Hornets Sting Suns

The Charlotte Hornets kept things simple against the tired Phoenix Suns.

The Hornets cruised to a 100-79 victory with rapid-fire scoring at the beginning of the second, third and fourth quarters Saturday night. The Suns were playing their fourth game in five days.

Eddie Jones led Charlotte's balanced attack with 20 points, followed by Derrick Coleman with 19, Anthony Mason with 15, and Brad Miller and Baron Davis with 13 each.

Phoenix trailed 52-49 on Hardaway's driving layup with 11:18 left in the third period, but Charlotte outscored the cold-shooting Suns 11-0 over the next 4:28. Mason's reverse layup with 6:50 left in the quarter gave the Hornets a 63-49 lead.

"We made a conscious effort to run up and down the court," said Jones, who scored at least 20 points for the 19th time this season. "Once we started getting some easy baskets in transition, we were able to stretch it out."

Charlotte's 21-point winning margin was its largest of the game. The Hornets have won five straight against Phoenix at home dating to March 17, 1996.

"We know how we feel when we play four games in five nights, so we really wanted to take it to them," Hornets coach Paul Silas said. "Phoenix was tired from a long road trip, but I liked the way our guys playe. We had a lot of inside production particularly from Anthony Mason and Derrick Coleman."

Charlotte also turned in one of its best defensive performances of the season. After shooting 13-of-20 from the floor in the first period, Phoenix connected on just 18-of-58 shots the rest of the way.

"They're a good shooting basketball team, but I think we did a great job on the perimeter," said Jones, who also had four steals. "Every shot they took was challenged. I'm really satisfied with the job we did."

Charlotte trailed 30-25 after the first period, but scored the first 10 points of the second quarter to lead 35-30 on Baron Davis' short-range bank shot 9:52 before halftime.

Hardaway's driving layup with 48.9 seconds left finished the first-half scoring, and Charlotte led 52-47 at halftime.

"Teams are having runs in the second quarter that are making close games into big leads for them," Hardaway said. "We were also flat coming out for the second half. This is making us have to battle uphill for the rest of the game. We're not giving our coach the best effort."

Phoenix coach Scott Skiles said he was mystified by his team's lackluster performance.

"I'm speechless right now," he said. "There's not much I can say. Our execution right now is not good, and the more we work on it, the worse it gets. We have to regroup. There's only one way we can go from here, and that's up."

Charlotte held Phoenix to 4-of-17 shooting from the floor in the second period, but the Suns stayed close by converting seven of 10 free throws in the quarter.

Robinson led Phoenix with 13 first-half points, followed by Hardaway with 11.

Notes