Hornets Extra: Hornets 96, Celtics 87

87

96

If there was one thing that we learned from the 10-game losing streak, we learned that there is a tough mountain to climb, and for the Charlotte Hornets, they're starting to build themselves a winning streak, coming off a thrilling win last Friday night at home against the New York Knicks, and carrying that momentum into last night's game against the Boston Celtics at Time Warner Cable Arena.  The end result from this was that they did battle hard and stayed with it, and they were rewarded with a 96-87 win over Boston.  Charlotte improves their record to 6-15 on the season, while the Celtics fall to 7-13, despite the Celtics late run in the 4th, but the Hornets knew that they had some crucial stops along the way. 

"We just had to get some stops. We knew they(Boston) could get hot fast. We just had to step up our defense." said center Al Jefferson, who finished the night with 23 points to go with 14 rebounds.  Joining "Big Al" in the effort for the Hornets were two other double-figure scorers on the night for Charlotte, including Kemba Walker, who was 5-of-14 from the field to finish with 18 points on the night and Lance Stephenson had a solid outing for the Hornets, finishing up with 13 points.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned to the lineup for the Hornets after missing the last few games, and he had 9 points on the night in the win for Charlotte.  As a team, Charlotte would end up shooting just 41.7% from the field.

And for Boston, Brad Stevens was pleased with the effort, but it didn't go the way it would be planned for the Celtics.  "We made a little bit of a run at the start of the fourth, but we couldn't get quite over the hump."

Rajon Rondo had a triple-double in the loss for Boston with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Jeff Green and Marcus Thornton co-led the Celtics with 16 points on the night, as the Celtics out-shot the Hornets from the field with a 43.7% field goal percentage, and winning the rebounding battle by a 45-44 margin.

The Hornets hope to make it three in a row tomorrow night in Memphis as they take on the Grizzlies at FedExForum for a 8:00 p.m. tip-off, and they'll be back at "The Hive" on Saturday night to square off against the Brooklyn Nets.