Hornets' changes scramble Hawks' preparations

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Hawks didn't have a lot to go on in preparing for a New Orleans team playing without its star point guard and a new coach.

Hornets general manager Jeff Bower was on the sideline for just his second game as head coach after Byron Scott was fired Thursday. Then, in the Hornets' 86-78 loss to Portland on Friday, All-NBA guard Chris Paul severely sprained his left ankle and did not make the trip.

In situations like this, "preparation is a lot different as far as going over their offensive sets and stuff because certain guys are out," forward Joe Smith said. "You kind of have to make adjustments on the fly during the course of a game."

Coach Mike Woodson said that the Hornets couldn’t deviate too much because Bower was so new.

"They'll still revert back to some of the things they did under Byron, and I'm sure he's tweaked some things," Woodson said. "You've just got to play off of what we saw from [Friday] night's game, which we watched, and go from there."

Rookie guard Darren Collison started at point in place of Paul.

Reaching out

Woodson said he and his staff would reach out to Scott on Sunday and invite him to visit a Hawks practice, which he said was a common courtesy for terminated coaches.

"He'll rebound from it," Woodson said of the 2007-08 coach of the year. "Byron's a good coach. I'm sure he'll resurface somewhere."

First place

The Hawks started Saturday in first place in the Southeast Division, by a half-game over Miami. Said forward Al Horford, "I like it. It's something we're going to make sure to try to stay on top, but it's real early in the year."