A disappointing December somewhat diminished the New Orleans Hornets' brilliant start and had the team on the verge of falling out of the top eight in the Western Conference.
They have quickly regrouped.
Coming off an impressive comeback victory, the Hornets look to win for the seventh time in nine games Saturday night when they visit the Charlotte Bobcats.
Things weren't looking good for New Orleans (24-16) at Houston on Friday, with a 16-point deficit in the final minute of the third quarter, but the Hornets came charging back to win 110-105 in overtime. David West had 29 points and former Bobcats center Emeka Okafor finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds for New Orleans, which has won three straight - the last two in OT - and six of eight.
"For maybe 40 minutes of that game, we didn't play our basketball,"
said Chris Paul, who had a quiet night, finishing with 11 points, eight assists and five turnovers, "but it showed a lot that we got stops when we needed to and made big plays when we had to."
The Hornets struggled a bit defensively against the Rockets before clamping down in the final period, forcing them to miss 13 of 18 fourth-quarter shots.
New Orleans, which is second in the league in scoring defense at 92.5 points per game - and 19-1 when limiting opponents to 93 points or fewer - came up with a similar late defensive stand in its first meeting with the Bobcats.
In New Orleans on Dec. 1, the Hornets went on an 18-4 run in the fourth quarter to turn what had been a close game with 16 lead changes into an 89-73 victory. West finished with 22 points and Paul had nine points and 14 assists for New Orleans, which is trying to sweep the season series from Charlotte for the first time since 2007-08.
The Hornets are also trying to win four straight games for the first time since opening the season 8-0. New Orleans won 11 of its first 12 games, but that was followed by a 7-13 stretch that dropped it just 1 1/2 games ahead of eighth-place Portland. The Hornets are now in sixth place, four games clear of the West's final playoff spot.
The Bobcats (15-22) are percentage points behind Philadelphia for eighth place in the East.
Charlotte is coming off a 99-94 loss at Boston on Friday that snapped a season-best four-game winning streak. The Bobcats trailed by two with just over eight minutes to go, but the Celtics scored 11 of the next 13 points and Charlotte couldn't recover.
"Mentally we've got to come with it a little bit more,"
interim coach Paul Silas said. "It's a mental game. That's what I told those guys - 90 percent of it is mental and we are just not there yet."
Gerald Wallace, playing in his second straight game Friday after sitting out nine of the previous 11 because of a left ankle injury, led Charlotte with 20 points, while D.J. Augustin added 19. Augustin is averaging 19.8 points in his last nine games - 5.4 better than his season average.
The Bobcats hope to bounce back in Charlotte, where they've won three straight and nine of 13.
The Hornets have been tough on their opponents' home courts, however, having won four of five on the road after dropping nine of their previous 10 away from New Orleans.
