NBA Game Summary - Portland at New Orleans

New Orleans, LA (Basketball News) - Baron Davis scored 23 points and handed out eight assists as the New Orleans Hornets cruised to a 101-79 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers at the New Orleans Arena. Darrell Armstrong added 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting off the bench for the Hornets, who won their second in a row overall and fifth straight at home against Portland.

Bonzi Wells and Rasheed Wallace each scored 19 points to lead the Blazers, who had a win streak snapped at three games.

New Orleans held a slim one-point lead at the half, but found itself down 61-60 when Portland’s Damon Stoudamire made a technical free throw as the result of an illegal defense call.

However, that would be the last lead for the Blazers as the Hornets responded with a 24-8 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters and turned a close game into a laugher.

A three-pointer by Armstrong capped the surge and put New Orleans up 84-69 with 7:14 left in the fourth.

The Hornets wound up outscoring Portland 28-14 in the fourth quarter. Steve Smith’s finger roll basket with 25 seconds remaining gave New Orleans its largest lead of 23 at 101-78 before Portland’s Travis Outlaw made a free throw with 13 seconds left for the 22-point final margin.

David Wesley scored 16 points, Smith finished with 13 and Jamaal Magloire netted 12 for the Hornets, who shot 50 percent (40-of-80) from the field. New Orleans went 9-for-19 from three-point range, with Armstrong going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Stoudamire had 14 points and seven assists and Zach Randolph chipped in with 13 points for Portland, which shot 36 percent (30-of-83) from the floor. The Blazers went just 4-for-17 from three-point range.

New Orleans led 25-23 and took a 50-49 advantage into halftime behind Davis’ 11 first-half points. Wells led all scorers in the first half with 15.