Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Hornets Run Over Kings in Opener

Oklahoma City was on display Tuesday night as the Hornets routed the Sacramento Kings 83-67 on the NBA’s opening night. J.R. Smith who scored 19 points and had two eye-popping dunks said, ``We're a young team, so we feed off the crowd easily,'' Smith said. ``It's a great city, full of great fans.''

P.J. Brown scored 20 points and 10 rebounds, Speedy Claxton added 17 and Chris Paul, the team's No. 1 pick in this year's draft, scored 13. All 12 Hornets played, and all but Chris Andersen scored.

Peja Stojakovic scored 18 and Shareef Abdur-Rahim added 14 for the Kings, who shot only 31.3 percent.

``We knew they were going to come out and attack us,'' Kings coach Rick Adelman said. ``It was the first game here. The crowd was into it.''
Next for the Hornets: Tonight @ Cleveland