"There have been times during what has been an agonizingly long short season when the Hornets put together fleeting stretches of solid basketball, a quarter here, a half there, but nothing to match the four quarters of effort on display Friday night in New Orleans Arena.

Burdened by a nine-game losing streak and playing against an Orlando team that was coming off a demoralizing loss Thursday night at home to the Boston Celtics in which the Magic blew a 27-point lead, New Orleans strung together arguably its best 48 minutes, routing Orlando 93-67 in front of an announced crowd of 16,176.

"Tonight we were consistent," Hornets center Emeka Okafor said. "In other games we've played good in spurts, maybe second and third, or first and fourth. Today we played good basketball for 48 minutes. We went through a stretch there (last week) when we lost three games by a combined six points. We knew we were right there if we could firm up a few things. Tonight we did."

Before the game, the Hornets announced that backup forward-center Chris Kaman wouldn't be at the game and wouldn't play again for New Orleans as it attempted to trade Kaman and his expiring $14 million contract, uncluttering a crowded front court of youngsters battling for rotational minutes."