There was some discussion earlier today as to whether the Thunder had anything left after last night’s epic clash with the Nuggets, and the answer seems to be “Enough, but just barely.” Missing two more players — James Harden and Nick Collison were sidelined with (let us hope) minor injuries — OKC ran out to a 60-38 halftime lead over New Orleans, only to see the Hornets, somewhat depleted themselves, battle back to within six with just under a minute left. The final was 101-93, meaning the Bees outscored the Thunder 55-41 in the second half; “We got a little complacent,” said Royal Ivey, and I have no reason to doubt him.

Telltale statistic: New Orleans had five players in double figures; OKC had, well, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. And the Hornets got off 11 more shots, though they shot a mere 36 percent. The Thunder blocked 13 shots — Kendrick Perkins had six, Serge Ibaka nine — and everyone but Perk had at least one steal; but still, the Hornets made seven of 14 treys and had six more offensive rebounds. Jarrett Jack, running the offense for the New Orleans second unit, led the Hornets with 18 points.

As for the Bobbsey Twins, they had similar-looking lines to go with their 31 points each, though Westbrook served up more assists and Durant snatched more rebounds. For some reason, the Thunder put up 26 treys, 18 of which failed to connect; Daequan Cook, who’s maintaining a second home in Slumpville, missed eight all by his lonesome. (Take the missed treys out of the equation, and the Thunder would have shot nearly 52 percent.) Only four bench players got minutes, and in aggregate they failed to outscore Jarrett Jack.

What the Thunder need right now is a day off and then a game against a team from the East. By coincidence, the Celtics will be here Wednesday, minus Rajon Rondo, who drew a two-game suspension for playing Dodge Ball with an official. Yeah, the Lakers follow on Thursday; but you know, that other L. A. team is a lot scarier these days.

If you thought, not unreasonably, that Seattle’s current position on the NBA is “Screw ‘em,” you might want to take the following under advisement:

A wealthy San Francisco hedge-fund manager and officials in the Seattle mayor’s office have been working behind the scenes for eight months to bring an NBA team back to the city as early as next fall and build a new arena, according to emails and documents that reveal a far more concerted effort than previously known.

The documents, released Friday to The Seattle Times under a public-disclosure request, also provide the first glimpse of how the largely unknown hedge-fund manager, 44-year-old Seattle native Christopher Hansen, approached the city about his desire to buy an NBA team and build an arena south of Safeco Field.

But which team? The ownership most likely to sell would be presumably dealing with both arena issues and an indifferent (or worse) record. Which means — yes, you guessed it:

Although the documents don’t mention how Seattle would obtain a team, they show the city has been following developments in Sacramento, which is under a March 1 deadline to come up with a viable proposal to build an arena for the Sacramento Kings. In September, Hirsh emailed a copy of an Associated Press story to Raup that outlined the Sacramento situation.

If Sacramento fails, the Kings could be playing in Seattle next fall if the city and Hansen reach an agreement, according to a Seattle City Hall source who has been briefed on the matter.

Second choice might be the league-owned New Orleans Hornets, but David Stern has always said he’s looking for an owner who would keep them in the Big Easy.

You might be forgiven for thinking that this would be another one of those nights when the Thunder starters didn’t have to set foot on the court in the fourth quarter: New Orleans had lost eight straight coming in, and Eric Gordon was still unwell.

Didn’t happen. The stalwart Hornet bench — who knew? — made a game of it early in the fourth; while New Orleans never actually caught up, they pulled to within two, and Scott Brooks wasn’t having any of that. Russell Westbrook, who up to then seemed to be having an off night, turned it on in the fourth, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the last frame, and OKC finished off the Bees, 101-91, going two-up in the three-game season series.

How stalwart? Of those 91 Hornet points, 49 came from the bench; Gustavo Ayón, who’d been playing in Spain before New Orleans bought out his contract, led the reserves with 16, increasing his NBA career points by a third in a single night. Carl Landry, the “official” sixth man, had 15, and Al-Farouq Aminu tacked on 11 more. (The only starter in double figures was Jarrett Jack, with 20.) The Hornets actually had a slight advantage on the boards (32-31) and went 20-21 from the foul line, 11 of them from Landry. I have to wonder what would have happened had Chris Kaman been available; he was inactive for some reason.

