The Hornets dropped to 2-5 in the preseason last night, falling to the Warriors in Oakland, 92-126 ( box | recap ). Check out the starting lineup Byron had to run with:
- Bobby Brown
- Morris Peterson
- Peja Stojakovic
- Darius Songaila
- Hilton Armstrong
Emeka Okafor and Ike Diogu sat out with their lingering injuries, David West was nursing the injury he suffered at Wednesday’s practice, while Chris Paul and Julian Wright were both listed as DNPs due to upper respiratory colds.
All those injuries would help explain why the Hornets got drubbed by the Dubs, except G-State was also missing a bunch of key contributors, including the likes of Stephen Jackson, Andris Biedrins and Kelenna Azubuike.
I can’t comment much on the game because I didn’t see it, but here’s some quick bullets from what I can gather:
- Bright spot: Darius Songaila played 22 minutes, despite leaving last Saturday’s game with a hip injury. He shot 8-of-11 from the field, finishing with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. You can see a couple of his nice back-door feeds here:
- Not so bright spots: The Warriors shot 62.5 percent from the field, got to the free throw line more, had more rebounds, assists steals and blocks, and turned the ball over less.
- The Hornets were down six points midway through the third quarter, but then the Warriors blew the game open. Byron Scott’s words via NOLA.com: “That was probably the worst half I’ve seen us play in a long time… Mentally I think we are a fragile team. We’re mentally weak. We can’t be that weak-minded. Chris and David are probably our two toughest-minded players, but that’s no excuse for the way we played.”
- Hilton Armstrong scored 15 points (6-10 FGs), pulled down 8 boards, dished 3 dimes and turned the ball over twice in 26 minutes. Sounds nice. He’s averaging 6.6 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game in the preseason.
- Hilton’s NBA.com profile says he’s never had more than two assists in a game before. Obviously Chris Paul has been hogging all the assists these past few years, keeping Hilton’s awesome playmaking ability under wraps.
- This preseason, James Posey and Morris Peterson have combined to shoot just 14-of-53 (.264) from the field, 10-of-32 (.313) from deep. I’m hoping they’re just wily vets, getting most of their misfires out of the way before the real season starts.
- Seems Darren Collison was aggressive, with his 7 free-throw attempts accounting for one third of the Hornets’ total. He finished with 17 points, 5 dimes and 3 turnovers in 31 minutes. Bobby Brown was the starting point guard, but he shot poorly and finished with 6 points, 5 dimes, 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 24 minutes.
- Marcus Thornton: 10 points, 4-14 FGs, 3 rebounds. Thornton played the fewest minutes (19) of any Hornet last night, but still managed to get up more shots than any of his teammates. He’s shooting 28-of-68 (.412) from the field in the preseason.
- Peja Stojakovic: Another bad shooting night. 2-of-9 from the field, 1-of-6 from deep. 9 points in 24 minutes.
- Anthony Morrow led all scorers with 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting. He also played the entire game, which is strange for preseason. Ah, Don Nelson, how you amuse me.
Hornets finish off their preseason schedule tonight in L.A. vs. the Clippers. Okafor won’t play, but the T-P reports that Diogu might be ready to go. Game tips at 9:30 p.m. Central.