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Wednesday, Jan. 24 8:00pm ET
Mashburn, Hornets end five-game skid

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Against the best defensive team in the league, the Charlotte Hornets finally starting playing some of their own.

Elden Campbell
Charlotte's Elden Campbell soars over the Knicks' Kurt Thomas.
The Hornets, awful on defense while dropping five straight games and 11 of 14, shut down the New York Knicks for an 81-67 victory Wednesday night.

"We knew we had to do something about our defense," said Jamal Mashburn, who led Charlotte with 31 points and 13 rebounds.

"We felt like our defense was really what was hurting us, so we came out tonight and contested shots and kept our hands in their faces and made it so their jumpers wouldn't fall."

The Knicks, who had their NBA-record 33-game streak of holding opponents under 100 points snapped in Tuesday night's 105-91 loss at Milwaukee, played better defense against the Hornets.

But Charlotte played even better, especially in the second half.

The Hornets caused the Knicks to either miss a shot or turn the ball over on their first nine trips up the floor in the third quarter. They held New York to 31 points after halftime on 9-for-36 shooting.

New York shot 33 percent for the game, was 3-for-17 from 3-point range, and committed 16 turnovers.

"We were there, our concentration was on," said David Wesley, who scored 18 points for Charlotte. "And it's funny that it came against them because usually they are the ones playing the great defense. But the presence wasn't there for them, it just didn't feel like that New York presence."

The game looked a little like payback from the teams' first meeting this season, when the Knicks held the Hornets to 19 second-half points in an 81-67 victory on Nov. 11.

"We weren't thinking about the first game, we were just thinking about getting a win," Mashburn said. "We just wanted to stop the bleeding and we did that tonight."

The Knicks have lost three straight for the first time since early last season.

"We're just not playing well enough to win right now," said New York coach Jeff Van Gundy. "And it's not about any one thing -- you have to play a total game to win and we're not doing that."

The Knicks were without Marcus Camby, who sat out the fourth game of his five-game suspension for throwing a punch at San Antonio's Danny Ferry on Jan. 15.

Kurt Thomas started in his place, but sprained his right ankle with 1:44 to play in the first half in a collision with P.J. Brown. He didn't return.

"Anytime you lose two of your dominant players, it takes a toll on you," said New York's Glen Rice. "You have to give some credit to Charlotte defensively, but we've got our own wrinkles to iron out."

Luc Longley, battling a stomach virus, replaced Thomas at the start of the second half and that's when Charlotte won the game.

Longley was terrible in the first few minutes, drawing a kicking violation on one Charlotte possession, then contributing to consecutive New York turnovers when he couldn't handle passes from Larry Johnson.

He was pulled for the rest of the game with 6:43 to play in the third quarter. Charlotte, which led just 38-36 at the start of the period, scored 10 straight points while Longley was on the floor to go up 48-38.

"He didn't seem comfortable in there," Wesley said. "It seemed like he wasn't expecting L.J. to go to him and he couldn't handle the ball."

The Hornets took a 64-52 lead into the fourth quarter, and built on it while New York self-destructed on offense. The Knicks missed their first six shots of the quarter, but Charlotte converted on its end to stretch its lead to 70-52 with 9:32 to play.

New York never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Latrell Sprewell led New York with 22 points. Allan Houston added 18.

"Latrell was really the only guy who played effectively offensively for us," Van Gundy said.

Game notes
Reggie Theus was scheduled to be the sideline reporter for TNT's broadcast of the game, but lost his job on Tuesday when CNN cut 1,000 jobs. The network did not send a replacement. ... Houston missed his third free-throw attempt of the night, snapping a streak of 33 in a row against Charlotte. ...Trey Phills, the 4-year-old son of late Hornet Bobby Phills, dressed as "Hugo Jr." and joined the Charlotte mascot on the floor for certain routines.
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