Still, this wasn’t enough to beat the Thunder. Kevin Durant turned in a Kevin Durant-like line: 25 points, seven rebounds, 7-7 from the line and 9-13 from the floor. James Harden managed 18 points on a mere five shots. (The Beard made nine of 10 free throws.) And Serge Ibaka was ferocious in the first quarter, albeit a bit less so later on. Glue guy Nick Collison, roughed up a bit in his last outing, didn’t look at all damaged tonight. And long-ball specialist Daequan Cook only took three shots, but he made them all.

A brief West Coast swing now begins: Golden State on Friday, the Clippers on Monday. Oh, joyous late-night roundball.

Not too surprisingly, one of the leading scorers for the New Orleans Hornets tonight was someone named Chris. I admit to having more than a little trouble adjusting to the post-CP3 Bees — more than half of their roster was replaced in the off-season — but they’re no slouches. For one thing, that’s Chris Kaman with 17 points. (Carl Landry had 17 more.) For another, they pulled down more rebounds than the Thunder, 42-36. But the Hornets seem way inconsistent: after thrashing the Nuggets in Denver night before last, they fell to those rotters from Oklahoma City, 95-85.

It was, of course, a long way from inevitable. New Orleans jumped out to a ten-point lead in the first quarter, and after falling behind by 12 halfway through the third, managed to pull to within three at the start of the fourth. But the Thunder’s throw-everything-against-the-wall approach — what can you say about a night when Kendrick Perkins gets an assist and no technicals? — paid off once more. OKC was fairly lousy with the long ball, hitting seven of 20, but the Hornets connected on only one of 16. Scott Brooks clearly has “perimeter defense” bookmarked somewhere. And no, we didn’t see Eric Gordon tonight, but I’m thinking it wouldn’t have mattered that much.

And you know, Kevin Durant looked a fair bit fatigued from time to time. Didn’t stop him from dropping in 29 points and grabbing ten rebounds. Add 22 from Russell Westbrook, and hey, it’s Batman and Robin all over again. Nominations for Commissioner Gordon are being accepted.

The Knicks come in Saturday night, followed by three road games against Eastern teams: Boston, Washington and New Jersey, the last on another Saturday, meaning four games in the next ten days. Considering the last ten days featured seven Thunder games, you can practically call this a vacation. Not.

The Thunder won the season series over the Hornets tonight, three games out of four, in a fairly convincing fashion: New Orleans led 55-49 at the half, but they lacked buzz thereafter and fell to Oklahoma City, 104-93.

Both sides were missing a starter: Emeka Okafor for the Bees, Thabo Sefolosha for the Thunder. Chris Paul apparently sprained his ankle early on, but came back; Trevor Ariza sprained his ankle later in the game, and didn’t. And Nenad Krstić managed only 14 minutes before departing with a then-unspecified ailment. So the body count was higher than usual, but bench players for both sides stepped up.

As usual, though, the big problem for OKC was David West, who rolled up 20 points and reeled in 15 boards. Chris Paul missed about six minutes, but still scored 15; Quincy Pondexter and David Andersen came up with double figures from off the bench. More impressive: eight steals, versus three for the Thunder.

But this was one of those nights when Kid Delicious was in the zone. Kevin Durant picked up 43 points (on 19 shots!) and 10 rebounds. Serge Ibaka, recipient of a few extra minutes, took advantage of the time to grab 12 boards, block six shots, and score 8. And speaking of extra minutes, Eric Maynor got some, mainly because Russell Westbrook was in foul trouble; Maynor led the bench with 9 points. Westbrook still managed 10 points and eight assists, and Jeff Green contributed 12 points and seven boards to the cause. The Thunder owned the boards, 44-32, and shot a creditable 52.9 percent. Weirder yet, they put up two dozen treys, and actually connected on ten of them. (KD had five.)

It’s supposed to be about 0 degrees tonight, so it’s a good time to be going on a road trip. The Thunder head to Phoenix Friday night, and jump up to Utah on Saturday before returning to the Gee, I Hope It’s Warm Arena on Tuesday to host the Grizzlies.

Before tipoff, I caught a story to the effect that Hornets power forward David West was thinking about opting out of his last contract year. Another case of ‘Melo-drama? If West was distracted, he didn’t seem so tonight; he disappeared briefly into the locker room early on, but returned quickly enough, and he recorded his usual 20 points on a mere 18 shots. More to the point, he and Chris Paul (24 points) performed like the well-oiled machine they’re been for all these years, and a CP3 steal inside the 10-second mark set up West for a fadeaway jumper to give New Orleans a 91-89 win, their ninth in a row.

