Wizards need magic to buck road trend

NEW ORLEANS (AP):

Jason Smith might be a better centre than he thought.

The reserve power forward scored a career-high 20 points in a rare start at centre, and the New Orleans Hornets defeated Washington 97-89 on Tuesday night, dropping the Wizards to 0-25 on the road.

"It was a special game, a career night for me," said Smith, who started because of Emeka Okafor's left oblique muscle strain.

"Mek is such a great player and he plays around the rim," Smith said. "I just went out there and tried to play aggressive like he would. We really need him back healthy, but in the meantime we have a lot of guys that are willing to step up."

Chris Paul had 15 points and nine assists and Trevor Ariza had 16 points for New Orleans, which snapped a two-game skid.

While Okafor's injury left the Hornets without a starter averaging a double-double in points and rebounds, the seven-foot Smith looked comfortable filling in, and hit his first nine shots in an array of dunks, tip-ins and jump shots from as far as 18 feet.

"He brought the right kind of energy tonight," Hornets coach, Monty Williams, said. "Sometimes, Jason will go for offensive rebounds he doesn't have a chance to grab, or foul someone for no apparent reason; and tonight he was knocking down shots, he was attacking the rim, he made the right cuts and got to the free-throw line. Defensively, he didn't get exploited as bad as most people would have expected. He did a good job tonight. Obviously, when you make shots like that it makes it look a lot better."

Nick Young scored 30 points for Washington, which trailed by double digits most of the second half in losing their sixth straight overall.

Andray Blatche had 21 points and nine rebounds and Kirk Hinrich added 10 points for the Wizards, who are four road losses from matching the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks' NBA worst 0-29 start on the road.

"We're not giving in and we're not giving up," Blatche said. "We're just playing scared. It's tough when you fight the whole game and you come up short. I'm sure that if we keep playing like we're playing, we're going to pull off a road win."

possession

The Hornets led by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter when David Andersen hit a jumper, but the Wizards responded with a quick 7-0 spurt capped by Hinrich's lay-up, as he was fouled to make it 85-75 with more than half the quarter left.

New Orleans then missed on their next possession, but Willie Green, who had 11 points, stole the ball from Hinrich and went the other way for a fast break lay-up. New Orleans were then able to maintain a double-digit lead until less than a minute remained.

David West and Marcus Thornton both scored 10 points for New Orleans, which outshot Washington 48.6 per cent (35 of 72) to 45.8 per cent (33 of 72) and outrebounded the Wizards 41-34.

In other games, the scores were San Antonio 86 Portland 99, Boston 95 Sacramento 90 and Houston 106 LA Lakers 114.