"Boris Diaw laughed and rolled his eyes Wednesday, as teammate Stephen Jackson kept calling him "Magic Johnson.''

"I tried to organize the chaos,'' Diaw said of his power forward-to-point guard-to-center transition in the Charlotte Bobcats' 105-98 preseason victory over the New Orleans Hornets.

Diaw played about half of his 39 ½ minutes at the point, finishing with 15 points, seven assists and two turnovers. This was more than a preseason experiment. With Shaun Livingston and rookie Sherron Collins currently too injured to play effectively, Diaw and Jackson might play some point in the regular season.

"Stephen Jackson and Boris have the makings to play point guard. But it's hard for them to guard point guards,'' coach Larry Brown described. "Because of that, you've got to have a shooting guard who can move his feet,'' switching defensive assignments.

The injuries are piling up. Livingston has missed all seven exhibitions with soreness in his left knee. Brown decided Collins' ankle sprain and knee contusion were slowing him down too much to perform. That left starter D.J. Augustin (15 points and five assists) as the only healthy true point guard.

Considering all that, the Bobcats made an impressive comeback from a 14-point first-half deficit. Gerald Wallace dribbled the length of the court for a layup to force overtime. Then Jackson (25 points) took over, with two 3-pointers and a pass along the baseline for a Wallace dunk, to win it."