WESTWEGO ― A season ago, the Hornets won the franchise’s first-ever division championship.

The way New Orleans played in the preseason, it’s hard to imagine it being an anomaly.

Photo by Manu Fernandez / The Associated Press

New Orleans' Chris Paul, left, drives by Washington's Antawn Jamison during a preseason game this year. The Hornets went 7-0 and hope to carry over a mentality of something to prove during the 2008-09 season.

The Hornets finished 7-0, the only team in the NBA to go undefeated this year before the regular season and the first since Detroit did it in 2002-03.

More impressively, New Orleans won all seven games by an average of 15 points.

But don’t think for a minute the players are content. Heck, don’t even believe that they think 7-0 in the preseason is all that important.

“No, you can take something from going 7-0 in the regular season,” Hornets center Tyson Chandler said. “What you can take is the positive things we accomplished. Regardless of our record, we accomplished some great things – defensively we were jelling together and getting our offense going.”

New Orleans previous preseason best was a 5-3 record, done four times in the history of the franchise.

Three of the four times the Hornets were above .500 in the preseason, they went to the playoffs.

“We still have a lot of things to work on,” head coach Byron Scott said. “But I’m very excited about the progress we’ve made, especially on the defensive end. It’s something that we’re going to harp on all season long. We do know that’s going to be our staple this year.”

So, what set New Orleans on this path?

Scott instituted a regular season mentality for the preseason.

As one reporter asked Chandler on Monday, the question now is can the Hornets transition from being the hunter to the hunted.

“We’re definitely going to get everybody’s A game,” Chandler said. “That’s what’s so tricky after a successful year. We can’t necessarily count on what everybody else is doing. We have to bring our energy and effort to 100 percent night in, night out.”

Photo by Darren Abate / The Associated Press

New Orleans Hornets head coach Byron Scott

Scott got the attention of his players prior to training camp, lighting a fire under the team with a speech the night before the first practice.

“We talked about that the first night before training camp started,” Scott said. “I think they understand we’re not going to sneak up on anybody. We do have a little bit of a target on our back. If you’re a real competitor, that’s what you kind of like. You like the fact that everybody is going to give you their best.

“There’s going to be a lot of teams that are trying to reach that upper echelon of the NBA that’s going to measure up against us, which to me is great. But with that comes the pressure that you’ve got to be ready to play every night.”

With MVP candidate Chris Paul, 2007-08 All-Star David West, Chandler and new addition James Posey on board, it’s hard to believe the Hornets will fall back this year.

And if they do improve on last year’s breakout season, it’ll be about that attitude Scott tried to form early on.

“We’re not the champ,” Chandler said. “The Boston Celtics are the champs. We didn’t even win a Western Conference final. With everything said with all the predictions, we still have yet to do anything.”