NEW ORLEANS – Marcus Thornton turned to fellow rookie Darren Collison and simply told him that the Hornets couldn’t afford to lose Monday night.
Turns out, neither rookie was going to let that happen.
Thornton scored 28 points and grabbed six rebounds while Collison had 16 points and a Hornets’ rookie record 20 assists and hit the game-winning shot with fewer than 10 seconds to play as New Orleans held off Golden State 135-131.
New Orleans (32-32) did it despite giving up 58.8 percent shooting, including 13 of 25 from beyond the 3-point arc, and turning the ball over 16 times. Seven of Golden State’s eight dressed players scored in double figures.
Now that the Hornets have ended a four-game losing streak, they must find a way to capture this momentum down the stretch, beginning Wednesday night in Oklahoma City. New Orleans is four-and-a-half games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 18 games to play.
“Come out with the same intensity,” Thornton said. “Oklahoma City is like a similar team to Golden State. They’ve got great individual talent. Great players. We just got to lock down on defense.
“Against Golden State in the second half, we didn’t play good defense at all and they’ve got a lot of guys that score the ball. We’ve got to tighten up.”
Prior to Monday night’s game, Head Coach/General Manager Jeff Bower said the difference for the Hornets over the past month has been that the other team has made the critical play in the final few minutes.
“We knew we were going to have to score with them because it’s awfully difficult to shut them down,” Bower said afterward.
Collison made sure that he was the one who made the final crucial play. After he milked the clock down as much as he could, the rookie point guard stuttered to his right and got Golden State’s Stephen Curry to bite.
He quickly crossed over to his left, drove the lane and aid in a soft tear drop layup from the paint for a 132-129 lead with 9.7 seconds to play.
After Golden State called a timeout, the Hornets immediately fouled, sending Reggie Williams to the free-throw line, where he made both shots.
The Warriors fouled David West on the inbound play and the veteran coolly sank both free throws for a 134-131 advantage.
With no timeouts, Golden State inbounded the ball and got it to C.J. Watson in the corner, but Watson’s shot caromed off the top of the backboard and the Hornets escaped with the win.
“I thought we were aggressive down the stretch and put the onus on them to not only defend our first shot, but to defend us on the glass,” West said. “Guys did a good job. Everybody was getting their hands on balls.”
The game was closer than the statistics might have shown.
The Hornets outrebounded the Warriors 44-23, including 15-4 on the offensive glass. The Hornets shot 58.7 percent, scored 68 points in the paint, had 24 second-chance points and the Hornets built several 12-point leads throughout.
But while the Warriors hit those 13 3-pointers, the key was the rebounding.
“I thought where it killed us was on the boards,” Warriors forward Reggie Williams said. “I didn’t do a good job rebounding. That definitely didn’t help. They out-rebounded us by 20. They got a lot of loose balls that we couldn’t get to and that led to a lot of second-chance points.”
And now the Hornets go to the Midwest looking for back-to-back wins for the first time Feb. 19 and 21. Just getting the first was tough enough, though.
“Wins are very valuable right now,” Hornets center Emeka Okafor said. “This is definitely one we needed to get and one we should get. We played a hell of a game.”
Okafor added 22 points and 11 rebounds, Morris Peterson had 12 and Peja Stojakovic had 16 points before leaving with a strained groin. He’s listed right now as questionable for Oklahoma City.
Anthony Morrow and Williams led the Warriors with 28 points apiece and Corey Maggette had 18.
