Mason and Peja Stojakovic were hovering around the 20-point mark and Bobby Jackson, the one bright spot on the bench the last couple of games, tossed in 15. David West, rebounding in Chandler's absence, pulled down a dozen boards to go with his 17 points.

Now off to Los Angeles, for a rare afternoon game against the Clippers on Sunday. The Hornets will return to the Ford Center on Tuesday to play Charlotte.

Hornets power forward David West, on the parsimony of backup Brandon Bass:

Bass will earn $664,209 this season (the league minimum for a second-year player), up from $398,762 last year.

Three games on the West Coast, three losses. It's not like this has never happened before, but still it stings a bit.

The Hornets played better against the Clippers, but not well enough to win. No Third-Quarter Drought™ this time — the Bees actually outscored L.A. in the third, 22-15, to pull within four — but a truly craptacular fourth quarter (only twelve points) assured the Clippers of a near-blowout victory, 92-76.

And when they weren't missing shots, the Hornets were losing the ball; they had ten turnovers in the first quarter and 23 overall. They still can't hit free throws, missing seven of 19. And of 13 3-balls, only two found their way through the net. The Clippers, meanwhile, presented a reasonably-balanced attack, and while they didn't shoot especially well, they got lots of second and even third looks.

Numbers: Chris Paul got 20 points (and five fouls); Bobby Jackson had twelve; the rest were 11 or less. (Cedric Simmons, off the bench, pulled down 8, a record for the rookie.) Tyson Chandler was effective on the boards, pulling down 13 rebounds and scoring 8. The only double-double to be seen, though, belonged to L.A.'s Elton Brand, who scored 22 points and got 10 rebounds.

The Bobcats will come to the Ford Center Tuesday, and then two more road games: Wednesday at Detroit, then Saturday at Minnesota.

Clay Bennett and friends have been consistent in their insistence that their first priority is finding a place in or around Seattle for the Sonics and the Storm.

But maybe not consistent enough. Buried at the very bottom of this Seattle Times report is an indication that Bennett may have tipped his hand a trifle too soon:

Emphasis added.

Not so well played, guys.

David West is sidelined for a couple of games, and while losing your leading scorer always hurts, five minutes and 43 seconds into the game, the score was Peja Stojakovic 20, Charlotte Bobcats 17. Seriously. Peja knocked down the Hornets' first twenty points, and wound up with 22 for the first quarter, a team record. Despite this, the quarter ended deadlocked at 34, and the Bees couldn't open up a big lead: it was 55-52 at the half, and the Bobcats stayed close until the last couple of minutes, when the Hornets pulled away for a 94-85 win.

And it's a good thing Peja was showing those mad skillz — 42 points, a career high, and six boards — because the rest of the starters (Brandon Bass started in West's slot) weren't scoring much, though Chris Paul dished up ten assists and Tyson Chandler, before departing with two minutes left after taking an elbow to the jaw, had 15 rebounds. The Hornets' bench, a relatively quiet place the last few games, made some serious noise, pulling down 38 points: in fact, besides Peja, the only Hornets in double figures were Bobby Jackson (14) and Jannero Pargo (10).

The Bobcats were no slouches: Emeka Okafor snagged 25 points and pulled 16 boards; Sean May, off the bench, scored 18 and got 12 rebounds; rookie sensation Adam Morrison scored 21 for the second time in his brief career.

West won't make tomorrow's game at Detroit; Chandler, who suffered a mild concussion, is doubtful. The Bees are now 5-3.

The Hornets hadn't beaten the Pistons since the spring of '04 (an 82-81 squeaker in New Orleans), and you do not want to enter the Palace at Auburn Hills missing your leading scorer (David West) and your leading rebounder (Tyson Chandler).

But apparently being missing two starters concentrates the mind wonderfully. Seemingly Inexplicably, Chandler's spot was filled by rookie Hilton Armstrong, who had played a total of four minutes so far. And Armstrong, by gum, won this one; not only did he lead the team with nine rebounds, he sank the first of two free throws in the waning seconds, his 17th point of the night, and when he missed the second, he jumped up and tipped the ball out to Chris Paul, and the Hornets escaped with a 100-99 win.

Let us also say kind things about Brandon Bass, who in his second start in West's power-forward slot this season, scored 12 points, snagged seven boards, and blocked a shot. The Bees' bench did their share, picking up 33 points. Peja? Not a record-breaker tonight, but 14 points. And Chris Paul, who had an off-night last night, dropped in 20 points and provided 13 assists.

The deadly Detroit guards, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, lived up to their reputations, scoring 52 between them, but this time it wasn't quite enough.

This brief road trip concludes Saturday at Minnesota; the Hornets return to the Ford Center Tuesday to host the Miami Heat.

And I mean it. With 24 seconds left, the Hornets led the Timberwolves 94-93, and Minnesota tried their darnedest to get a shot. The Bees thought otherwise, and the Wolves fouled Chris Paul during the stop. Paul hit two from the charity stripe, and the Hornets were up by three. Minnesota, with three seconds left, answered with a Mike James trey, to tie it at 96. The Wolves, expecting a drive to the rim, zealously guarded the basket; Peja Stojakovic fired a 3-pointer from far away, putting the Bees up 99-96, and that's how it ended.

In fact, there were lots of 3-balls tonight: the Wolves made 5 of 14 — Troy Hudson, who scored 20 off the Minnesota bench, got four of them — and the Hornets sank 4 out of 10. The Wolves outrebounded the Bees, 50-37, but what killed them was the dynamic duo of CP3 and Peja, who took control of matters halfway through the fourth. Stojakovic wound up with 20 points; Paul hit 12 of 18 from the floor, including a trey, and 10 of 11 from the line for a personal-best 35 points. The only other Hornet in double figures was Desmond Mason, who picked up 10 points; rookie Cedric Simmons led the rebounders with 9.

Kevin Garnett still amazes me. He pulled down 22 points tonight, and was seemingly everywhere at once, grabbing 17 boards. Turning 30 obviously hasn't slowed him down in the slightest. I expect him to be a major threat when the Wolves visit the Ford Center next Friday.

Next game in Oklahoma City: Tuesday, against the Shaq-less Miami Heat.

The Delta Center is no more. Oh, the arena is still there in Salt Lake City all right, but now it's the EnergySolutions Arena, and that's the way it's punctuated: Solutions is in italics.

The firm itself, which paid Jazz owner Larry Miller an undisclosed sum for the naming rights for the next ten years, specializes in nuclear-waste processing and disposal. And since the Jazz right now have the best record in the NBA, I'm wondering if maybe they're lining Jerry Sloan's shorts with plutonium.

"If Dwyane Wade's head fell off," said Gerry V, "he could still play."

There were times when I thought rather a lot of heads had been misplaced, what with indifferent shooting on both sides for 36 minutes, the Bees missing half their free throws, and a brief encounter between Alonzo Mourning (replacing Shaquille O'Neal) and Marc Jackson (replacing David West) halfway through the fourth, resulting in both players being ejected. With just under three minutes left, Pat Riley cleared his bench; thirty seconds later, Byron Scott cleared his; and the Hornets got a fairly unattractive win, but still a win, 101-86.

What actually worked tonight: Dwyane Wade, who scored 29 points; the Hornets' bench, who ran a four-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter to 15 points; the ever-reliable Chris Paul, with another double-double (11 points, 10 assists); Tyson Chandler, who pulled down 18 boards; Bobby Jackson, who picked up three treys, one more than he'd had in the preceding ten games combined.

What didn't work: the Hornets still can't make free throws. In fact, the Bees were better from beyond the arc (58 percent) than from the line (50 percent).

Despite that, they're 8-3, and facing the Suns in Phoenix tomorrow.

Byron Scott tweaked the starting lineup tonight: second-string point guard Bobby Jackson started at shooting guard, Peja Stojakovic moved to small forward, and Desmond Mason shifted to power forward. It didn't make a whole lot of difference in the first half, with Phoenix jumping out to a 51-46 lead, and just to make it uninteresting, the Hornets revived the old and unlamented Third-Quarter Drought™, scoring a meager thirteen. Thirteen is also the number of treys they attempted before hitting one.

