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Jackson, Paul help Hornets send Heat to 10th straight loss

Jan 12, 2008 - 5:45 AM NEW ORLEANS (Ticker) -- Despite winning the first league protest in over 25 years, the Miami Heat continued their struggles on the hardwood Friday.

Bobby Jackson scored a season-high 25 points and Chris Paul added 16 and 16 assists as the New Orleans Hornets emphatically sent the Heat to their 10th straight loss, 114-88, at New Orleans Arena.

Jackson and Paul combined to shoot 16-of-16 from the floor, making all nine of their 3-pointers. Jackson set a franchise record for 3-pointers without a miss, making all seven attempts - which is also the third most in league history.

"Everything I shot felt good," Jackson said. "The basket feels real big when you have that type of confidence, and this game is all about confidence."

Another guard for the Hornets, Jannero Pargo, also made all four of his field-goal attempts, completing a perfect night from the field for the Hornets' point guards.

"Their three guards were 20-for-20," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "I don't think I've ever seen that, ever. They were getting good shots, they had a good rhythm, and we really weren't changing the rhythm of their shots."

The hot shooting for the Hornets was overshadowed when the Heat had their appeal granted earlier in the day by the NBA for a protest filed after a loss to Atlanta on December 19.

Miami, which has the Eastern Conference's worst record, correctly disputed the sixth foul that was called on Shaquille O'Neal and the final 51.9 seconds will be replayed on March 8 with the Heat trailing, 114-111.

But that was the only good news for the Heat, as the Hornets bench, which entered the game shooting a poor 21 percent from the floor in its last eight games, scored 50 points on 20-of-28 shooting (71 percent).

"The bench gave us a big lift tonight," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "It was good to see (Jackson) knock down some shots. Mel (Ely) had a good game and Ryan (Bowen) did a good job getting up and down the floor and being active."

For the game, New Orleans shot 61 percent (47-of-77) from the field and had a season-high 37 assists as a team.

"We just didn't want to get lulled into playing their style and try to keep the game in the high 80s or low 90s," Scott said. "We wanted to see if we could get it up there in the 100s, and if we did, we felt we had a real good chance to win this game."

The Hornets led by 14 at the half and used a 21-8 run to end the third quarter, taking an 86-66 lead into the fourth.

"It was an absolute washout for us," Riley said. "We could never get anything going."

New Orleans made 10 straight shots bridging the third and fourth quarters and held its biggest lead, 104-73, with 6:25 to play.

Mark Blount scored a season-high 27 points to lead the Heat, who are on their longest losing streak since dropping 12 straight early in the 2001-02 campaign.

Blount started in place of the injured O'Neal, who missed his seventh straight game with an injured left hip.

"The last several games I'm starting to feel comfortable out there," Blount said. "The guys are understanding where I am at on the floor and where we need to be to be successful together."