Whoa, there's been some Hornets news! Let's see if I remember how to do this…

As you can see from the magnificent screen grab above, zee schedule is out, and I guess these are the most important points:

• The Hornets open the season on the road, at Boston on November 1st, then at Indiana two days later.
• The first "home" game will be in New Orleans on November 5th, which is a Sunday. Houston will be the opponent. Looks like Georgie was able to pull it off.
• The opener in OKC will be November 7 against G-State. After that, the Hornets embark on a three game road trip.

  If you ask me, this really sucks ass, because in the process of trying to please fans in both markets, the players get screwed. Their first seven games are all in different cities, which is a bunch of traveling and an obvious disadvantage. In fact, the Hornets won't have a two game homestand until the very end of November, by which time they'll have already played fourteen games. They get just a pair of two-day breaks in that span, with at most a one day break between all other games. I guess we'll get to see early on just how durable Peja, Bobby and Tyson are.

• As The Dude once said though, there's strikes and gutters, ups and downs. The Hornets may have a tough start to the season, but they have a nice home stretch. Before they finish out the regular season on a three-game road trip (Rockets, Kings, Clips), they play nine of twelve games at home (one in N.O., the rest in OKC).
• There will be six games total in New Orleans. Beyond the opener against Houston, the remaining five opponents in the Bayou will be San Antonio, Dallas, Sacto, Seattle and the Lakers.
• Five games will be nationally televised, with a further seven games being broadcast on NBATV. Five plus seven is twelve, says my calculator.
• Most awkward game of the year: Sonics vs. Hornets in Oklahoma City on April 4th.
• If you don't count the traveling between New Orleans and OKC, the team has no road trip longer than three games, which I find very unusual. isn't there usually at least a five-game east coast swing or something thrown in there?

  The Hawks, for example, will endure a pair of five-game trips and a four-game trip next season. Dallas have a six-game trip in March. Maybe the NBA scheduling dudes went easy on us because of the two homes thing. Who knows?

• Speaking of the Mavericks, the Hornets will play them four times as usual, with the first meeting being November 25th in Texas. More than any other team, I really really want the Hornets to beat the Mavericks this season. We're on like a 746 game losing streak against them, and this has to stop.

So just so you know, the 2006-07 season is not about making the Playoffs. It's about beating the fucking Mavericks.