The Thunder, one must note, led 33-19 after the first quarter, but the Hornets held them to a meager twelve points in the next twelve minutes and took a 50-45 lead at the half. Oklahoma City tied it up late in the third, and the lead ping-ponged during the fourth. Numbers were mostly close to even: the Thunder got more rebounds (41 vs. 33), but also turned the ball over more often (18 vs. 10). And New Orleans effectively bottled up Kevin Durant in the last quarter: KD scored precisely zilch in the fourth.

Durant rang up 22 points, below his average; Westbrook had the game’s only double-double (18 points, 10 assists); Jeff Green, shifting positions throughout the game, scored 19. The Thunder shot a blah 46.5 percent, though the Hornets were a comparably-blah 45.5.

After this cold reception in the Big Easy, the Thunder may be happy to be heading to the Big Freezy: they’ll meet the Timberwolves on Wednesday.

What we know: the Hornets are still in New Orleans, and they’re still tough. The Bees, in fact, were up 59-52 at the half, though the Thunder once again produced something resembling solid defense after that, holding New Orleans to a meager 12 points in the third quarter and posting a 97-92 road win.

The Hornets helped, though: after hitting a long string of free throws, they missed half a dozen of them in the fourth quarter. Still, David West was good for a double-double — 24 points, 13 rebounds — and Chris Paul came up with 18 points and five steals. No slouches, the Hornets outrebounded the Thunder, 37-24. (West had six off the offensive glass, one less than Oklahoma City in aggregate.)

Still, OKC got some numbers. Russell Westbrook put together a 29-point, 10-assist performance, and Kevin Durant, who played all but 3:16 of the game, scored 25. After some fairly rotten shooting early on, the Thunder finished at 50 percent and missed only three of 26 from the stripe. Serge Ibaka, starting in place of Nenad Krstić, rang up 18 points and grabbed nine boards. Still: twenty turnovers? (Westbrook had seven of them.)

And now, it’s back home to the We Need A Logo Here Arena for four games, starting Sunday against Cleveland.

With the Thunder six points down halfway through the fourth quarter, you had to wonder just what Scott Brooks was going to pull out of his hat. What he did was to switch the defensive assignments, putting Kevin Durant on David West. And West didn’t score another point until the buzzer; he even missed two free throws, fercrissake. In fact, the Hornets in aggregate didn’t score again until the 0:34 mark, when Chris Paul ran off a trio of freebies; but that wasn’t going to be enough. Oklahoma City, which can’t win on Sunday, apparently can’t lose on Monday; they won this one 95-89.

How important was defense? The Thunder weren’t going to win this one with offense, not with 37.8-percent shooting. So Serge Ibaka scored zilch, but he grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots. Durant had 11 boards to go with 26 points. Yet another double-double for Russell Westbrook (25 points, 11 assists). And the charity-stripe touch was back: 26 of 29. But get this: plus 20 (56-36) off the glass.

All five New Orleans starters scored in double figures, led by West with 20; both Paul and Emeka Okafor came up with double-doubles. But once the Thunder put on the squeeze — I imagine Westbrook saying to CP3, “Not in my house, you don’t” — it was all over but the fouling.

From here, it’s off to New Jersey (Wednesday), then Toronto (Friday), followed by a Sunday home game against Golden State. Surely we can beat the Warriors.

You have to feel something for the beleaguered New Orleans Hornets, who had to finish up the preseason with a back-to-back on the road. Reasonably, they decided to rest Chris Paul and Emeka Okafor, and Peja Stojakovic was used sparingly. That pretty much left David West as the only Bee with extensive experience at the Frank Deford Center, and West scored seemingly at will, rolling up 24 points in 29 minutes. It didn’t help the Hornets, though, who were flattened by the Thunder, 101-86.

OKC finishes the preseason at 4-3. Still unseen: Nick Collison, who caught a bruise in training camp; major improvements at the post; whatever name is going to be pasted on the building, which the broadcast crew has been referring to as the Oklahoma City Arena.

The season opener is Wednesday, at home against the Chicago Bulls.

David West ran up 14 points in the first twelve minutes; he finished with 33. Nobody else could generate any offense for New Orleans, though, and the Thunder flattened the Hornets, 98-83.

