Hornets co-owner George Shinn dropped by practice to give a motivational speech, an out-of-the ordinary occurrence unlike anything P.J. Brown had seen in his 11 seasons.
"It was kind of surprising," Brown said after Tuesday's practice, which included a team meeting and lasted about two hours longer than usual.
When the season began, the Hornets were widely considered contenders for the Eastern Conference title. But with a record of 33-30 -- half the losses coming against teams with losing records -- New Orleans could finish below the top four and would have to open the playoffs on the road.
"We've got ourselves in a situation where there's a sense of urgency -- no doubt about that," general manager Bob Bass said. "I feel better off than those teams below us, but we haven't played well the last four or five games."
New Orleans learned this week that Jamal Mashburn, who missed the first 44 games because of right knee surgery, will m be sidelined an additional 12 games or so after experiencing swelling in the knee last weekend.
Bass has declined to get into specifics about what he thinks has gone wrong, but he made it clear he had no interest in discussing whether coach Tim Floyd is having any difficulty relating to his players.
"I don't have any comment on a question like that," Bass said. "You've got to be kidding me with a question like that."
Brown said the team meeting appeared to help produce an upbeat practice.
"Guys were into it, so I think that kind of proved that we still believe in coach Floyd and the coaching staff and what they're trying give to us," he said.
The Hornets have been talking about winning the East for the past five seasons but have yet to get past the second round of the playoffs. Last season's first-round loss prompted Shinn and co-owner Ray Wooldridge to replace Paul Silas with Floyd, who bolted to a 17-7 start. Since then, New Orleans has gone 16-23.
Sometimes the Hornets have played well, twice beating Indiana -- the best team in the East -- by double-digit margins since the All-Star break.
But they also have lost three times to Silas' new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the latest defeat among three to losing teams in the past nine days. The Hornets also lost at Washington, one of the five worst teams in the NBA, and to Toronto, which had lost nine of 10 games before the Hornets came to town.
All-Star Baron Davis was taken out of the starting lineup Sunday at Toronto for missing a morning meeting, then was kept on the bench for the final period after shooting 3-of-12.
"That's over with. Let's move on," Davis said. "I need to step my game up, work a little harder in practice, and with Mash being out things are going to be even harder -- harder than at the beginning of the season because teams are playing playoff basketball now."
Recently, Floyd has questioned the passion his players have shown, but he also has blamed the Hornets' inconsistency on injuries that have caused Mashburn and starting guard David Wesley to miss significant time, and Davis to miss six games.
"Our basketball team has had to make more adjustments than anybody in the Eastern Conference," Floyd said. "Every time you lose a player, there's an adjustment. And every time you get a player back, there's a readjustment to that guy and the chemistry in this league."
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