The Bees remembered they had a defense in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough to make up for an evening of fairly lousy shooting, and the Suns won it, 92-83, dropping the Hornets to 8-4.

The bench wasn't much help tonight, contributing only 8 points, six of which came from Jannero Pargo. The starters, however, performed respectably, with both D-Mase and Peja scoring 21 and Chris Paul adding 19; Tyson Chandler swept away 16 rebounds. Top honors, though, go to Steve Nash: the Phoenix point guard dropped in 24 points.

Friday, it's back at the Ford, for a rematch with the Timberwolves.

The Seattle SuperSonics of Bellevue? Art Thiel of the Post-Intelligencer figures the next step is this:

Amazon and Boeing I could believe, just maybe, but if Microsoft had an NBA team:

• New version of the National Anthem, complete with DRM and DMCA protection.

• Upgrading your season tickets would cost more than having bought season tickets in the better location in the first place.

• Four words: Blue Scoreboard of Death.

• After two years, the valve on the ball would mysteriously no longer accept the inflation needle.

• The team jet would crash on every other road trip and no one would say a word.
  

Still, if we're going to hang a corporate name on the Sonics, the perfect one is — dare I say it? — in Oklahoma City.

Well, the Hornets worked on their free throws, but they couldn't hit from the floor, and the Timberwolves, with payback for last week on their minds, dealt the Bees an 86-79 loss.

The Big Ticket loomed as big as ever — Kevin Garnett got the game's only double-double, with 18 points and 16 boards — and Ricky Davis dropped in 23 as the Wolves shot 48 percent.

Meanwhile, the Hornets couldn't beg for a basket: they shot 33 percent. CP3 managed 18 points; both Bobby Jackson and Jannero Pargo scored 13 off the bench; Peja had a major off-night, hitting 3 of 15 for 8 points, though he swept 9 boards; Tyson cleared 10 rebounds. (Then again, they missed only 4 of 26 free throws, way better than they've been doing.)

All of this wouldn't be so bad except that the Hornets have to go to Dallas tomorrow, and the last time they beat the Mavericks in the regular season, the year started with a 1.

The Mavericks definitely had their way with the Hornets, and there's no other way to describe it: it was a blowout from the first jump. The first quarter started with a 21-3 Dallas run and ended with Dallas up 35-16; the Hornets actually outscored the Mavs in the second, 20-16, but in the third Bobby Jackson drew a foul, questioned the call, drew a technical, questioned the technical, drew a second technical and was sent to the showers, and it took three Bees to get him off the court. (At this writing, it is not clear whether Jackson would be suspended.) At the end of the third, it was 70-53 Dallas.

Things got worse. David West and Peja Stojakovic were already out with injuries; with Jackson ejected and the fourth quarter starting badly — Linton Johnson picked up a T — Byron Scott threw up his hands in despair and put rookie Marcus Vinicius, who had played zero minutes this season, into the game. (Marquinhos got one rebound and three fouls, but did not score.) It didn't even matter that Dallas didn't hit a single field goal for the first half of the quarter, and that the Bees finished with an 8-0 run. The Mavericks let the dance team play, or something, and won it 85-73, their ninth straight win after opening with four losses.

"Dallas," said Sean Kelley, "will want to burn this game tape. The Hornets will find many uses for it." The major use will be "See this? Don't do this." The bench scored 34 points, though this was due mostly to the fecklessness of the starters; of those 34, Jannero Pargo accounted for 19. Bobby Jackson, before The Incident, had scored 10; he'd also missed five of six free throws. Desmond Mason, Hilton Armstrong and Tyson Chandler picked up eight rebounds each. The Mavericks were led as usual by Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 28 and got 9 boards.

There's a definite pattern here: win four, lose three, win four, lose three. If this holds up, the Bees should trounce the Raptors and the Bulls at the Ford Center next week, and then beat the Lakers and the Sonics on the road the following week. I wouldn't risk the mortgage payment on it, though.

Which, as Al Sleet, your hippy-dippy weatherman, will note, is not to be confused with a Mexican high.

We're still Peja-less and West-deprived, and tonight Byron Scott tapped Rasual Butler to fill in for the Mad Serb. No doubt Scott pointed out that the Raptors were only one game out of first place, carefully not mentioning that first place in the Atlantic before tonight required only a 5-8 record.

Didn't matter. Toronto played it close when they had to, and then opened it up when they didn't. The ever-unpopular Third-Quarter Drought™ turned a four-point halftime deficit into a thirteen-point hole in a mere twelve minutes, and things actually deteriorated after that. Final: Raptors 94, Hornets 77.

Andrea Bargnani, the Raptors' hotly-hyped rookie, justified the hype. Okay, he did pull four fouls, but he scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

On the upside, Marcus Vinicius took his first shot — a trey — and sank it. Not much of an upside, but we'll take what we can get. Tyson Chandler is earning his keep as a rebounder: he got 17 boards. And Chris Paul did manage a double-double (16 points, 11 assists). But 40-percent shooting wins no games against a fast-break team like Toronto. "A regular industrial-strength tail-kicking," said the ever-polite Russ Eisenstein.

No game until Saturday Friday, when the Bulls come to town, but a scary road trip starts next Wednesday, and it's followed by a scary homestand.

If they'd played 49 minutes, they'd have won it. Unfortunately, the game runs 48. The Hornets were down 18 halfway through the third, and responded with an actual offensive show, which no one expected in the absence of Peja and D. West and Bobby Jackson, whittling that Chicago lead away, but they never got closer than two, and the Bulls finished on top, 111-108.

Did I mention offense? Rasual Butler dropped in 33 points, a new career high, including seven 3-balls. Chris Paul got his third triple-double: 25 points, 18 assists, 11 rebounds. Marc Jackson, playing both forward and center at times, scored 15; Jannero Pargo scored 18 off the bench. But the real killer, if you ask me, was whoever spooks the guys at the charity stripe: the Bees took 40 free throws and missed 13 of them.

The Bulls weren't any better at the line, but they got even more treys: 12, five of which were hit by Andres Nocioni, who scored 31 points and pulled down 13 boards. In the Battle of the Swapped Centers, P. J. Brown outscored Tyson Chandler, 3 to 2, but Chandler ruled the backboards, hauling down 11 rebounds to Brown's three.

At least we know this team can score without the big guns. And they'll need to, since they're going back on the road for another one of those killer West Coast trips.

The Oklahoman's Darnell Mayberry predicted that the Hornets would go 0-3 on this road trip; the team was not happy to hear it, and said so.

Mayberry was philosophical:

Cut that man a check. The Bees stayed close to the Lakers throughout the first three quarters last night and then pulled away in the fourth to score a 105-89 win. Chris Paul led all scorers (yes, even Kobe) with 26; Rasual Butler and Jannero Pargo came up with timely treys and scored 22 and 21 respectively. CP3 and Desmond Mason put together double-doubles, and Tyson Chandler, as usual, led all rebounders with 12.

It is a measure of the sheer awesomeness of Kobe that in a game where he estimated he was maybe 50 percent at best — he'd sprained his ankle Monday against Indiana, but thought he was ready to play — he still pulled down 24. And Bryant had kind words for Paul: "I love his game."

Busy weekend coming: at Seattle on Friday, then Golden State on Saturday. Let's hope the Bees are still pissed at Darnell.

Update, 9:35 am: Hmmm. The Oklahoman story on the game was written by ... John Rohde?

In 1999, the then-hapless Los Angeles Clippers scored three points in the second quarter in a game against the Lakers, the second-worst quarter in the history of the NBA. Halfway through the second at Seattle, the Hornets had scored only two. The Bees recovered somewhat in the next six minutes with 13 more points, but they were down 49-33 at the half. In the third, the Sonics faltered, and the Hornets came back to within three, but a 12-point fourth quarter doesn't beat anyone: Seattle takes this one, 94-74, despite the absence of Ray Allen.

Not a whole lot good happened for the Hornets. Only two players scored in double figures: Chris Paul had 16 points, Desmond Mason 10. Tyson Chandler did rule the boards, pulling down 13 rebounds. But the real problem was turnovers: everyone who played had at least one, and the final total was a frightening 25.

As for the Sonics, they were erratic without Allen, though Chris Wilcox filled in well. The future of the franchise may seem to be in doubt, but I don't believe that it's been a factor in the team's actual play.

