原文出自nola.com http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1100767298326100.xml It's almost getting too ugly for words Thursday, November 18, 2004 John DeShazier This being a family publication and all, word restraint must be exercised because the nouns, verbs and adjectives that best would describe the Hornets' situation are more appropriate for an alley. Now 0-7 after Wednesday night's 95-84 loss to Phoenix, already owners of the worst start in franchise history and inching toward infamy much more embarrassing than that, the Hornets continue to be beaten in every conceivable way. They are -- cover the kids' eyes, or hide the paper -- playing crappy basketball, far too casual for a team that should collectively require an IV because of the sweat it spills. They are the proverbial Little Engine That Can't or, at least, don't play well long enough to see if they can. "I don't know," David Wesley said inside a serene locker room. " . . . It's just really frustrating. We've got to figure this out. I don't know what else to say. "This is crazy. This is real crazy." And it's testing everyone's sanity, because patience exited stage left a while ago. Given the circumstances working in the Hornets' favor -- Phoenix was playing its second game in two nights, and should have had a little less juice on demand -- you'd have thought they would have been the fresher and hungrier team. Granted, Phoenix has a slew of young studs and, with All-Star point guard Steve Nash signed as a free agent, a leader to now point all that talent in the right direction. But two games in two nights takes some starch out of even the best of them. Only that didn't appear to be the case Wednesday night. The Suns simply wanted to kick the Hornets' fannies more than the Hornets didn't want to have their fannies kicked. The Suns (6-2) had the fervor of a parched team desperate to taste a teaspoonful of water; the Hornets, the leisurely stroll of one carrying a five-gallon bottle of Kentwood. "They just outplayed us," Darrell Armstrong said. "They outworked us. They beat us to every loose ball. They were wanting it, I think, a little more than us." And there is no more damning indictment of a team than that. Especially of one that isn't good enough to win without a disproportionate amount of "want." Amare Stoudemire, a power forward playing out of position at center for Phoenix, is a great player. He'll be the best of all time if he manhandles every opponent the way he toyed with New Orleans, resembling a father banging around his 10-year-old in the driveway. He undressed the Hornets in such a way you'd have thought there was a league rule against guarding him. "We didn't fight him," Coach Byron Scott said. "We just allowed him to go down there." The only reason Stoudemire matched, rather than topped, his career high of 38 points was because he missed eight of 18 foul shots. And speaking of foul . . . the Hornets now are foreign to the concept of drawing one. Or, at least, one that'll get them on the foul line. New Orleans attempted two foul shots against Phoenix, tying the league record for fewest attempts by a team in a game. Coupled with the then-team record low of three attempts in the previous game against Milwaukee, that's five in the past eight quarters. That's pitiful, it has to be some kind of league record for futility, and it can't all be blamed on officiating. Just as much or more, it says something about a team's aggressiveness and, perhaps, officials' perception of the lack thereof. It's a make-your-own-breaks kind of statistic, and the Hornets aren't making any breaks. "We didn't do anything to get (the win)," Armstrong said. But they've shown the ability to do more than enough to not win. And to make people suspend the etiquette and forget the good manners, and describe them with the kind of blue language that matches their blue play and results. . . . . . . . John DeShazier can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3410. --

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