Hornets aim to snap skid in meeting with Suns

The New Orleans Hornets try to halt a five-game losing streak on Friday night when they head to the US Airways Center to meet the Phoenix Suns.

The Hornets haven't won since Nov. 9 at home against the Charlotte Bobcats. On Wednesday, they fell in overtime to the Indiana Pacers, 115-107, in the first of four straight on the road.

Anthony Davis, the No. 1 overall pick in this past summer's draft, missed his second straight with a stress reaction in his left ankle.

"He's day-to-day but until they come to me and say he's symptom-free, he's going to be out," said Hornets head coach Monty Williams. "It's a situation where we're going to err on the side of caution."

New Orleans got great production from the frontline in Davis' absence. Al- Farouq Aminu (14 points, 10 rebounds), Ryan Anderson (17 points, 5-for-5 from the 3-point line), Robin Lopez (21 points, 13 rebounds) and Jason Smith (18 points off the bench) all played spectacularly.

The remaining Hornets could not overcome some monster efforts from the Pacers. Paul George made nine 3-pointers en route to 37 points and Roy Hibbert had a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and a staggering 11 blocked shots.

The Suns are coming off a blowout victory Wednesday night at home against the Portland Trailblazers, 114-87. It was only the second game all season the Suns didn't trail by double-figures, thanks in large part to a 13-point halftime lead.

"I would like to be able to hope that we can start that way," said head coach Alvin Gentry. "We never dug ourselves a hole, so when we made those runs tonight obviously we went from being up to putting the game in a pretty good position rather than making up 10, 15 points where we are back to even. So I think that we can start the game and play that way when we are not playing from behind, and obviously it worked that way."

Gentry made a change to his starting lineup prior to the Portland game. Markieff Morris and Shannon Brown started with Luis Scola and Jared Dudley coming off the bench.

Morris responded in a big way with 19 points and seven rebounds. Brown had 10, but Scola and Dudley combined for just eight points.

The big bench contributor was the venerable Jermaine O'Neal. O'Neal, signed as a free agent in the offseason, scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds in a 18:30 minutes of action.

The Suns, the second-worst defensive team in the NBA, have won three straight in this series and four of the last six at home.