The rubber game of the Bees' road trip is tomorrow night at Golden State. At this point, I'm making no predictions.

Both the Hornets and the Warriors started the night at .500, so it probably wasn't too much of a surprise when the first half ended in a 45-45 tie.

Then Desmond Mason, who had had almost half of those points, didn't appear for the third quarter, and no one knew why. Eventually the story came out: a dental problem, presumably dating from late in the second. But by then the Warriors were on the move, and when Mason returned near the end of the third, Golden State had piled up an eleven-point lead, which would only grow in the fourth. Mason, bottled up, could manage only two more points, Byron Scott threw in the towel at the four-minute mark, and the final was an uninspiring 101-80.

The scary aspect to this was that if you factor out Mason, who hit 10 of 11 from the field, the Bees shot a miserable 34.4 percent. Despite this, Jannero Pargo managed a double-double off the bench — 15 points, 12 rebounds, and even 8 assists — and Rasual Butler picked up 13 points including three treys. But Golden State had five players in double figures, with Mickael Pietrus scoring 22 to lead the Warriors and Andris Biedrins earning the double-double.

The Hornets are now 1-2 against Golden State, with the final game coming next month. Cleveland comes to the Ford Center on Monday, and your guess is as good as mine as to how they'll contain LeBron. Two games follow in New Orleans, against the Spurs and the Mavericks.

Maybe we should just play those stronger teams; we seem to do so much better.

It was close all night: tied at the half, Hornets down only one after the third. But in the fourth, the Bees played D, and played it tenaciously; LeBron James managed no points in the quarter, and the Hornets dropped the Cavaliers, 95-89.

And get this: Byron Scott only played eight, and all three of the bench personnel scored in double figures: Jannero Pargo with 15, Marc Jackson with 14, Hilton Armstrong with 12. Chalk up another double-double for Chris Paul, who scored 30 points and served up 11 dimes; Tyson Chandler got his usual 10 rebounds and blocked four shots; Desmond Mason, who kept King James bottled up all night, got 12 points.

The Cavs played hard — four players, including James, in double digits, and Anderson Varejao bettered his career high with 17 — but tonight, it wasn't quite hard enough. And the memory of that last game with Cleveland, in which LeBron sank the game-winner in the last second, will be allowed to fade away.

The next two games are in the Big Easy: the Spurs on Thursday, the Mavericks on Saturday. After that, Florida beckons.

The Hornets have already indicated that they have no particular interest in soon-to-be-ex-Sixer Allen Iverson, but anything short of Isiah Thomas buying a clue is possible in the NBA, so Hoopsmack examines the ramifications of an Iverson trade from Philadelphia to any other team:

Prediction from this corner: A.I. winds up a Celtic.

Update, 19 December: Which was wrong. The Sixers traded A.I. and rookie forward Ivan McFarlin to Denver for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, and two first-round draft picks.

And the Spurs in their might sought to smite the Hornets, jumping out to an 11-2 lead early on. The Bees, more shorthanded than usual — Tyson Chandler has something that looks like the flu — were not quite daunted, and came back to within five, but the tall Texans had an 11-point lead at the half, running it to 23 points at the end of the third, and after that it didn't matter: Spurs 103, Hornets 77.

Only two Hornets scored in double digits: Rasual Butler, who started at the two, with 17, and Desmond Mason, with 16 and 9 rebounds. Chris Paul, who played the first three quarters, scored only 6 points but served up 12 assists. Manu Ginobili led the Spurs with 24.

Perhaps more interesting than the actual game was Sean Kelley's revelation that TNT analyst Charles Barkley had lost a lot of money at an unspecified card game the night before, and kept playing until he'd won it all back. How much was a lot? "Commas were involved," said Kelley.

What this team needs now is to reclaim some of those starters from the infirmary.

Observation from last month:

In an effort to correct this situation, Chris Paul played the whole 48 minutes tonight, the third time he's done that, but it didn't make much difference: the Bees, down horribly in the first quarter, tied it at the half, but Dallas won it 90-79, the 19th consecutive nervous breakdown the Mavs have inflicted on those lovable insects.

CP3 got some serious numbers: 30 points, 12 rebounds (even more than the returning Tyson Chandler), 8 assists. Rasual Butler knocked down 19 points; Marc Jackson got 13. But the Mavericks owned the boards, 50-38, and Dirk Nowitzki, after a cold spell in the first half, returned with a vengeance in the second, rolling up 20 points and 10 rebounds. Josh Howard added 23.

Remember when this squad was 4-0? Now they're 10-12. Some people need to get well, stat.

Presumably you've already heard the story. (It's hard to conceal things that happen in Madison Square Garden, after all.)

Henry Abbott of True Hoop says it best:

Amen to that. This is a case of Men Behaving Badly, period. And the Commissioner did what he had to do. (I thought of one additional penalty — requiring the Knicks and the Nuggets to use the new-soon-to-be-old ball the next time they play — but they don't meet again this season.)

As the pragmatist here, I note that the Nuggets have five games between today and their visit to the Ford Center on the 29th, which means that Denver will be without both Carmelo Anthony and J. R. Smith. (I was actually looking forward to J. R.'s first tangle with his former teammates.) The Hornets won't be playing the Knicks during the suspension period.

Around the beginning of the fourth quarter, Sean Kelley said that it was going to be the Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade Show thereafter, and he knew whereof he spoke. The Hornets scored a surprising 37 points in the second quarter to take a 63-54 halftime lead; a vestigial Third-Quarter Drought™ enabled the Heat to tie it up briefly; the Bees ran up a 9-point lead in the fourth, only to see Miami go up 98-97 with 50 seconds left. CP3 scored with 18 seconds left to tie it at 99; D-Wade took the inbound, held it as long as he dared, and dropped it through at 0:013, and that's where it ended: Heat 101, Hornets 99, and Wade 29, Paul 26.

The Hornets shot just under .500 from the floor, and even made half their 3-balls (7 of 14, four by Rasual Butler, who had 21 points). Good numbers for a change, but not quite as good as they needed. And only one double-double on the court: Alonzo Mourning, standing in for Shaq, who scored 11 and pulled down 10 boards.

Meanwhile, Peja Stokajovic is recovering from disc surgery yesterday; tomorrow, David West will have arthroscopic surgery on his elbow. No word on Bobby Jackson's rib.

To Mouseburg to play the Magic on Wednesday, then back to the Ford, where the Grizzlies and the Spurs will show up on consecutive nights.

The Hornets missed their first fourteen shots at Orlando tonight. Chris Paul sank a jumper with 2:42 left in the first quarter to break that string, but the quarter ended 26-13, nothing to brag about.

Then Something Happened, and I'm not sure what: at the half it was tied at 41. But here's a possible clue: the starters got 19 of those points, and the bench got 22. The Bees even gained in the third, taking a 68-64 lead. Then the Magic remembered that they had the second-best record in the East and put together a 17-3 run, ultimately winning it 86-83.

Upside: Rasual Butler still can shoot — he sank all four treys he attempted and wound up with 15 points; Jannero Pargo and Marc Jackson picked up 27 points from off the bench; Chris Paul scored 19; Tyson Chandler got 12 boards.

Downside: That 0-14 run at the beginning, and a 15-point fourth quarter; the Hornets missed four free throws in that quarter, which would have been enough to win.

For Orlando, Grant Hill, 34 years old, scored 21 points to lead everyone. Dwight Howard got a double-double: 16 points, 13 rebounds. I didn't watch the TV broadcast, but judging by the radio report, this one wasn't too pretty.

Two games at the Ford this week: Memphis on Friday, San Antonio on Saturday. The Griz might be beatable; the Spurs, well ....

The injury-plagued Hornets are about to find out: they've filled the 15th spot on the roster with guard Devin Brown, who was waived by the Golden State Warriors back in October.

Brown, who hasn't played this year, has four years of league experience; before that, he was the all-time leading scorer at Texas-San Antonio.

Meanwhile, we mourn the loss of Brittanie Montgomery, a member of the Honeybees dance team, who was killed in an auto accident last night.

