Los Angeles - The Washington Wizards flew to Berlin but forgot to make their presence felt in a pre-season game. Reserves Rasual Butler and James Posey had 20 and 17 points, respectively, as the New Orleans Hornets whipped the short-handed Wizards 96-80 on Wednesday night in front of a sold out crowd of 14,000 at the 02 World Arena.
Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was hoping his team would put on a good effort even without injured all-stars Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison as the NBA continues to promote the sport overseas.
No such luck.
Olympic gold medalist Chris Paul scored four of his nine points and handed out eight of his 11 assists as New Orleans jumped to an 18-0 lead en route to a 36-9 cushion after the first quarter. The lead swelled to 61-24 by halftime, and the Hornets coasted home with the easy victory before the disappointed fans.
"We missed some shots, and they forced us to miss some," Jordan said of the blowout. "I don't know if the whistles and jeers were because we were missing shots. I thought it was because we were missing shots, and we didn't show up."
DerMarr Johnson led the Wizards (1-3) with 19 points and DeShawn Stevenson added 15 on five 3-pointers.
The Wizards get a chance for redemption when the two teams meet again on Friday in Barcelona.
Elsewhere: LA Clippers 90, Oklahoma City Thunder 88 Al Thornton scored 23 points and Ricky Davis hit the go-ahead basket with just under a minute left as the Clippers spoiled the Thunder's first-ever home game at the Ford Center.
The Thunder, formerly the Seattle SuperSonics, led by one before rookie Mike Taylor (14 points) stole the ball from rookie Russell Westbrook. He missed the layup, but Davis (13 points) made the put-back, giving the Clippers an 84-83 lead with 49.9 ticks left.
After Westbrook missed two free throws, Taylor dunked at the other end with 31 seconds remaining, and he added two more free throws to help ice the victory.
Kevin Durant topped the Thunder (1-4) with 18 points while Frenchman Johan Petro added 12 points and 15 rebounds.
San Antonio Spurs 86, Detroit Pistons 64 Desmon Farmer scored 13 points off the bench, Tim Duncan had 10 with eight rebounds and the Spurs handed the cold-shooting Pistons their first preseason loss.
The Spurs (1-2) led by four at halftime and outscored their opponents 21-8 in the third quarter, to take a commanding 69-52 cushion into the final 12 minutes for their first exhibition win.
Will Bynum scored 10 points to lead the Pistons (4-1), who shot an icy 27.8 percent (22-of-79) from the field.
Boston Celtics 90, Cleveland Cavaliers 86 Leon Powe scored 17 points, including the go-ahead basket with just over two minutes left and made the game-saving block in the final seconds, to seal the Celtics' preseason victory over the Cavaliers.
After Powe's basket put the Celtics ahead, 85-84, the Cavaliers pulled to within 88-86 on a layup by Jawad Williams with 23 seconds remaining. A steal by J J Hickson gave the Cavaliers a chance to send the game into overtime.
After two timeouts, Vernon Hamilton spun down the lane for a layup, but Powe rejected the shot. Eddie House sank a pair of free throws with 2.2 seconds left to seal the win.
Boston's Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett finished with 15, 14 and 11 points, respectively, in limited action for the defending champion Celtics (3-1).
Daniel Gibson scored 14 points and LeBron James added 12 in 18 minutes for the Cavaliers, who lost to the Celtics 96-94 last Friday.
Philadelphia 76ers 116, New York Knicks 109 Andre Miller scored 22 points, Andre Iguodala had 18 and the 76ers (3-1) ruined the preseason home-debut of new coach Mike D'Antoni at Madison Square Garden. Nate Robinson scored 21 points, while fellow- reserve Wilson Chandler had 20 for the Knicks (1-2), who hit 15-of-32 three-pointers.
Minnesota Timberwolves 96, Chicago Bulls 86 Corey Brewer scored 15 points, and Kevin Ollie made two baskets in a late 8-0 run, as the Timberwolves wiped out an early 19-point deficit to beat the host Bulls in preseason play. Drew Gooden led the Bulls with 20 points and Argentine Andres Nocioni added 18.
Toronto Raptors 86, CSKA Moscow 78 Chris Bosh collected 24 points with 10 rebounds, helping the Raptors trim CSKA Moscow in preseason play. Ramunas Siskauskas led Moscow CSKA with 15 points.
