Scott said the prospect of having replacement referees at the start of the regular season, as expected, doesn't appeal to him, even though many of the 62 who are working have experience in the NBA Development League.

"You know, we've had (replacement referees) before, and it wasn't a pretty sight," he said. "To be quite frank with you, they were terrible. I hope they're better this year. I hope they're better this year. My record of having only one or two techs in the last few seasons will probably go down in flames the first couple of months. They were pretty bad when we first had them.

"I hope (the regular referee lockout) doesn't (last long). It seems right now that it will."

Scott quipped he might start a technical-foul fund because coaches are fined $1,000 for each technical assessed against them.

"I might as well put about five grand in it right now and tell my wife (Anita) to go shopping," Scott said. "Normally when I get a tech, she says that's her shopping money. I might as well give her a check for about $5,000 and let her go shopping."

Hornets All-Stars David West and Chris Paul also expressed their hope that officials and the league can come to a contract agreement swiftly.

"It's going to be, honestly, it's going to be tough," West said. "You know that people are going to go out there and do the best that they can, but there's a certain type of expertise needed out there to officiate NBA games.

"In terms of the Basketball world, it's the tops. We need the top officials, top scorekeepers, all the way around. I don't think anybody will go out there and not do their best."

Said Paul: "Of course we want our officials. We know them by name, they know us as players and different things. It's something that's out of our hands."

Scott was still playing the first time the NBA used replacement referees in the 1990s, when regular officials were in a contract dispute.

The NBA last week went through an officials training camp using mostly those who worked D-League games. Still, Scott isn't enamored with their work.

"Well, I think that's who we had in the summer (league), those D-league refs. And they were pretty bad, too," Scott said. "So hopefully, they've gotten better in the last two months. I don't see that happening that quickly. A lot of those guys at the time when we played (in the mid-'90s) were intimidated by guys.

"A lot of them, I thought, were star-struck. You can't replace our regular officials. As much crap as we give them, they do the best job of any in professional sports. And they have the hardest job. So we're going to miss them if they're not around at the start of the season."

PACE WORK: Scott said Thursday's practice featured a good deal of full-court, five-on-five scrimmage work, in addition to half-court drills and walk-throughs.

"We're trying to add some new things," Scott said of the apparent emphasis on walk-through work, especially with the six new players on the roster. "We're trying to get these guys to understand every position on the floor, not just theirs. So it's imperative for us that we spend a lot of time going through dummy offense, a lot of time on five-on-five half court and a lot of time on five-on-five full court."

Scott said the Hornets want to improve their number of possessions this season, especially, he said, because they ranked near the bottom of the league last season.

"The (first) team was excellent today, really getting the ball up the floor," Scott said. "The thing we really emphasized today was pace. Last year, we talked about being 28th or 29th in the league as far as possessions were concerned. We showed the guys a tape this morning and told them we have to pick up our pace, get up and down the floor harder.

"Today, it was evident those guys did that. It was a pretty good scrimmage."

TICKETS ON SALE: Individual tickets for Hornets regular-season games will go on sale today at 10 a.m.

Fans will have the opportunity to purchase tickets at Hornets.com, by calling 1.800.4NBA.TIX as well as at the New Orleans Arena box office and all TicketMaster outlets.

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Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3814.