Hawks 108 Hornets 102

There's no narrative to a game that doesn't counts. Hence, bullets...

• Joe Johnson (17 points on 10 shots, 4 assists, 0 turnovers) looked sharp.
• Josh Smith looked like himself as well: solid production despite questionable shot selection and unnecessary griping at the officials.
• Joe Smith (left knee), Mo Evans (left knee contusion), and Jason Collins (strained right quad) all sat out so Othello Hunter was the second big man off the bench and Mario West the first wing.
• Frank Robinson and Randolph Morris were first guys from deep on the bench to enter the game, both got a cameo at the end of the second quarter.
• Mike Wilks came off the bench. Juan Dixon and Aaron Miles did not. If Wilks makes the team, please remember I called it.
• Not that Wilks did anything of note.
• Post-game, Woodson singled (tripled?) out Teague, Mario West, and Othello Hunter for doing "an excellent job" filling in for their injured teammates.
• Woodson also intimated that they're only keeping "one of five or six guys." I think that means Randolph Morris is going to have his contract honored. I don't see how else they get to 13 unless West and Hunter fall in some other category as returning free agents.
  
• Garret Siler came in with 5:57 left in the fourth quarter. He drew a shooting foul on his first offensive possession and made one of the two free throws.
  
• The Hawks pressed full-court for a couple of second quarter possessions against the Hornets' bench with a Teague/Crawford/West/Hunter/Pachulia.
• Teague is visibly slighter than Chris Paul.
• Don't take that to mean that he can't finish at the rim.
  
• I don't know if it was due to caution or intelligence but Teague waited until Chris Paul was not guarding him to attack the basket off the dribble.
• Teague gambles/anticipates a lot defensively with tapping the ball from behind his fall-back strategy if beat. Dwyane Wade, he ain't yet, however.
• In the excitement following his second quarter breakaway dunk, Teague needed reminders from both Bibby and Josh Smith as to who he was supposed to pick up defensively.
• New Orleans didn't provide much resistance inside without Emeka Okafor, Ike Diogu, and even Hilton Armstrong.
• Zaza Pachulia took pleasure in getting to play against Earl Barron and Sean Marks.
• Chris Paul is incapable of coasting.
• James Posey is not.
• How do we know this was a pre-season game? Mike Woodson and Byron Scott let their teams play a 100 possession game.
• If anything, the replacement refs were thorough in calling fouls. There were long stretches of summer league quality action and, just as we shouldn't draw too many conclusions about players from the pre-season games, nor should we with regard to the replacement refs.
• If the company lets you use the luxury suite for a pre-season game do you feel good about that?
• Based on informal observation in and around Section 118, adult men who attend a pre-season Hawks game are more likely to sport the jersey of a former player than a current one.
• Hornets247 was generous enough to value my opinion of their side of the game.