The New Orleans Hornets went down to the Dallas Mavericks 87 to 74 in a preseason match-up that was cringe worthy for Hornet fans. 

Things weren’t great tonight, were they? The Hornets were completely out of sorts once more this pre-season as both the offense and defense looked like a train-wreck.

That’s okay though, we’re young.

New Orleans has a lot of flaws that can’t be covered up by talent. Tonight the Hornets had a staggering 19 turnovers against one of the poorer defensive teams in the league. Terrible movement on offense combined with poor decision making equals turnovers and low-percentage shots on offer.

There were some bright moments in the game, but not many. It just never seemed fluid on offense. No one is really a shot creator and when Austin Rivers went down with what appeared to be either a serious knee or ankle injury it all got worse.

For those wondering, Rivers has an ankle-sprain but there is no word on the severity of it. Expect him to be out for the rest of the pre-season.

That was probably the best news of the day and with that let’s head into the recap.

The Good

• Robin Lopez and the entire Hornets front-line was seriously active on the glass tonight. Lopez himself had 11 rebounds and was able to get a lot of put-back shots. Anthony Davis also chipped in with 17 rebounds. The team had a total of 62 rebounds to the Mavericks 40. Wow.
• Darius Miller is an NBA player. That’s comforting to know because he was a second-round pick. I know a lot of you might be saying he could be a future starter for us, but if you want a championship team you don’t bet your hopes on him. Even still Miller hit two 3’s and was active on defense.
• Ryan Anderson and Roger Mason were able to hit some of their shots at varying periods of the game. While they cooled off almost immediately they did seem to get some good looks off excellent off-ball movement.

The Bad

• Lopez is not the answer in the low-post. The only move he has is a hook shot and it’s pretty horrid. Anthony Davis was also given the ball in the iso-post, but he never looked to back his man down, rather drift out like a guard and try and take him AAU style. That’s not going to work in this league and it’s very concerning for a guy trusted to be our cornerstone of the future. Needs to get used to bumping shoulders.
• Defensive rotations weren’t crash hot either. At times the Hornets would let the man with the ball dribble right down the key off a rebound. As well they’d get stuck behind picks and be confused as to their rotation responsibilities. This will take time as guys get used to the scheme they’re playing.
• If Lance Thomas is our starting small-forward this season it will be very rough. I know he hustles and works his butt off, but he brings little skills to the team.

The Ugly

• The Hornets shot 29% in the first half then finished at 33% for the game.
• The turnovers — 19 of them.
• The Hornets didn’t get to the line nearly enough. That’s a component of poor, unaggressive offense.

There’s a lot to work on for the Hornets. Keep practicing, keep trying to get a feel for each others game. Let’s hope they can get some fluidity on offense because things don’t look great.

I really wish Austin Rivers a speedy recovery. I think everyone thought he tore or broke something. X-Rays returned negative so we thank you great spaghetti monster controlling our NBA fate.

The same goes to Eric Gordon and Jason Smith because we need them back in a bad way. Gordon for his offensive prowess and Smith for a glue-guy that gets things going on both sides of the court.

Final Word: Repugnant. 

Follow James on Twitter at: @jsgrayson