Point guard Darren Collison has been pretty effective filling in for Chris Paul, and he did dish up nine assists, but he got only eight points on 3-14 shooting. In the middle, Emeka Okafor was held to two points and three rebounds, though he did block two shots. And Peja Stojakovic was conspicuous by his absence; Julian Wright started in his stead and scored ten, but the Bees missed Peja’s three-point stroke, or indeed anyone’s three-point stroke.

The Thunder wasn’t much better from beyond the arc — two of nine is no improvement over three of 14 — but they shot four percentage points better (47-43) and dominated the boards (47-38). And OKC landed five players in double figures, led as usual by Kevin Durant with 29. Russell Westbrook had another one of those almost-triple-doubles, with 17 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. And previously-missing-in-action D. J. White, just retrieved from the 66ers, rang up five points in five minutes.

So another season series concludes, and the Thunder win this one, 2-1. The homestand continues with New Jersey on Friday and Utah on Sunday, followed by three games on the road against Eastern squads.

The Hornets swept the Thunder last year, swept the Sonics the year before that, and won the first of three games this season. You have to figure that sooner or later this would have to come to a halt, and tonight in New Orleans it did, to the tune of 103-99.

In the absence of Chris Paul, who’s out for a month or so, the Bees deployed a rookie backcourt: Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton. They were up to the challenge: Thornton had 22 points, and Collison served up nine of the Hornets’ 31 (!) assists. Emeka Okafor held down the middle nicely enough — 14 points, 12 boards — and you have to figure that sooner or later Peja Stojakovic is going to nail a trey. (He was three-for-eight.) What you don’t figure, though, is for Peja to be a defensive stalwart, and he caught the Thunder napping: four steals, one blocked shot.

But the Thunder were actually making most of their shots: 42 of 73, for 57.5 percent. (Nenad Krstić made seven of eight for 14 points.) The Big Three were big again: Jeff Green, who seems to get more minutes than anyone of late, picked up 14, Russell Westbrook double-doubled with 26 points and 10 assists (and 8 rebounds), and that Durant fellow, averaging a hair under 30, put in exactly 30, including the last two free throws to ice the game. OKC had a slight advantage on the boards, 43-37, though the Hornets got twice as many offensive rebounds.

What mattered, though, was opening up some space. The Thunder, 8th in the West, were one game up on the Hornets; now it’s two, and the season series is tied at one each. (There are only three games in the series this year.)

Only two more games, both on the road, before the All-Star break.

November 2008. The Hornets trounce the Thunder, 105-80; P. J. Carlesimo is relieved of his coaching duties before the plane leaves for the next game — against the Hornets, this time in New Orleans. We lost that one, too, and we haven’t beaten the Bees since, although this one was wickedly close: 97-92, in a game that was in doubt until the last few seconds, in which the Thunder, down three, failed to get off a good shot, and James Posey finished the job with two free throws.

It didn’t matter that OKC outrebounded New Orleans, 44-35, or that they held Chris Paul to 14 points; CP3 ably distributed the ball, logging 13 assists, and all five Hornets starters finished in double figures, David West getting a team-high 19 and Peja Stojakovic hitting four of ten treys. (Peja didn’t even try from inside the arc.) What undid the Thunder, ultimately, was bad fourth-quarter shooting: three of 14, for a whole 11 points. Jeff Green, at least, was back in good form, picking up 20 points, and trusty Kevin Durant dropped in 27.

On the upside, hey, it’s the Hornets, and I suspect most of us still have a soft spot for the Bees, Berry Tramel notwithstanding. And we get two more shots at them this season.

The Pacers will be here Saturday, the second game of the homestand.

The Hornets dropped their first two preseason games, and with the possibility of a third looming, coach Byron Scott decided that the hometown crowd would rather see a win than a rehearsal for the Big Show, and brought back Chris Paul, who promptly took control of the situation. It didn’t hurt that the Thunder, who had been shooting indifferently, started shooting horribly at about that point, and the Traveling Oklahomans dropped their second preseason game, managing a feeble 10 points in the first seven minutes of the last quarter and nothing thereafter. New Orleans 88, Oklahoma City 79.

Potential worry: Last time out, the Thunder were up four after three quarters and lost. Today, the Thunder were up four after three quarters and lost. This is, I submit, not a good sign.

I believe we’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. Without Jeff Green and Kevin Durant, the Thunder go on a winning streak; without Uncle Jeff, the Durantula and Thabo Sefolosha, who turned up at practice with a sprained MCL, the eight remaining members of the OKC squad — Robert Swift managed to avoid this trip for “personal reasons” — were sitting ducks for the New Orleans Hornets, once the Bees got their defense firing on all cylinders in the fourth quarter. After three, it was New Orleans 76, Oklahoma City 72; twelve minutes later, it was 108-90.

