A brief Sunday preview.

THE OPPONENT

The Hornets come in resurgent, having won six of 11 and four of five. The victims have been no creampuffs -- the Hawks, the Suns, the Mavericks, the Bucks. Of course, none of those have come on the road. On the road, the Hornets have beaten only one team this season: the Clippers. But in fairness to New Orleans, the Kings are only the second below-.500 team (other than the Clippers) they will have faced away from southern Louisiana (the other being the Knicks -- the Hornets lost there, and Byron Scott lost his head).

Since Chris Paul went down, Darren Collison has stepped in ably. As a starter, he's averaged 15 points and nearly seven assists on decent shooting. He is also reputed as a solid if undersized defender -- he did good work on Steve Nash in their most recent meeting.

Fellow rookie Marcus Thornton isn't starting for Jeff Bower, but he's making a good impact off the bench, now averaging 12 points in 19 minutes on solid shooting efficiency. He is a gunner, taking quite nearly half of his FGAs from behind the arc. He is undersized in comparison with the Kings swingmen, and as I haven't seen Thornton more than about six or seven quarters of play, I can't really tell you how he'll do. He did fine last year in the SEC, which seems like a fairly long, athletic conference. We'll see.

David West remains inconsistent. He shredded Milwaukee on Wednesday, but preceded that with games in which he scored 6, 12 and 13 points. The Hornets need a better David West.

INTERESTING SIDESHOW

LET'S GO NETS! LET'S GO NETS! Nets at Lakers kicks off at 6:30 Pacific. I gather there will be some scoreboard watching at ARCO, and in the Game Thread. It may seem petty, but why would I care what it seems like?

NUMERIC PREDICTION

Kings by 2.

BOLD PROCLAMATION

Jon Brockman earns a Flagrant 1.

DETAILS

The game, and Game Thread, will begin at 6 PM Pacific. Post-game thread at 8:45.