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Davis-less Hornets make a stop in Chicago

Nov 3, 2012 - 3:00 PM (Sports Network) - The New Orleans Hornets will try to overcome some bad news when they kick off their road schedule tonight against the Chicago Bulls.

Hornets rookie and No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis left last night's 88-86 win versus the Utah Jazz with concussion-like symptoms and will miss Saturday's showdown in the Windy City. Davis, who a gold medal with Team USA in the London Olympics, had eight points and six rebounds before taking an inadvertent elbow to the head by fellow rookie teammate Austin Rivers.

Greivis Vasquez's basket with 1.3 seconds left lifted the Hornets and he ended with 13 points and 10 assists. Robin Lopez and Ryan Anderson each totaled 19 points for New Orleans, which dropped its season opener to San Antonio.

"To hold a team like that to 86 points says a lot about our defense. We had a number of guys play tonight and played everybody but two guys - certainly, a team effort in every sense of the word," Hornets coach Monty Williams said. "For us, it's going to have to be by committee, but we are finding out that we are going to have to play this way to win games."

New Orleans held a 56-36 points in the paint advantage over Utah and shot 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from beyond the arc.

The Hornets have won their last two road openers, and are still without guard Eric Gordon because of a balky knee.

Chicago knows what it's like not have a top point guard, as former MVP Derrick Rose is still recovering from a torn knee ligament suffered in last season's playoffs.

However, the Bulls are 2-0 so far without Rose and are trying to start 3-0 for the first time since going 12-0 back in 1996-97. In Friday's 115-96 blowout at Cleveland, Carlos Boozer had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists to lead Chicago, which was a sizzling 63.8 percent for the game and opened the campaign with a home win versus Sacramento.

Richard Hamilton also scored 19 points and Nate Robinson had 16 in a reserve role against the Cavaliers.

"There's still some things we have to clean up here, but I was very happy with the way the team played tonight," said Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau. "We have to be aware of the fact that this is a long season and we're just starting, but it's nice to start with wins instead of losses."

Luol Deng added 14 points and five boards to help the Bulls to their ninth straight win over Cleveland.

Chicago won both meetings with the Hornets a season ago and is unbeaten in the previous eight matchups in this series. The Bulls are undefeated in the last four at home versus New Orleans and are opening a five-game homestand tonight.