The big news here was supposed to have been the return of Pau Gasol, and indeed he rolled up 15 points in the first half, though the Hornets squeaked out a 45-40 lead. In the third, though, the Grizzlies found another weapon: the 3-ball, which they wielded with wild abandon, outscoring the Bees 30-20 in the quarter. With barely a minute left, it was tied; Tyson Chandler, who had wangled 17 rebounds, fouled out; Marc Jackson got a clutch rebound, Chris Paul dropped it through at the 0:06 mark, but Gasol answered at 0:009, and lo, there was a 90-90 tie and overtime.

And then Gasol, having amassed 28 points, left the floor halfway through the overtime and clambered into his warmups — the Grizzlies, inexplicably, decided to pull him lest he reinjure himself — and the Hornets finished them off, 100-97.

The new kid got some minutes: Devin Brown missed four shots, but did snag a rebound. And six Hornets scored in double figures, with three double-doubles in the mix: Marc Jackson, off the bench, got 19 points (a season high) and 10 rebounds; Desmond Mason had 17 and 12 boards; Chris Paul scored 15 and dropped 12 dimes. Hilton Armstrong, starting at power forward, had a good night with 14 points.

But what gave the Hornets fits were all those Memphis 3-balls — ten of 'em, four by Mike Miller. The Grizzlies were also way better at the charity stripe, missing only four of them. (The Bees bobbled nine.)

With San Antonio losing to Houston tonight, the Spurs should be in a foul mood tomorrow.

Rather a lot of them, actually; San Antonio shot an amazing/appalling 62.9 percent from the floor and dispatched the Hornets, 112-77, though the Bees actually outrebounded the Spurs, 40-32.

It didn't start out badly — the Hornets were up 12-9 four and a half minutes in — but it was all San Antonio the rest of the quarter, ending with the Spurs up 30-20. The Bees rattled off eight consecutive points to start the second, and were down only 12 at the half, but that was it; after 28 points in the second quarter, they would manage only 29 in the third and fourth, including a final 3:45 with no points at all.

A couple of bright spots: the Hornets made all their free throws (a lowish 10; only one Spur got as many as three personal fouls) and half their trey attempts. But field-goal shooting was a meager 31 of 82 for 37.8 percent. And the number that really seems to sum up this game: only 11 assists in all, versus 32 for the Spurs.

Rain or shine, though, Chris Paul gets his points: he got 20 to lead all scorers. Rasual Butler is still shooting well: he made 6 of 8, including two 3-balls. Tyson Chandler hauled down 9 boards, more than anyone else. But there were too many missed shots. (Devin Brown got his first points of the season, on 1-of-7 shooting and 2-of-2 at the line.)

The Mavericks had the night off, so San Antonio takes over the top spot in the conference at 21-7. The Grizzlies, mired in the Southwest cellar, lost again (by the same 100-97 score as last night, this time to Utah), which means the Hornets will remain six games ahead of them.

It's another run to the West Coast next week, to meet the Sonics (Tuesday) and the Blazers (Wednesday). The Nuggets, without J. R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony but with Allen Iverson, will be at the Ford next Friday.

The official position around here ("here" being "within 20 feet of my desk") is that the Sonics aren't going anywhere in the near future and definitely aren't coming here ("here" being "Oklahoma City") this fall..

And Joel Litvin, president of NBA league and basketball operations, says so himself:

A lot can happen between now and, say, 2010, when the Sonics' infamous KeyArena lease runs out, or 2012, when the Hornets' less-infamous New Orleans Arena lease runs out.

And nobody, so far as I can tell, is making noises about expansion, which we should assume is off the table. (Any expansion would likely be to 32 teams, which suggests one in the West — presumably Oklahoma City — and one in the East. The most plausible alternative would be to add two Western teams and shift one existing team to the East, but who would get moved? Minnesota? Memphis? New Orleans, fercryingoutloud?)

"If you were wondering if it could get worse," said Sean Kelley, "it has."

Indeed. With 1:18 left in the first quarter, Chris Paul came down hard on his right ankle, and had to be carried to the bench. The Hornets, who had been up by ten earlier, finished the quarter one point ahead of the Sonics, and inevitably things got, as Sean says, worse.

At the half, Seattle had a smallish lead — 49-47 — the Bees tied it at 72-72 in the third. But the Sonics started hitting treys and the Hornets started missing free throws, and Seattle came away with a 102-94 win.

Byron Scott played only seven tonight, which made for some interesting point totals. Tyson Chandler pulled 11 rebounds and scored 14 points; Jannero Pargo, who started at the two, got 23 points; Desmond Mason had 21. Devin Brown, finding himself with more minutes than he had anticipated, scored 16 and swept 9 boards.

The Sonics had three players over 20: Luke Ridnour with 27, Chris Wilcox with 22, Ray Allen with 21.

It's a back-to-back, with a trip to Portland tomorrow. The first x-rays on CP3 indicate no broken bones; maybe he'll be back for the Nuggets game.

The Hornets are now missing three starters and the sixth man. Given this fact, you might think that even a sad-sack squad like Portland could dispatch the Bees forthwith. Allow me to correct part of this: the Trail Blazers, who won five straight earlier this month, aren't especially sad.

Jannero Pargo started at point, with Rasual Butler moving to small forward. But while the Hornets did generate occasional offense, they never managed to get past an early Portland lead, and a late rally didn't make up for another recurrence of the Third-Quarter Drought™, as the Blazers won it, 100-85.

Scoring? We got some: Pargo, Butler and Desmond Mason each dropped in 16 points; Devin Brown had 13 with two more treys. But with 60-odd points per night stuck in the locker room — well, you get the idea. And as is his wont, Zack Randolph blitzed the Bees, scoring 26 and grabbing 11 rebounds.

Our favorite insects will be back at the Ford on Friday, when Allen Iverson and the Nuggets come to town. (Sounds like a Southern show band, doesn't it?)

There had been some concern that the Nuggets wouldn't make it out of Denver, what with the snowstorm and all, and indeed they didn't hit Oklahoma City until around 4 am. And apparently it wasn't all of them, either; only eight players hit the Ford Center. Then again, one of those eight was Allen Iverson, and Iverson can play 30, 40, 50 minutes without so much as breaking a sweat. (Twice in his career he's played 54 minutes.) So I wouldn't characterize the Nuggets as shorthanded.

The Hornets, on the other hand, were missing three starters and their primary reserve, and Jannero Pargo, starting in place of the out-for-four-weeks Chris Paul, managed to pick up his third foul barely two minutes into the second quarter.

Still, for all the vacancies, there was a heck of a lot of scoring, at least early on: at the half, the Nuggets led 59-55. Both teams exhibited a touch of Third-Quarter Drought— but the Bees had slightly less of it, outscoring Denver 17-16.

And then the Hornets' frustration boiled over, or something. At 6:36 left, the score was tied at 83-all; for the remainder of the game, the Nuggets would score only two field goals and two free throws, and the Bees won it going away, 99-89.

As it turned out, only eight Hornets would play tonight; six scored in double figures, with Tyson Chandler getting 10 points to go with 9 rebounds. Rasual Butler and Devin Brown led the charge with 20 and 19; lightly-used rookie forward Marcus Vinicius scored 4, his career high, in six minutes. For once, the Bees were fair at the line, hitting 18 of 23.

As for Iverson, he played 45 minutes, scoring a below-par 21; diminutive teammate Earl Boykins, reported at five-foot-five, led all scorers with 26.

And the Ford Center crowd, reported as about 180 over capacity, were loving it. Whether this provides a boost for the Hornets, who play at Dallas tomorrow, remains to be seen.

Addendum, next morning: Iverson takes the blame: "I stunk it up."

Standard operating procedure for the Dallas Mavericks is to blow the other team out of the arena in the first quarter and then hold serve the rest of the way. And that's the way it started tonight, with the Mavs jumping out to a 12-point lead. But the Hornets fought back with a 12-4 run to pull within four, and actually took the lead briefly, so Dallas had to blow them out of the arena in the second quarter, and the dreaded Third-Quarter Drought™, which was actually no worse than the second-quarter drought, pretty much finished the Bees, as the Mavs had done in their previous 19 regular-season meetings. The final was 94-80.

Upside: Marc Jackson scores 22 points, including 10 of 10 from the charity stripe; Devin Brown gets 10 points and 10 rebounds; the Hornets actually out-rebounded Dallas, 43-37.

