With yesterday's 112-103 loss to the Gun Shot Wounds, the Hornets have now dropped three straight losses in the preseason. Sure, these games don't really matter, but there are some causes for concern. Real quick…

• The Hornets are giving up an average of 100.5ppg, which is really awful when you consider that they held the Mavs to 81 in the opener last week.
• The Warriors were without three of their regular starters, with Jason Richardson (knee surgery rehab), Troy Murphy (broken nose) and Baron Davis (left thigh) all absent. The Hornets, meanwhile, were just missing Tyson Chandler (slight ankle sprain) and Bobby Jackson (night off).
• The fouls are getting ridiculous, with three Hornets (Simmons, Mason and West) fouling out against the Warriors, and four other players picking up four hacks apiece. In fact, out of the nine Hornets to see action against G-State, only Hilton Armstrong managed to avoid a whistle. Simmons was especially slap-happy, as his six fouls came in just 15 minutes of play. Four of those came during a three-minute span in the second quarter.
• All these fouls have led to opponents shooting an average of 40.3 free-throws in the last three games. Yesterday's game would have been an embarrasing blowout if not for the Warriors missing 19 of their 48 attempts. Yes, you read that right: forty-fucking-eight!

• Peja shot 2-of-10. Again. Byron Scott says it's just down to lack of conditioning and there's no cause for concern.
• Chris Paul continues to struggle with his shooting. After yesterday's 2-for-8 performance, he's now 9-for-26 through four preseason games, and has yet to bust a triple.

However, every cloud…

• There were only four people at the Staples watching the game, so nobody really knows how much we sucked.
• Jannnnnnero Pargo had his best game of the preseason yesterday, not only doing his usual bombs-away for 17 points, but also pretending to be an actual point guard by dishing 10 assists. He did cough it up five times, but helicopters aren't perfect either.
• Linton Johnson can date my sister! Hell, he can even break her heart and leave her, I don't care. After his 17-point, 7-rebound effort last night, there's not much he could do to piss me off right now. LJ is averaging 11.5ppg and 7.8rpg in about 25 minutes a night in the preseason. Byron Scott loves Linton, too:
  
  "Right now, Johnson has that (power forward) position won. I was looking at him as more of a three, but he's playing better than anybody we have on the bench at the four or the three. Linton gives me everything I want: a guy who's tenacious on the defensive end, a guy who goes after every loose ball, a guy who goes after every rebound at both ends of the floor. You can't get mad at a guy who plays his heart out, and that's what Linton does."
• Warriors rookie pivot Patrick O'Bryant, drafted three slots ahead of our own Hilton Armstrong, hasn't been showing much this preseason, averaging 3.3 points and 2.0 rebounds thus far. Hilton, meanwhile, is averaging 4.5 and 2.5.

As stated, we can't read into all this too much. Last year, JR Smith had games of 26, 24 and 18 points in the preseason, while David West averaged 6.4ppg. We all know how those two turned out.

The loss to the Warriors, coupled with the Lakers loss to the Clippers yesterday — a game which saw seven technical fouls — means the Bugs will play the Lakers tonight at 9:30pm.

The Lakers are riddled with injuries, and will likely be missing Kobe, Kwame and Chris Mihm, and possibly Vlad Radmanovic and Kirk Snyder's old buddy, Von Wafer.

Before I go, be sure to check out this nifty Hornets roster preview over at Hornets Central.

Done.