Hornets Sting Celtics

The death of teammate Bobby Phills seems to have given the Charlotte Hornets a renewed focus, as evidenced by a 110-96 victory over the Boston Celtics on Saturday.

The Hornets (22-17) haven't lost since last Sunday's funeral for Phills, who died after losing control of his speeding sports car on Jan. 12.

"If anything happened from the loss of Bobby, it's gotten us a lot closer," Anthony Mason said after Saturday's game. "Its funny. We all exchanged home numbers. Many of us didn't even have each others home numbers before then.

The Hornets' light mood was understandable, given that they won their fourth straight game albeit one played in front of an estimated crowd of about 2,000, the smallest in franchise history.

Several inches of snow that fell in the Charlotte area kept many fans at home.

"I felt like I was in my high school gym," said backup center Brad Miller, who had 16 points and seven rebounds. "Our gym sat about 5,000."

Hornets officials said fans could exchange tickets for Saturday night's game for tickets to one of the remaining home games.

Guard Eddie Jones didn't blame the fans for staying at home.

"Its terrible out there," he said. "This game of basketball isn't that important. Stay at home and enjoy it on TV.

Derrick Coleman led Charlotte with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

"DC was some kinof awesome," said Hornets coach Paul Silas.

"At this point I think were on all cylinders," Silas added.

Jones added 18 points for the Hornets, who are 4-1 since he returned from an elbow injury. Mason had seven points, 11 rebounds and eight assists before being ejected with a double-technical foul with 1:14 remaining.

Center Vitaly Potapenko had 18 points to lead Boston (19-21), which was denied its first five-game winning streak since the 1994-95 season.

Charlotte took an 83-71 lead into the final quarter after two free throws by Mason with 5.9 seconds left in the third period. Boston guard Kenny Anderson was called for a technical between free throws for protesting the foul.

Anderson trimmed the lead to 93-85 with two free throws with 5:24 remaining, but Coleman responded with a layup, a 3-pointer and a three-point play in an 11-4 Charlotte run.

The Hornets took the lead for good at 16-13 on Jones' 3-pointer with 4:30 left in the first quarter. They led 28-19 at the end of the quarter, with Coleman getting nine points and seven rebounds.

Charlotte stretched the lead to 58-43 at halftime. The second quarter was highlighted by an alley-oop pass from rookie guard Baron Davis to Ricky Davis, whose reverse dunk capped a 9-0 run and gave the Hornets a 41-27 advantage.

Backup center Brad Miller, who was averaging 7.9 points a game, had nine of his 11 first-half points in the second quarter. Miller, who scored a career-high 32 points in last season's finale against the Celtics, finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.

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