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West helps Hornets get past Orlando

Feb 12, 2011 - 5:02 AM Orlando, FL (Sports Network) - David West finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds while Willie Green poured in a season-high 24 points, as the New Orleans Hornets held on for a 99-93 victory against the Orlando Magic.

Six players scored in double digits for the Hornets, who snapped a four-game slide and had lost six of their last seven.

Dwight Howard posted 20 points and 17 boards for the Magic, but made only 4- of-12 free throws as they had a two-game winning streak broken. They shot 5- of-21 from three-point range.

"We were able to fight and defend the three-point line and make things tough for them," West said.

Orlando has been treading water for about a month, winning exactly half of its last 18 games. Included in that stretch are two losses to the Hornets -- Friday's, and an overtime setback on January 12.

"Right now if you just look at the results, bottom line is that we can't beat a good team," said Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy. "That's the bottom line, we've lost eight straight to teams that are over .500 right now, and we haven't been able to play at the level we need to play, to play teams like that. That's the bottom line. It's going to have to change."

The Magic were down by nine at halftime but erased that deficit by the start of the fourth quarter, when the game was tied, 80-80.

Both teams played in front during the final 12 minutes, but not by more than two possessions, making leads easier to wipe out. After Orlando built an 89-84 edge with a little under nine minutes left, Green hit a jumper, Aaron Gray threw down a dunk, and Green buried a three-pointer to put New Orleans up 91-89.

Magic reserve Earl Clark followed with a jumper of his own, but Orlando made only one field goal the rest of the way -- J.J. Redick's layup with 25.7 seconds to play.

The Hornets' offense wasn't firing on all cylinders, but the Magic's near- total inability to score down the stretch allowed New Orleans to come away with the win.

West's jumper with 3:22 left and Green's bucket with 1:56 on the clock gave New Orleans a 95-91 edge, and the Magic squandered their next two possessions with turnovers. Particularly damaging was an apparent miscommunication that led to Hedo Turkoglu throwing the ball out of bounds with a little more than a minute left.

Redick's basket had the Magic within two, but West followed by making 1-of-2 free throws. After another Turkoglu turnover, Chris Paul drained two foul shots for a 98-93 advantage with 22.2 seconds remaining.

Jameer Nelson's errant three-pointer at the other end secured New Orleans' victory, and was one of numerous shots Orlando missed in the quarter. While the Hornets made only 7-of-20 field goals, the Magic made 5-of-18 and turned the ball over six times.

Howard scored 12 points in the first quarter, but the Hornets carried a 28-24 edge into the second. Jarrett Jack scored all 13 of his points in the second quarter to help New Orleans go into halftime with a 61-52 advantage.

Gilbert Arenas made two jumpers in the final 31.5 seconds of the third quarter to knot the game at 80.

Game Notes

Paul finished with 15 points and seven assists. Also Friday, Paul was fined $15,000 by the NBA for verbal abuse of a game official. The incident took place after the Hornets' 103-101 overtime loss at New Jersey on Wednesday...Turkoglu scored 16 points for the Magic. Clark ended with a career-high 14 points, while Redick also scored 14.