NEW YORK -- On the subject of his altercation with Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul was mum Monday. On the subject of whether he smacked Al Harrington upside the head, he was in denial.

But as for his team, the New Orleans Hornets, Paul didn't mince words after a 117-111 loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night.

Paul is not a happy man with his team now 1-3, and here's why.

"When we talk right now, me, coach [Byron Scott] and [general manager] Jeff Bower, it's all about what can we do with the guys we have," Paul said. "I mean, we have guys that are capable of doing anything anyone else does in this league. We've just got to find it.

"Every team has an identity, a style of play they have. We have to find out if we're going to be a fast team, are we going to be a slow-down team, are we going to run a set every time? We just have to find out what our identity is."

They also have to figure out how to play better defense, because any team that allows 117 points to the New York Knicks simply cannot be considered among the league's elite or near-elite, no matter how far they've come over the past two seasons.

Back then, "We knew going in every night what this guy would do or this guy would do, and right now we've got such a different team, so many new guys, we haven't found that yet," Paul said.

Offensively (unless a way is found to bring Stephen Jackson aboard), there simply may not be enough talent to go around -- especially in the starting lineup, if Scott sticks with his preseason decision to bring Peja Stojakovic off the bench.

Paul (12-for-18 for 32 points with 13 assists), Emeka Okafor (9-for-13, 24 points) and David West (7-for-13, 21 points) carried their share of the load. But Julian Wright contributed only two points, Morris Peterson added nine and the bench shot a combined 8-for-29, with half those buckets coming from Stojakovic.

Coming off a humbling loss the previous night at Boston, along with a 17-point loss to San Antonio on opening night (and a five-point home victory over Sacramento), the Hornets now face three consecutive tough opponents -- Dallas, Toronto and the Lakers -- as they attempt to figure out what's ailing them and turn it around quickly.

Paul was pretty much a one-man offense for the Hornets in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points, but New Orleans allowed New York to shoot 60 percent from the field and sent the Knicks to the line 18 times. After beginning the quarter with a four-point lead, they fell behind by 12 with 2:50 left and had no more juice.

For a moment midway through the fourth, it appeared Paul had a little extra fight left in him -- perhaps from frustration, perhaps from some holdover emotion from the previous night when he exchanged words with Rondo during and after the game and reportedly had to be restrained from going into the Celtics' locker room to confront Rondo.

"That's over and done with. I don't even remember what he said," Paul said.

Scott also claimed to not know exactly what was said between Paul and Rondo, and one member of the Hornets said what particularly irked Paul after the buzzer was Rondo saying something to the effect of: We won the game, what are you going to say now?

Scott's take on it: "I think there comes a point in time during the game, or even after the game, when somebody says something to you -- and the only thing I heard Chris say at the end of the game when we were walking off is that, 'He is going to respect me as a man.' So I don't know what Rondo said, but obviously Chris took exception to it."

Against the Knicks, Paul and Harrington were scrambling for a loose ball midway through the fourth when Harrington felt something striking him on the back of his head. Replays appeared to show it was Paul, swiping in the direction of the loose ball.

"That was nothing," Harrington said. "I dove for the ball, and I think he thought I fouled him, so he was, like, frustrated. I don't know what he thought, but it wasn't nothing I was worried about or nothing nobody should review or anything like that."

Paul's version: "When he dove for the ball it was like he grabbed my legs, and I just couldn't get to the ball. I was trying to get to the ball because I had just had the turnover."

As he answered that question, and the one about Rondo, an unmistakable look of frustration crossed Paul's face. Unmistakable because that look -- and the words explaining that frustration -- are things we're starting to see and hear plenty of from CP3.