When you’ve got only eight players, you don’t dare get into foul trouble, so the Thunder were perhaps a tad less physical than usual; New Orleans shot 53.8 percent, the Bees controlled the boards, and Chris Paul delivered 13 assists, only two fewer than recorded by the entire OKC roster. What’s more, the Hornets were without Peja Stojakovic; Julian Wright started at the three and came up with 20 points, tying his career high. David West cleared 12 boards, four offensive, and scored 14; CP3 had 21; and streaky shooter Rasual Butler was on the high side tonight, with 20. We didn’t see so much of Tyson Chandler, who got into foul trouble early, but he still had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Damien Wilkins, nailed to the bench more often than not of late, started in place of Sefolosha; while he didn’t have the Thabster’s sheer menace, he knocked down 18 points, a new season high. The Last Musketeer — this would be Russell Westbrook — actually led all scorers with 24. And the Thunder bench, all three of them, came up with 23 points, versus 21 for the half-dozen reserve Hornets. But the Thunder did not shoot well, and it got worse as the Bees amped up the D; they finished at 39.8 percent, though they sparkled (19-21) at the free-throw line.

Back home tomorrow for a shot at the Sixers, and then out on the road for a week, with the Kings, the Nuggets and the Suns waiting. This may not be pretty.

The Hornets’ Tyson Chandler, who almost became the Thunder’s Tyson Chandler, certainly does:

We come together and we make sacrifices to win. A lot of guys on our team make sacrifices to win, including myself. I sacrifice myself every night to win, and I don’t care about anything except for winning.

And that’s the thought from every player in our locker room. Every player plays with heart and that’s very unusual to have in this league. It’s a beautiful thing we have. And when you go mess that up because of different financial things, that’s when players start having problems. I know I have a problem with it.

If you trade me away and it’s about the team getting better, it’s about winning and you feel like you have a shot to contend, I’m all for it. But you can’t trade me away for future cap space. I can understand if we didn’t have a chance to win, but if we’ve got a chance to win, you can’t break that up.

It’s destiny, and that’s why I’m back.

Or, as I said when the trade was first announced:

I can appreciate George Shinn wanting to avoid the luxury tax next year, but it’s a damn shame to break up that set.

The Hornets have ten players under contract for 2009-10 at a total of $76.4 million, which will almost surely be over the tax limit; there’s nothing much that can be done about it right now.

The Tyson Chandler/Chris Wilcox-Joe Smith trade has been rescinded, following what appears to be unfavorable information disclosed in Chandler’s physical exam.

Said GM Sam Presti:

“There were some things in the medical process and outside consultants that gave us some concern.

“We have to listen to the people (conducting) our medicals. We feel the right decision for us was to move in another direction. We’re disappointed it did not work out.

We already knew Chandler had a bum ankle — he’s been sitting a month with that issue — but apparently this is more serious.

And being the worrywart I am, I keep thinking: “Cuttino Mobley.” In November, Mobley and Tim Thomas were traded to the Knicks, Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins becoming Clippers. There were unspecified issues with Mobley’s physical, though the Knicks made no move to rescind the trade; shortly thereafter, Mobley announced his retirement, blaming hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Poor guy never even got to play for New York.

So I hope it’s nothing horribly serious for TC, and that both the Hornets and the Thunder can get past this weird little contretemps.

Before this game started, one thing puzzled me: “With Wilcox and Smith gone, what happens to Scott Brooks’ three-big rotation?” There’s Collison, and there’s Krstić, and, um, yeah, right. So if it seemed that Nick was a little tentative at times, well, he was trying to stay out of foul trouble. (Collison wound up with only one point, but eight rebounds; Krstić had seven points and ten boards.)

It didn’t seem to matter so much, though, in the first quarter, when the Hornets ran out to an easy 32-18 lead and the Thunder were shooting something like minus six percent. But Loud City was its loudest of the year, and the Thunder caught up in the fourth quarter, paced by an improbable 47 points from Kevin Durant. The Bees prevailed, though, on a late bucket by Chris Paul, 100-98, giving New Orleans the series, 3-0.

