Hornets Dress Up for Oklahoma City

The Hornets play their regular season home finale at Ford Center in Oklahoma City. (By Ty Russell -- Associated Press)

The New Orleans Hornets wore jerseys with Oklahoma City on the front for their regular season home finale there last night.

As a middle ground between the team's temporary home and its permanent one, players had been wearing home jerseys with Hornets on the chest and a small OKC patch on the shoulder.

"I think it's just a way of showing Oklahoma City how much we appreciate them for all they've done for us this season," Coach Byron Scott said.

A small NOLA patch to recognize New Orleans was sewn on the right shoulder in place of the OKC one.

Michael Thompson , the Hornets' director of corporate communications, said the team had been planning the gesture since the start of the season.

The Hornets will play 35 games in Oklahoma City next season and six in New Orleans. The team moved temporarily to Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August.

Owner George Shinn , who repeatedly has said that the team will remain in New Orleans, addressed the crowd before the game and a video montage was shown on the center court scoreboard to thank the fans.

· CHILDRESS SUSPENDED: Hawks F Josh Childress was suspended for two games without pay for throwing a forearm onto the head of the Bulls' Andres Nocioni in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's game.

Nocioni was fined $5,000 and given a flagrant foul penalty for making excessive contact with Childress, who then retaliated and was ejected.

· YAO HAS SURGERY: Rockets C Yao Ming had surgery yesterday to repair a broken bone in his left foot and is expected to be ready by next season.

· ARTEST AILING: Kings F Ron Artest is expected to play with padding on his injured right thumb for the rest of the season. Artest hurt his thumb on Tuesday in the third quarter of a loss to the Suns. An exam revealed an aggravation of an injury that wasn't properly repaired during his college days at St. John's.

The Kings are 23-14 since acquiring Artest in a trade with the Pacers on Jan. 26.

-- From News Services