Downside: Fifteen turnovers, only one blocked shot.

And Dallas was, well, Dallas, and they acted like it. Jason Terry led all scorers with 25; Dirk Nowitzki had an off night and still got 17.

The Hornets are now 12-18. The January schedule is marginally less arduous, but the infirmary has yet to return any of the wounded Bees to action.

The Warriors came to Oklahoma City having beaten the Hornets two games out of three, and boasting one new player: guard Kelenna Azubuike, the leading scorer in the D-League so far this season, who came up from Fort Worth today to help fill out Golden State's injury-ridden roster.

The Bees ran up a 12-point lead in the first quarter; Golden State made up the difference rather quickly and then some. It was 49-45 Warriors at the half. The ever-unpopular Third-Quarter Drought™ left Golden State up 13 after three; the Hornets fought back in the fourth, at one point pulling to within three, but Golden State prevailed, 97-89.

Matt Barnes inflicted the most damage, scoring 29 (including 5 of 9 from beyond the arc) and hauling down 10 rebounds. One-time Hornet Baron Davis also dropped in 29. The new kid, Azubuike, got to play 16 minutes, garnering four points and three rebounds.

Both Rasual Butler and Jannero Pargo did some serious shooting, Butler scoring 30 and Pargo 24. Tyson Chandler still isn't scoring a lot, but he pulled down 15 boards. The big difference? The Hornets gave up 16 turnovers, versus only 6 for the Warriors.

The Pistons will be here Thursday, as will the TNT broadcast crew. The Hornets beat Detroit earlier in the season; I promise to be delighted should it happen again.

You have to figure that when Rip Hamilton gets 17 points in the first quarter, the Pistons are going to dominate — especially since the Hornets managed only 19 in aggregate. And then it got worse: the Bees, unable to buy a bucket, scored a meager 13 points in the second quarter, shooting an appalling 31.8 percent in the first half.

But in the third, weirdly, it was Detroit who suffered the Third-Quarter Drought™, picking up only 14, and their 26-point lead dwindled to 18; it dropped to 14 early in the fourth before the Pistons started hitting on, you should pardon the expression, all cylinders, and dispatched the reeling Hornets, 92-68.

Bobby Jackson, recovering from a cracked rib and sporting a flak jacket worthy of the L.A.P.D., reported for duty, played five and a half minutes, scored 7, and then was spirited back to the locker room: apparently he hasn't recovered quite enough just yet. And Rasual Butler, after scoring three in half an hour, retired with "flu-like symptoms." Jannero Pargo scored 16 to lead the Bees, but he had to put up 24 shots to get it; the team hit only 29 of 88 from the floor, 30 percent. Tyson Chandler, meanwhile, pulled down 16 rebounds.

Oh, and Rip Hamilton? Despite exiting early with five fouls, he got 27 points. Tayshaun Prince had the night's only double-double: 15 points, 10 boards.

The Pacers are supposed to be here Saturday. Maybe they can phone it in and save the airfare.

"Why don't you pour boiling water into my eyes while you're at it?" exclaimed Sean Kelley midway through the second quarter. It was that kind of night: the game started late because the shot clocks weren't working; Jannero Pargo was sent back to the bench in favor of Devin Brown; and three Indiana starters scored 20 points or more. The Hornets' game was actually much improved from recent days, and they were in it until almost the end, but the result was more of the same: Pacers 100, Hornets 93.

Desmond Mason had a hot hand, dropping in 28 points. Five other Hornets scored in double figures, but the low double figures: Pargo had 14; Brown and Marc Jackson had 11; Rasual Butler and Tyson Chandler had 10. (Chandler picks up a double-double: he had 10 rebounds.)

The Indiana sharpshooters, though, were way sharp. Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson picked up 27 each; Jermaine O'Neal scored 22.

Byron Scott is frustrated, to be sure, but sooner or later some of the wounded will heal, won't they?

The Clippers will be here Monday.

NewsOK.com has a poll up: "If the NBA returns to the Ford Center in 2008-09, which franchise would you prefer?"

Now we already know they won't be here in 2007-08, but given the existing situations in both Seattle and New Orleans, there isn't a great deal of reason to believe that either the Sonics or the Hornets will relocate here permanently, in 2008 or even 2009.

For what it's worth, at the time I took it, there were only seven votes in, and the Hornets were leading 5-2.

Hornets 26, Clippers 15 after the first? This was a game of streaks: the Angelenos made up nine points of that deficit in the second quarter, the rest of it early in the third, and then the Bees started scoring again, running the lead back up to 10 — and then the Clippers went on a run of their own, and the third quarter ended with the Hornets up a mere 73-72.

Then that wily old veteran Sam Cassell took command from off the L.A. bench, and the Clippers would utterly dominate the fourth quarter, winning it 100-90. Cassell, who is rumored to have known Dr James Naismith personally, scored 31 of those points himself.

Apart from those last 12 minutes, the Bees played some pretty decent ball, with all five starters in double figures, Desmond Mason getting his second consecutive 28-point game, and Tyson Chandler scoring 13 and pulling 13 boards. But the less said about that fourth quarter, the better.

Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards will be here Friday, but between now and then, there's a trip to Atlanta to take on the Hawks, who, last time out, beat the Clippers by 12. I have a really bad feeling about this.

Hornets rookie forward Marcus Vinicius has been sent to the D-League's Tulsa 66ers for six games; he's expected to return on the 22nd of January. GM Jeff Bower says this was timed to give the Brazilian some extra playing experience; unspoken, but fairly obvious, is the hope that starting power forward David West will be back in the lineup soon. West, who had arthroscopic surgery on his elbow last month, is now participating in team drills, which must be considered a good sign.

The one question I had when the Atlanta game started was "Is Speedy Claxton gonna kill us?" Claxton was the Hornets' sixth man last year, and let's face it, he was never going to get a starting job with Chris Paul around, so I don't blame him for jumping to the Hawks. And with both CP3 and Bobby Jackson, this year's sixth man, out of action, Claxton might have chuckled a bit before the game.

Unfortunately for Speedy, he checked out at the half with a sprain, four points and three assists. Worse for the Hawks, Zaza Pachulia also exited halfway through. So with the walking wounded more or less balanced, it became apparent that both these teams were capable of stinking up the joint.

At which point the Hornets decided not to stink. (Sometimes it is that simple.) After a 23-23 first quarter, the Bees started hitting shots, and the Hawks stopped hitting them; the Bees led by 5 at the half, by 14 after three, eventually running the lead into the middle twenties; the final was 96-77.

Byron Scott's current scheme, of starting Devin Brown at the point and having Jannero Pargo spell him, seems to be working better than the other way around; Brown got a respectable 16 points, but Pargo exploded for 24 points, hitting 10 of 16 including four of five treys. Rasual Butler, at small forward, responded with 21. And Tyson Chandler is actually scoring these days: he got 14 tonight, his season high, and 9 boards. The Bees hit 34 of 65 for 52 percent, with 9 of 16 from beyond the arc.

The Hawks got plenty of second chances — they had 13 offensive rebounds, versus a mere three for the Hornets — but the ball wouldn't drop. Atlanta hit 30 of 90, 33 percent. Joe Johnson, their usual leading scorer, was held to 13; Josh Childress got 19 off the bench.

It's in and out for the next five games: Friday at the Ford against the Wizards; to Milwaukee on Saturday; back to the Big Breezy on Tuesday to host the Magic; a Friday-night trip to San Antonio, and the Lakers arrive on the 20th.

Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards got here before the sleet, and the turnout at the game was pretty respectable for a Friday night with an ice storm going on: paid attendance was 16,899, and the radio team estimated 6500 actually showed up. The Wizards showed some ice of their own in the second quarter, going from an 8-point lead to an 8-point deficit, but they made it up quickly in the last couple of minutes, and it was tied 51-51 at the half. No Third-Quarter Drought™ either; the Hornets led after three, 76-73, and they made it stick with four clutch free throws in the last twenty seconds. Final: Bees 104, Wizards 97, and here's the kicker: Arenas is justly famed for his closing-moment makes. He got two tries tonight, and both times he was denied.

