Hornets beat Blazers to move into 6th (AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—Carl Landry(notes) joined the Hornets with the goal of being a
rugged role player.

Thrust into the starting lineup because of David West’s(notes) season-ending injury
last week, he’s quickly transformed himself into a top scoring starter.

Landry tallied 21 points, Willie Green(notes) highlighted a 10-point fourth-quarter
outburst with an energizing one-handed jam, and New Orleans jumped ahead of
Portland for sixth place in the Western Conference with a 95-91 victory over the
Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.

“We made some money off of Carl tonight for sure, going to him down the
stretch,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said. “Willie was phenomenal, the dunk
he had. … If we can finish like this the rest of the year, I’ll be pleased.”

Chris Paul(notes) had 11 points and 12 assists, and Emeka Okafor(notes) had 15 points and
10 rebounds before fouling out with 1:38 left.

Marco Belinelli(notes) hit four of five 3-point attempts and finished with 16
points for the Hornets, who have won three of four, the lone loss coming on the
road against the surging Los Angeles Lakers. Green finished with 12 points.

Williams, meanwhile, was animated on the sideline, knowing that a third win
in four meetings with the team for which he used to serve as an assistant would
give the Hornets an important tiebreaker in the standings. He coached as if it
were the playoffs, keeeping starters on the court as long as needed to stay
close in a game Portland led most of the way.

Paul played 45:11, his second most minutes in regulation this season.

“We showed a lot of grit,” Paul said. “I think we showed coach’s
personality tonight. Coach is over there fighting for us, screaming. Coach is
one of those guys that would put on a jersey if he could. For us to go out there
and get this win tonight, knowing that that was his old home, it was a special
win for us.”

LaMarcus Aldridge(notes) had 24 points and 15 rebounds for Portland (43-32), which
is tied with New Orleans in terms of wins and losses, but has lost the season
tiebreaker.

Andre Miller(notes) added 19 points for Portland, but committed a costly turnover
while driving to the hoop with the Blazers trailing 91-88 and 13 seconds left.
Landry came up with the ball, was fouled and made both free throws, then added
two more foul shots to seal it.

Miller’s turnover was Portland’s ninth of the second half.

“It was turnovers. They were huge,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said.
“You can’t have those mistakes going down the stretch.”

Gerald Wallace(notes) had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers, while Patrick
Mills added 13 points, hitting all three attempts from long range.

“This one hurts, especially a game that we feel like we controlled for the
first quarter-and-a-half,” Wallace said. “In the second half, they kind of
took control and forced us to play back on our heels.”

After trailing much of the game, but still as close as 70-68 after three
quarters, the Hornets surged ahead in the final period thanks in large part to
Green’s 10-point scoring surge during a 16-4 run.

Green’s highlights included a 3, a tough running floater as he swept across
the lane and a soaring one-handed jam on a putback of Jarrett Jack’s(notes) missed
jumper—the last play sending the crowd into a frenzy.

“It was good to get up there and dunk. I’m going to laugh and talk with my
teammates about it,” Green said. “They were a little caught off guard. I was a
little caught off guard. I don’t dunk that much.”

Jack then made a jumper that gave the Hornets their largest lead at 84-75.

Portland didn’t fold, though, and tensions rose soon after when Jack and
Rudy Fernandez(notes) got into a brief tussle for which they each received technical
fouls with a little under 5 minutes remaining.

The Trail Blazers trimmed their deficit to five before Paul put New Orleans
back up 90-83 with a driving floater off the glass with 1:40 left.

Wallace then drew Okafor’s sixth foul and hit both free throws, and Miller
added a driving layup to make it 90-87, setting up a tense final minute.

The Hornets improved to 2-1 since West tore the anterior cruciate ligament
in his left knee. Landry has averaged 21.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in those
three games.

“Those are some big shoes to fill and we got to just do it collectively,”
Landry said of West’s absence. “Right now, I’m just doing what I can do.
Hopefully it’ll be better than what it is now. … We’ve got keep helping one
another because we’re not in the playoffs yet.”

No, but they’re closing in. Ninth-place Houston, which lost to Philadelphia
Wednesday, fell four games behind both New Orleans and Portland, with all three
teams having only seven games left.

Notes: The Hornets are 25-11 at home, where they play their next four games,
starting on Friday night against Memphis. … Portland dropped to 30-3 when
shooting a higher percentage from the field than its opponent. The Blazers shot
50 percent, while the Hornets shot 46.6 percent. … Patrick Ewing Jr.(notes) made his
Hornets debut in the second quarter but played only 1:37. … Wallace had his
career-best streak of 24 straight games with at least one steal snapped.