Hornets have lost their sting

They were close to the top two seasons ago, now they look like a lottery team.

I'm confused, is this the preseason or the season?

And how do you tell the difference?

The Lakers were without Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol on Sunday night. Kobe Bryant scored 26 points in the first half, two in the second, and left with 6:58 left, as they rolled over another overmatched little team.

Oh, those were the New Orleans Hornets?

Right! Light-blue pinstriped unies, Byron Scott on the sideline, Chris Paul, brilliant as ever, David West, Peja Stojakovic . . .

Aside from that, they could be cardboard cutouts.

As recently as the spring of 2008, many of these Hornets played the Lakers here for No. 1 in the West the last weekend of the season.

The Hornets were small, lacked depth and had never competed on that level before, but didn't seem to notice or care.

Nor did falling behind by 30 points discourage them, coming back to draw within a single point before finally falling, 107-104.

Unfortunately, reality has since begun asserting itself with a vengeance.

The Hornets dropped seven games in the standings last season, going from 56 wins to 49, before exiting in the first round.

Now, with the Hornets off to a 2-5 start, going out in the first round is starting to look like the impossible dream.

Scott, coach of the year in 2008, is on the last year of

his contract with no extension forthcoming, meaning he

had better think of something fast.

Unflappable as ever and pointed as ever, Scott, who's old school personified, called his players out after they started 0-2, after which they won their home opener, beating the Dallas Mavericks.

He hasn't lit them up since, although, judging from the half hour the door to his office remained shut after Sunday's game, a storm front may be moving in.

As a Laker, Scott studied under Pat Riley, the taskmaster's taskmaster, even if Byron didn't realize he was studying at the time, as opposed to surviving.

Compared to Riley's memorable days of rage after the Memorial Day Massacre, when the Boston Celtics routed the Lakers, 148-114, in Game 1 of the 1985 Finals, Scott said his blowup last week was like clearing his throat.

"That Memorial Day Massacre blowup," Scott mused before Sunday's game, "two-hour film session and every time he stopped it, when you made a mistake, he'd just stare at you. Rewind it, play it, look at you again, rewind it again. . . . .