All five starting Hornets scored in double figures: Desmond Mason with 22, Rasual Butler with 20, Devin Brown with 19, Marc Jackson with 11, and Tyson Chandler with 10 (and ten rebounds for the double-double). Jannero Pargo added 19 from the bench. The only other Bee to see action was Linton Johnson; he scored only three, but they were timely, and he picked up three boards and two assists. The Hornets shot 54.5 percent, and hit 50 percent of their 3-balls (8 of 16).

Arenas, as usual, led all scorers (he had 23); not as usual, he hit only 5 of 19 shots, including two treys. (The Wizards were 7 of 22 from beyond the arc.) DeShawn Stevenson added 22 points.

And tonight, both teams hope their flights take off: the Bees are bound for Milwaukee, and the Wizards are heading to San Antonio.

The Hornets-Bucks game tonight has been postponed; weather isn't bad in Milwaukee — a little bit of snow — but the Hornets' charter flight, which was supposed to have left last night after the Wizards game, wasn't able to take off from Will Rogers World Airport, and some time around 1:30 this afternoon they threw in the presumably-frozen towel.

The game will be made up at some date to be determined. In the meantime, the Bees will be here in iced-over Oklahoma City, waiting for the arrival of the Orlando Magic on Tuesday.

And lo, the Magic and the Hornets took this to heart: it was 38-33 at the half, and both teams were shooting well under 40 percent. What's more, Orlando had hit only one 3-ball out of four; the Bees put up eight and missed them all. Things picked up marginally in the third, but stayed ugly, and the Magic tied it at 75 with six seconds left as Tyson Chandler fouled out.

But if there's no offense, perhaps there can be defense: the Hornets held the Magic scoreless for 4:53 of the five minutes of overtime, winning it 84-78, their third win in a row, and how long has it been since you heard that? (Yep. Second week of November.)

Once again, Jannero Pargo demonstrated that he's way better off the bench than as a starter: he played 33 minutes anyway, and he scored 25 points, hitting 10 of 18 and 3 of 4 treys. (At one point, Pargo had 19 of the team's last 23 points.) Desmond Mason scored 21 and hauled down 9 boards, just missing a double-double; Rasual Butler got one, with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Chandler, before foul number six, scored 4, picked up 10 rebounds, and blocked three shots.

The Magic presented a relatively-balanced attack, if "attack" is the word; both Dwight Howard and Darko Milicic got double-doubles, and Darko got his off the bench.

A couple of tough games coming up: at San Antonio on Friday, and then the Lakers will be at the Ford Center on Saturday. The Hornets are now 15-22, not inspiring for a team that started 8-3, but the mere fact that they're actually winning games without most of their starters has got to be worth something, if only in terms of confidence factor.

I didn't understand this game at all. Halfway through the first quarter, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was tossed off the premises; the Hornets missed all the free throws generated by Popovich's technicals; the first quarter ended with San Antonio up 26-12. The Bees shot better in the second, but so did the Spurs, who took a 53-36 lead into the locker room; the Hornets actually outscored San Antonio in the third, but only by one.

The Bees made a run at it in the fourth, twice pulling within eight, but frustration was clearly setting in, and with about sixty seconds left, Desmond Mason was ejected; shortly thereafter, Chris Paul, who wasn't even playing, was thrown out. Final: Spurs 99, Hornets 86.

Still, Bobby Jackson was back — he played 26 minutes and scored 14 points — and starting at power forward for the first time in ages, David West picked up where he'd left off with 19 points and 11 rebounds. (Nor was D-West the only Bee with a double-double; Tyson Chandler had 11 boards and 10 points.) Jannero Pargo, who was scarcely seen until the fourth quarter, still managed to score 11.

The Spurs guards were lethal as always: Tony Parker snagged 23 points; Manu Ginobili had 19. And Tim Duncan pulled down 16 boards.

And after all that, the Hornets have to fly to snowed-in Oklahoma City to play the Lakers tomorrow night. Some weekend.

Henry Abbott at True Hoop plays Spot the Anomaly:

This passage from Bennett's letter is presumably what set off Abbott's alarm:

And surely it does, but the phrasing, to be charitable, doesn't sell the premise. Governor Gregoire could simply fire back, "If your position is that wobbly, perhaps you should be in some other business." At the very least, she'd get cheers from the We Hate Sports contingent in Seattle proper.

Then again, Gregoire has been less than consistent in her stance on the matter. Last year she insisted that any arena proposal demanded a public vote; this week she's more amenable to cutting a deal without an election.

On the larger issue of whether stadium deals are worthwhile at all, Abbott is unequivocal:

I'm still waiting for the Basketball Fairness Act of 2007.

When the Lakers are in town, the first question anyone asks is "How was Kobe?" Kobe was fine: he scored only three points in the first quarter, all from the charity stripe, but he served up three assists and grabbed two rebounds. Those who expected Bryant to hog the spotlight would have been disappointed.

And then in the second quarter, Kobe did — well, nothing much, actually, as the Hornets, down 29-25 after one, jumped out to a 59-51 lead at the half. So naturally, the third quarter began with a quick Bryant jump shot, and he wasn't going to be quiet after that, rolling up a quick 14 points and bringing the Lakers to within one, 83-82. L.A. actually led with ten minutes left, 88-87, and stayed close for a while, but the Bees poured it on in the last three minutes and dispatched the visitors, 113-103.

Kobe finished with 23, as did reserve guard Maurice Evans, and Evans took a lot fewer shots. Perhaps that explains something. And Kobe led everyone in assists, with seven.

Meanwhile, top scoring honors went to the evidently-recovered David West, who dropped in 26, swept 12 rebounds, and recorded a steal. Bobby Jackson, also back from the infirmary, scored 15. Tyson Chandler had an unexpected 17 points to go with the expected 12 boards. Rasual Butler, master of treys, got four of seven and 20 points total; his most dramatic moment was not, however, a 3-ball, but his block of a Kobe Bryant shot, which he tipped to Bobby Jackson, who tossed it back to Butler, who dropped it in, putting the Bees up by six. And the less-crummy-than-expected weather made for a full house plus, which is always a joy.

On the road now: Philadelphia on Tuesday, Toronto on Wednesday, and then the Kings in New Orleans.

A great instrumental by Alvin Cash and the Registers, and a reasonable description of this game, in which the 76ers danced all over the visiting (and cold-shooting) Hornets, 102-96, a score which is a tad deceptive: the Bees trailed 54-40 at the half and fell behind by as many as twenty before putting together a late rally and pulling within four.

Did the Hornets underestimate the post-Iverson Sixers? Maybe. One thing is for sure: there were long stretches when they couldn't buy a bucket, and even with the flurry of activity in the fourth quarter (which the Bees won 31-26) they shot only 43 percent. Meanwhile, four Philly starters scored in double figures, and Andre Miller snagged a double-double: 17 points, 11 assists. But the real killer was reserve forward Kyle Korver, who led all scorers with 25.

Devin Brown had a good night at the point, scoring 24; David West had 23 and added 11 boards. Rasual Butler didn't score much — seven points — but he blocked four shots. The Bees' bench, though, managed only 16 points total.

So this road trip starts out on a duff note, and there's no time to dwell on it: it's off to Toronto tomorrow.

After losing to the not-so-lowly Sixers last night, the Hornets had something to prove to the even-less-lowly Raptors in Toronto, jumping out to a nine-point lead after the first quarter. The Raptors whittled away at the lead, and tied it in the third; the Bees ran off a 10-0 run at the beginning of the fourth, then went cold, and the Raptors came back. Tyson Chandler (8 points, 5 boards) fouled out with two and a half minutes left; Toronto came back to tie it in the last minute, and won it 90-88.

The absence of T. J. Ford didn't faze the Raptors: Chris Bosh dropped in 35 points, far and away the leading scorer for the night, and Toronto turned the ball over only six times, versus thirteen times for the Hornets.

Rasual Butler was hitting tonight, scoring 19 and blocking three shots; Bobby Jackson scored 17 off the bench; steady Devin Brown had 15. David West departed in the first quarter to have his ankle taped, but returned; he wound up with 9 points and 11 rebounds.

The Bees will play host to the Kings in New Orleans Friday; Saturday, the Jazz will visit the Ford Center. And that Bucks game which was postponed due to nasty weather will be played in Milwaukee on the 3rd of April.