And it’s not like the Chandler-less Hornets were hapless, either. David West knocked down 37 points and secured 13 rebounds; CP3 was good for 19 and served up eight dimes; Sean Marks, starting in the middle, had six points and five boards.

Still: 47 by KD. The downside, of course, was that the rest of the team had only 51. (Jeff Green did almost half of that, with 24; Russell Westbrook was the only other OKC player in double figures, with 11.)

How will Tyson Chandler, still recovering from an ankle injury, fit into things? We shall see. I expect he won’t start right away, so he can get some sort of idea of what Brooks expects from the frontcourt. But he’s only twenty-six; he can grow into this slot almost as easily as he grew into Horneticity. The difference, of course, is that he won’t have CP3 to feed him for the alley-oop. I can appreciate George Shinn wanting to avoid the luxury tax next year, but it’s a damn shame to break up that set.

I figure interim coach Scott Brooks gave the following instructions to the Thunder today:

• Don’t take so many shots if you’re not going to make them;
• We’re not going to throw bodies onto the roster just to see if someone can play this game.

And while the Hornets won this one at home, 109-97, the Thunder didn’t embarrass themselves the way they’ve done too many times this season; it’s just that New Orleans was clicking on all cylinders tonight.

I mean, really. Chris Paul got a triple-double: 29 points, 10 rebounds, 16 assists. Sharpshooter David West scored 33. The Bees won the battle of the boards, 35-29, and they only missed one foul shot all night.

But Oklahoma City, despite a second-quarter dry spell, did several things right. Brooks shook up the starting lineup: Nick Collison was shifted to center, Jeff Green to power forward, Kevin Durant to small forward (where he belongs, if you ask me), and Damien Wilkins got the start at shooting guard. Wilkins responded with 11 points; Chris Wilcox, spelling Collison, got a double-double (14 points, 10 boards); Durant, under less pressure to hit the jump shots, dropped in 30 points. And Jeff Green was decently effective at the four, turning in 17 points and five rebounds. A lot of DNP-CDs tonight: Brooks played only eight men. (New Orleans coach Byron Scott played nine, though Devin Brown was injured early and did not return.)

And that bit about taking fewer and better shots — well, if Brooks didn’t say it, the team still did it. The Thunder hit 38 of 72 for 52.8 percent; the only problem was, the Hornets were even better than that, knocking down 54.1.

If there’s one thing you hate about this game, it’s a back-to-back with a plane trip in between, and there are two such coming up. The Phoenix Suns will be at the Ford Tuesday, and then it’s off to Cleveland to play the Cavs on Wednesday; the Minnesota Timberwolves, the one team the Thunder has actually beaten, will arrive Friday, followed by a trip to Memphis on Saturday.

It was the first time the Hornets had set foot in the Ford Center since they went back home to New Orleans and turned into a playoff-quality team. At 5-5, they were having their problems, but they weren’t having anything like the problems of the current denizens of the Ford, and the Bees were happy to dispatch the Thunder, 105-80, dropping Oklahoma City to 1-12.

Nothing particularly unusual here: OKC outrebounded New Orleans, 48-35, and they’ve improved markedly at the charity stripe, hitting 25 of 29, but they still can’t hit from the field, shooting a miserable 36.6 percent. Adding to said misery: the Hornets stole the ball fourteen times, and there were eleven other Oklahoma City turnovers. They must be hosing these guys with ball repellent or something.

As a fan of the Hornets back then, I was happy to see them back in town, the score notwithstanding. Just as it used to be, David West was the sharpshooter, Chris Paul (who sat out much of the game in foul trouble) the playmaker, Peja Stojakovic the 3-point guy. And good ol’ Devin Brown, often forgotten among the bigger names, was knocking ‘em down in Paul’s absence, picking up 16 points. (Paul had 17; West led all scorers with 19.)

Robert Swift was out again: this time, a bad back. This gave Nick Collison a chance to clean up the backboards, which he did, snagging 13 rebounds and 16 points. Kevin Durant managed 17 despite tenacious Hornet defense; Jeff Green didn’t hit anything all night. Russell Westbrook was in double figures again, and didn’t make too many mistakes.

There’s not a whole lot of upside here, and there probably won’t be a lot tomorrow night when the Thunder play these same Hornets in New Orleans. Still, I gotta give Hornets owner George Shinn some props for this exchange:

Q: How will you remember the time your franchise spent in Oklahoma City?

A: I felt like I was in very deep water and could have drowned.

With a straight face, I am absolutely certain.

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.