NEW ORLEANS – David West sat at his locker Friday night, the tone of his voice lower than normal and the look on his face a tad bit more sour than would expect following a win.
But West has been on playoff teams and a division winner and beating the Sacramento Kings – the worst team in the NBA a season ago – by five points at home isn’t exactly something to be thrilled with.
“It’s the second game of the year,” West said.
It’s more than that, though.
It’s a start.
After getting throttled by San Antonio by 17 points in the season opener, the Hornets showed improvement, even if it was a minimal amount.
The bench contributed against the Kings, scoring 24 points to Sacramento’s 30 while against San Antonio, the Hornets’ bench was outscored 61-19.
And it’s the little things early in the season that count.
Emeka Okafor, having not played in the preseason, has two double-doubles in his first two games as a Hornet.
The defense held the Kings to 37.5 percent shooting after allowing San Antonio to shoot 52 percent.
Yet, that doesn’t mean the Hornets should be and are happy.
“Guys doing better job of closing guys out, doing a better job of communicating but we’re nowhere near where we should be,” Head Coach Byron Scott said.
They knew heading into the season it would be this way. Six new players, including the starting center, are on the roster. There also are three new starters from a season ago.
Scott said he thinks it could take a month for all to mesh. It could take longer.
But it’s March and April that count as long as the Hornets can hold serve for now.
“We understand it,” Chris Paul said. “That was our second game every playing with our starting center. (Julian Wright) this is his first year starting. It’s going to be a work in progress and every game, we can learn different things and hopefully we can peak at the right time. We don’t want to peak now, it’s too early in the season.
“We do want to show signs of getting better.”
And that’s exactly what they did Friday night.
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