A Crowd of Several Watches Hornets Win

With 10 inches of snow on the ground and the city practically shut down, the Hornets told their wives and children to stay home. Just about everyone else in Charlotte did the same.

Fewer than 1,000 fans turned out Thursday night to see Baron Davis get 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds while leading the Hornets to a 114-102 victory over the Golden State Warriors.

“We talked before the game about how it was going to be like playing at the YMCA and we’d have to do it for pride only,” guard David Wesley said. “We told our own families not to come, so why would anyone else?”

Almost 8,000 tickets were sold for the game, but the Hornets gave fans little incentive to brave the weather, announcing hours before the game that ticket holders not wanting to trudge through snow could turn in their stubs for passes to another game.

The result was completely empty sections in the 23,799-seat Charlotte Coliseum and the announcer inviting the few fans in the upper deck to move down to better seats, creating an intimate setting--and the smallest crowd in franchise history--in which fans could practically converse with the players.

“I had a great time, the fans who were here were loud and boisterous and with us the whole time,” Davis said. “They came out in this weather to see us win and we gave it to them.”

Almost everyone was still there with under a minute to play yelling “Whooo!” in an imitation of how Davis and pro wrestler Ric Flair do it in a local commercial.

The cheer got louder when Davis went scrambling after a defensive rebound that gave him the third triple-double of his career.

Houston 99, Detroit 97--In his first full game back from injury, Steve Francis tied his career high with 36 points, including a running jumper with two-tenths of a second to play at Houston.

Kevin Willis scored 10 of his 12 points the final quarter as the Rockets beat the Pistons at home for the ninth straight time.

New York 108, Dallas 101--The Knicks opened overtime with a 7-0 run at New York and ended the Mavericks’ win streak at 11 games.

Dallas was trying to match the longest winning streak in franchise history and break a tie with the San Antonio Spurs for the longest winning streak in the NBA this season.