New Orleans is a place where unusual things happen, and one of them was the first half of the third quarter against the Sacramento Kings: the Hornets were showing distressing signs of the Third-Quarter Drought™, but the Kings scored nothing in the first six minutes. The crowd was quiet — "They must be giving out free Ambien," cracked Gerry V — but things would get better. The Bees, down 50-46 at the half, were up 67-60 after three. Sacramento would come back in the fourth, far enough to grab a brief lead, but the Hornets got it done, 88-84.

Desmond Mason gets the Hero cap for the night: not only did he lead all scorers with 24 points, not to mention pulling down eight boards, but he kept Ron Artest bottled up for most of the night. (The Ronster managed only nine points, though he did get 12 rebounds.) Tyson Chandler scared up another double-double, 13 points and 12 boards. Bobby Jackson got 15 off the bench; Devin Brown got his usual 14. And I must mention Linton Johnson, who in twenty minutes scored six points and pulled off three steals.

The Sacramento guards were good for 42 points — 21 each for Mike Bibby and Kevin Martin — and reserve forward John Salmons dropped in 14, including 10 of 10 free throws.

The Jazz come to Oklahoma City tomorrow night. Fasten your seat belts.

The Hornets weren't supposed to beat the Jazz: Utah was 29-15 and owned a five-game lead over the Nuggets in the Northwest. But the Bees came out buzzing, scoring first and winning the first quarter 27-18. By comparison, the second was sleepy; it was Hornets 41, Jazz 34 at the half. For once, it was the visitors who suffered the Third-Quarter Drought™, with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan drawing a technical. But Utah simply couldn't put points on the board: they'd averaged over 100 for the whole season, but never once tonight did they get the lead, and the Hornets pocketed a big win, 94-83, acknowledged by the Ford Center crowd with a standing ovation in the final seconds.

Well, okay, Deron Williams could put points on the board: his 27 took game-high honors. And rookie forward Paul Millsap put together a double-double, with 15 points and 17 rebounds. But the Jazz shot only 37.5 percent for the night, and hit only one of 14 treys. Would things have been different if Carlos Boozer had made it through the game without screwing up his knee? Maybe.

The Hornets' bench put up 35 points, 21 of which came from Bobby Jackson, including three treys (out of three) and eight free throws (out of eight). Desmond Mason dropped in 20; David West, who had an off-night last night, was back in double figures with 11. And Tyson Chandler had 15 of the Hornets' 40 boards and blocked seven shots.

Monday and Wednesday, we'll see the 'Blazers and the 76ers. We owe them both.

The 82-game NBA schedule provides that you play teams in the other conference twice and teams in your conference four times — except for the ones that you play three times, just to confuse everyone. The TrailBlazers beat the Hornets twice in Portland; the Bees got only one shot at them at home. So it was important to make this one count, and they did. The Blazers stayed close through most of the game, and took the lead briefly in the third quarter, but the Hornets took it to them in the fourth, winning 103-91.

Once again, Byron Scott played only nine: eight of them scored, and six of them, including all five starters, scored in double figures. David West led with 21; Desmond Mason and Jannero Pargo had 16 each — Pargo, off the bench, scored 12 in a row in the fourth quarter — Rasual Butler got 15; Tyson Chandler had 14 points and 16 rebounds. Devin Brown scored 12, his 13th game in a row in double figures. (In 19 games since becoming a Hornet, only four times has Brown scored less than 10.)

Containing Zack Randolph was a priority, and it didn't work especially well: he had 20 points and 13 rebounds. Portland's Wunderkind Brandon Roy was hot, scoring 19. And the Blazers hit ten treys in 25 tries, versus 5 of 10 for the Hornets.

One noticeable trend: the Hornets' free-throw shooting, once horrible plug-ugly, is now up to mediocre. Tonight it wasn't bad at all: 22 of 27. Even Tyson Chandler, traditionally the worst from the line, got two of three.

Will Chris Paul be back soon? The talk is maybe Friday against Minnesota, possibly even Wednesday against the Sixers. Add a guy like that to a team that's 7-3 over the last ten and ... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

As expected (and as demanded by Commissioner David Stern), the Hornets officially informed the city of Oklahoma City today that they will not be needing the Ford Center next season, thank you very much. It's not exactly news, but it's definitely official.

Also transitioning into reality was the rumor that Chris Paul would return to the starting lineup tonight against Philadelphia. He probably shouldn't have bothered: the Hornets started out slow and stayed there, falling behind 14 at the half, dropping as far back as twenty. A late rally fell short, and the Sixers once again had the Bees' number, winning 89-78.

You could call it your dinner with Andre. Andre Iguodala led all scorers with 22, Andre Miller had 14, and between the two of them they dished up 13 assists. The Sixers dominated the boards, 58-40: Samuel Dalembert had 15, and Steven Hunter and Joe Smith both recorded double-doubles.

Meanwhile, the CP3 Express stalled with nine points. Leading the Hornets was, yes, Devin Brown, who got 17; Desmond Mason dropped in 15; yet another spiffy Tyson Chandler night (10 points, 15 boards). But the big difference was at the foul line, where the Bees hit only five of eight while the Sixers sank 24 of 31.

The Timberwolves come to the Ford Friday, and I suspect they won't mind the weather. There follows a three-day road trip, to Houston, Sacramento and Denver.

And a painful pas de dix it was for a while, as the Hornets, up seven after the first quarter, were colder than Minnesota winds for the next twenty minutes or so. The Timberwolves, fortunately, were not much better, and by the fourth quarter the Bees had this figured out and pulled away at the end, 90-83.

There's a tendency to think of Minnesota as Kevin Garnett and however-many dwarves. Not so. Garnett was a tad off his game tonight — for which we thank Tyson Chandler — but Mark Blount, scoring 21 points, took up the slack. And there wasn't that much slack, either: Garnett had a double-double with 17 points (including a last-minute trey) and 13 rebounds.

The Bees didn't shoot all that well, either — subtract the two leading scorers (who were 17-22 between them) and you're looking at 32 percent. They did, however, play some decent D; they pulled off eight steals (four by Chris Paul) and blocked nine shots (four by Tyson Chandler). Chandler continues to get serious numbers: he had 16 points and 18 boards despite having to guard Garnett. CP3 was in good form, rolling up 24 points and eight assists. Devin Brown started at shooting guard in place of Rasual Butler; neither of them had an especially-good night. And Jannero Pargo had another one of his late-game bursts off the bench, scoring 13.

Coming up: three road games, at Houston (Saturday), Sacramento (Monday), and Denver (Wednesday).

First quarter: cold shooting, hot tempers. Rockets point guard Rafer Alston and Hornets small forward Desmond Mason were sent home after some harsh words, eight minutes in. The score at the time was 9-8 Houston, and the quarter ended with the Bees up 17-15. Second quarter: cooler heads, still cold shooting. Score at the half: Hornets 33, Rockets 30. In the second half, things started to open up a bit, but they opened wider for the Hornets, who led by as many as nineteen points and won by thirteen, 87-74; it was only the seventh loss at home for the Rockets.

No, I wasn't expecting this either. Yeah, Yao Ming was inactive, but Dikembe Mutombo has proven himself worthy at the post; yet Mutombo, while he got six rebounds, scored nothing. Tracy McGrady poured in a respectable 18 points, but nothing much else seemed to work for the Rockets.

With Mason gone, the Hornets' bench had to work that much harder, and tonight they did, combining for 38 points: Bobby Jackson and Jannero Pargo scored 12 each. Chris Paul picked up 12 points and served up nine dimes; Devin Brown, in his second start as shooting guard, had 18 points, five assists and seven boards. Tyson Chandler? Yep, another double-double: 11 points, 12 rebounds.

No games tomorrow — supposedly there's some big football game or something — and the road trip resumes in Sacramento Monday.

Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune analyzes the Oklahoma City NBA situation:

The Rochester Royals, you may remember (I didn't), drifted to Cincinnati, then to Kansas City (as the Kings), and ended up in Sacramento.

The former Rochester Royals are quite at home in the California capital: the Kings jumped out to a 40-24 lead after the first quarter, 63-50 at the half, and while the Hornets drew to within one in the fourth quarter, the Kings held on for a 104-99 win.

