Hornets prepare to play first game back home in La.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- P.J. Brown knows firsthand the horrors that Hurricane Katrina brought on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region and he doesn't want anyone to forget.
Brown and the New Orleans Hornets will play the Phoenix Suns in Baton Rouge on Friday, the first of six "home" games scheduled on the campus of Louisiana State University.
Before the game, Brown hopes to get home for a few hours to tie up some loose ends.
But even 3 1/2 months after the storm, there's no way he can spend one night at his house in Slidell, La., across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.
"It's not livable," said Brown, the Hornets' 6-foot-11 center. "We really haven't even started getting it back.
"We've got it cleaned up and stuff like that just like everybody else. The insurance companies are dragging their feet with all of us."
The trip home will be a fresh reminder for Brown, who visited his flooded, damaged and looted home several times before the season began and went back again for his mother-in-law's funeral last month.
"It's special to go back home and go back and see family, see some friends and play in front of so many of our fans who haven't had a chance to see us play," Brown said. "It's bittersweet. It's tough just knowing the situation, knowing a lot of the tough times that people are going through down there."
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