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Lots of people will tell you that exhibition games are meaningless; a team's record in the preseason is a poor indication of how they'll perform in the regular season. Is that really the case?

We dived into the numbers from every Hornets' preseason and regular season. Here's what we found.

Win Percentage

That data in a graph:

As you can see, there is some correlation between the two outcomes - but nothing that is fixed in stone.  I looked around for studies about the correlation between pre-season and the regular season and found an average correlation of .34 between NBA's pre-season and Regular season.  A correlation of 1.0 would mean they are an exact match.  A correlation of 0 means that they are completely independent - i.e. you can draw nothing from pre-season at all.  A correlation of -1.0 means that they are exactly opposite.(I.E. a team that wins 25% of its games in the preseason would win 75% of its regular season games)

For the football fans among you, it looks like there is a .25 correlation between football's regular and pre-season.  So the NBA's pre-season is slightly more predictive, but not much.

Here are a bunch of other stat comparisons for you to consume as well.  In essence, they tell much the same story as the record - but they are still interesting on their own.

Points For

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And mercifully, the preseason has come to an end. The Hornets dropped their final exhibition game last night, losing to the Clippers in L.A., 88-91 ( box | recap ). Here's some highlights, featuring Hilton Armstrong getting punked twice by Blake Griffin:

Once again, I didn't get to see the game, but here's a few notes from the box score and around the interwebs...

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Interesting article from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who reports that Emeka Okafor isn't winning over his Hornets' teammates with his slow recovery from that toe injury. A few excerpts:

An NBA source told Yahoo! Sports that Okafor was cleared to play by the Hornets’ medical staff two weeks ago and by his own doctor a week later. Most of Okafor’s teammates know he has been cleared and are eager to see whether he works out with them for the first time over the weekend.

“He better practice Sunday or he could lose some guys,” one Hornet said.

Prior to the Hornets’ shootaround on Thursday morning, Okafor acknowledged he has been medically cleared to play “based on how I feel.” He said he hopes to practice on Sunday.

“He might have been cleared medically, but from a mental standpoint he is not cleared,” New Orleans coach Byron Scott said. “In his mind, he says he’s not ready. When you have a guy that says he is not ready, the worst thing you can do is force him to get out there.”...

So far, Okafor hasn’t participated in anything with his teammates aside from walking through the Hornets’ offense during one practice. Point guard Chris Paul coaxed him to participate in the walk-through, one team source said...

Okafor said the injury has been more serious than it appears.

“You can ask anyone that’s had a toe injury, it sounds super weak and it sounds like an insignificant thing,” Okafor said. “But that’s your foundation. You can have a nice house, and a foundation has a crack in it and then it’s all for naught. The whole thing comes crumbling down.

“People don’t realize how much your toe has to do with your movements. That’s carrying your whole weight. If something is off that carries your whole weight and you’re not careful, it’s something that can trickle and cause other things to mess up. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. You want to give your body a chance to not only heal short-term, but long-term.”

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The Hornets dropped to 2-5 in the preseason last night, falling to the Warriors in Oakland, 92-126 ( box | recap ). Check out the starting lineup Byron had to run with:

• Bobby Brown
• Morris Peterson
• Peja Stojakovic
• Darius Songaila
• Hilton Armstrong

Emeka Okafor and Ike Diogu sat out with their lingering injuries, David West was nursing the injury he suffered at Wednesday's practice, while Chris Paul and Julian Wright were both listed as DNPs due to upper respiratory colds.

All those injuries would help explain why the Hornets got drubbed by the Dubs, except G-State was also missing a bunch of key contributors, including the likes of Stephen Jackson, Andris Biedrins and Kelenna Azubuike.

I can't comment much on the game because I didn't see it, but here's some quick bullets from what I can gather:

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The Hornets got their second preseason win in six tries last night, knocking off the Indiana Pacers 108-96 at the New Orleans Arena ( box | recap ).

Rookie Marcus Thornton was the big story. He got his second consecutive start, played 34 minutes and chipped in 19 points (7-17 FGs), 7 rebounds and 2 assists. But the numbers don't really tell it. This was my first time seeing Thornton play, and I came away extremely impressed. He's very decisive with the ball, able to catch on the move and dive right to the hoop, absorb serious contact and still get a shot up. He's never afraid to attack the basket, even taking it one-on-two or one-on-three a couple of times on the break. He was able to finish the play or get to the free throw line far more often than he got stripped or blocked. He was also relentless crashing the boards on both ends last night, causing some havoc for the Pacers. His motor was always running.

Of course, this was just one game so it's best not to get too high on the Hornets second-round draft pick just yet. The Pacers are not exactly known for their defensive efforts, as evidenced by the 110ppg they're giving up in the preseason. Plus, the jury is still out on Thornton's own defensive abilities. He seems to have the energy and willingness at that end of the floor, but when he's guarding the likes of Brandon Rush and Luther Head, it's hard to know if he's for real.

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