Sacramento had six players in double figures, led by Ron Artest with 21; Mike Bibby dropped in 19. The Kings shot over 70 percent in the first quarter and were still over 50 percent at the end.

The Bees had some serious offense: Chris Paul got 24 points, Desmond Mason 17, David West 16. The difference? Both teams made 16 free throws, but the Hornets missed eight — and the Kings missed only two.

To Denver, for a round with the Nuggets on Wednesday; the Bucks will be in Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Beating the Nuggets didn't look like it was on the agenda. The Hornets trailed most of the game, managed to tie it late in the third, fell behind by three at the end of the quarter, and then Denver, apparently irritated, put the squeeze on the Bees. With one minute left, though, the Hornets had fought back to a 101-101 tie. With three seconds left, it was 103-103, and that's how regulation time ended.

At some point during the overtime, the Hornets noticed that they'd won three of the four quarters, and turned up the heat a little, though missing three free throws didn't help. Ex-Hornet J. R. Smith tied it up at 112 with 20 seconds left; Desmond Mason nailed a bucket at the buzzer to win it, 114-112. And it ended with Smith and Byron Scott, never the best of friends, in a hug by the sideline. You can't write scripts like that: no one would believe them.

All five Denver starters finished in double figures. Carmelo Anthony, of course, was huge: 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists. Allen Iverson, maybe slightly slowed by a twisted ankle, dropped in 22 and served up nine dimes.

The starting Hornets also finished in double figures, led by Mason with 23; Tyson Chandler got yet another double-double with 10 points and 16 boards. Bobby Jackson got 15 off the bench.

Tomorrow night: the Milwaukee Bucks come to the Ford Center.

Addendum: The Denver Post reports a sighting of the Birdman:

A year from now. I hope.

The last time the Hornets were supposed to play the Bucks, ice on the runway kept them from taking off. Tonight the Bucks were here, and the Hornets brought their own ice for the fourth quarter while Milwaukee was running a 16-2 run; up ten after the third quarter, the Bees managed a mere sixteen points in the fourth but rallied to force a 90-90 tie at the end of regulation. Apparently everyone was tired after 48 minutes; it was still tied after 53.

And so there was a second overtime, and the Hornets remembered that they were 3-0 in overtime and held the Bucks to four points in five minutes, winning 109-101.

Good Bucks: Mo Williams had 30 points, and Ruben Patterson got 28. (Patterson also records a double-double, with 16 rebounds.) Not So Good Bucks: Both Charlie Villanueva and Earl Boykins fouled out.

No fewer than seven Hornets scored in double figures, and three of them had double-doubles: David West had 21 points and 19 (!) rebounds; Tyson Chandler had 11 points and 22 (!!) boards; Chris Paul scored 14 and delivered 10 assists. Desmond Mason picked up 24 points; Linton Johnson and Bobby Jackson had 10 and 12 respectively off the bench; Jackson's 56th-minute trey put the game out of the Bucks' reach.

The Grizzlies will be here on Saturday in the first half of a home-and-home; the Bees play at Memphis Tuesday.

With essentially no time left in the first half, Chris Paul managed to work the ball into the basket.

From behind the backboard.

They waved it off, of course, but expect this on highlight reels for days to come. And it fit in: a lot of things were falling into the bucket tonight, especially for the Hornets, who shot a startling 55.8 percent from the floor (and 50 percent from the 3-point line) en route to a 114-99 win over the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.

The Griz stayed close through most of the first half, and Pau Gasol was his usual efficient self, picking up a double-double for the night (21 points, 11 rebounds), but the Bees opened it up in the third quarter, outscoring Memphis 35-24.

Six Hornets in double figures during the shootfest: Chris Paul had 23 (and 11 assists), David West 22, Desmond Mason 16, Tyson Chandler 15 (and 16 boards), Devin Brown and Bobby Jackson with 11 each. Hilton Armstrong is starting to pick up more minutes, and while he still makes the occasional rookie mistakes, he's getting to be a tough competitor. And to everyone's relief, no overtime.

Tuesday the Bees fly to Memphis to play these same Grizzlies, who are now thirteen games below .500.

The last time we saw these Grizzlies, they were losing to the Hornets 114-99. That was at the Ford Center, though; this time, the Griz were at home in Memphis' FedExForum, and revenge was on their minds. They got it, too: the Hornets won the odd quarters, but the Grizzlies won the even ones by more, finishing the fourth with a flourish to win it, 108-104.

Neither team shot especially well. The Bees dominated the boards, but the Hornet guards had a seriously off night. (Any night when Devin Brown and Chris Paul combined come up with only seven points has to be considered an off night; Jannero Pargo, at least, came up with 11.) Tyson Chandler snagged 23 boards, setting a personal record and tying a club record; he also dropped in 17 points. David West also picked up the double-double, with 22 points and 11 rebounds; Desmond Mason, still in sharpshooter mode, had 23 points.

The Grizzly guards, conversely, had their way: Chucky Atkins and Rudy Gay between them scored 37. Forward threat Mike Miller picked up 22, and Memphis recorded two double-doubles: Pau Gasol (11 points, 15 boards) and Hakim Warrick (15 points, 12 boards off the bench).

If nothing else, this should remind us that even cellar-dwellers win once in a while, and it's not wise to take them for granted.

The Bees will be back in OKC tomorrow for a Valentine's Day match with the Kings. I am told the home uniforms will reflect the holiday; I plan to listen to the game on the radio.

The Hornets' bad shooting on Tuesday somehow turned into good shooting on Wednesday: the Bees hit 45 of 78 shots (57.7 percent) in the process of giving the Sacramento Kings a good old-fashioned Ford Center thrashing, 110-93.

The Kings were playing without Brad Miller, which hurt, but nobody rushed in to fill the Miller-sized hole in the lineup. Ron Artest got 18 points, as many as anyone tonight, and the Sacramento bench kicked in 44 points — but this means that the four other starters managed only 31. And the Kings offered little defense: only 34 rebounds and two blocked shots, versus 44 and 7 for the Hornets.

Tyson Chandler wangled still another double-double: 10 points, 15 boards. Desmond Mason tossed in another 18 points; David West, 16; Devin Brown, 15. The bench contributed 42, including a season-high 12 from Linton Johnson, who has been playing some serious D these days.

We now pause for the All-Star break. The next Hornets game will be Tuesday, at Charlotte.

How the proposed new arena at Renton, Seattle's answer to Del City, will be financed:

That's $423 million of the projected $530 million. Sonics owner Clay Bennett has said he expects the city of Renton to fork over a few dollars; Mayor Kathy Keolker says if the city is assured of a revenue stream, she will ask the Council for "an investment commensurate with those new revenues."

If nothing else, those who insisted that Bennett was planning all along to move the team may be slightly less insistent for the moment.

Update, 11:15 am: Speaker of the Washington House Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) objects, and in his list of complaints I find this:

Well, actually, it's 15 players, and if this chart is accurate, the Sonics have the sixth lowest payroll in the NBA. If Chopp is really upset with player salaries, perhaps he should take it up with the union.

Everyone in the Hornets organization remembers last year after the All-Star break, in which the team went a ghastly 9-21 and dropped from the sixth playoff position to off the radar entirely.

You'd think a memory like that might impel the team to thrash the unruly Charlotte Bobcats. And you would be wrong: while the Bees have pretty much vanquished the Third-Quarter Drought™ — they outscored the 'Cats 34-24 in the third tonight — they managed to lose the other three quarters, and the game, 104-100, in front of a sparse crowd in the 13,000 range.

Charlotte's Raymond Felton and Gerald Wallace each dropped in 21 points; rookie Adam Morrison picked up 18 from off the bench, including 11 in the third quarter. And Emeka Okafor added a double-double — 16 points, 15 rebounds — and blocked five shots.

The Bees did generate some offense, and Chris Paul is scoring again: CP3 got 20. Desmond Mason added 17; David West and Tyson Chandler had 16 each. (And Chandler snagged 20 boards.)

It's the one true mystery this season: the Hornets play better against good teams than they do against mediocre (or worse) teams. Which means the next two games, against the Nets in Jersey and at the Ford against the Sonics, might be equally dreadful.