NEW ORLEANS - The Hornets have stopped showing their age and started showing their experience.
Baron Davis had 23 points and 10 assists, and 13-year veteran Stacy Augmon came off the bench for 17 points, including two shot-clock beaters in the fourth. The Hornets evened their best-of-seven first-round playoff series with a 96-85 victory over the Heat in Game 4 Tuesday.
"Things are starting to come together," Davis said. "Tying it up 2-2 puts a little more pressure on them to hold serve on their homecourt. We're going in there with the utmost confidence. We just have to play to our experience."
Miami, by far the younger team, was hurt by a late mistake by rookie Dwyane Wade, who failed to inbound the ball before the requisite five seconds with 53.6 seconds left and the Hornets leading 88-82. After that, Miami was forced to foul. New Orleans hit the free throws to pull away. New Orleans led much of the game, but began the fourth quarter down 71-68 after a furious rally by Miami. But Davis quickly tied it with one of his five 3s.
WOLVES 84, NUGGETS 82: Kevin Garnett had 27 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, helping visiting Minnesota take a 3-1 series lead. Minnesota led by eight midway through the fourth, but Marcus Camby cut it to 76-74 on a 3-point play with 4:43 left. Voshon Lenard hit a 3 and had a steal that led to another 3 for Denver that made it 81-80 with 1:14 left. Latrell Sprewell answered with a 3, then Nene scored on a dunk to make it 84-82 with 18 seconds left. Sprewell missed two free throws with 12 seconds remaining. But Andre Miller missed a shot in the lane and Lenard was way off on a turnaround at the buzzer.
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM: LeBron James (Cleveland), Carmelo Anthony (Denver) and Dwyane Wade (Miami) were unanimous members. Toronto's Chris Bosh and Chicago's Kirk Hinrich also made the first team in voting by the league's 29 coaches. The second-team members were Dallas' Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels, Milwaukee's T.J. Ford, Miami's Udonis Haslem (the ex-Gator) and Washington's Jarvis Hayes.
f,8.5,ux0 WILLIAMS TRIAL: The jury began deliberating in the case against Jayson Williams, the ex-player accused of manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of a limousine driver.
The jury in Somerville, N.J., got the case after three months of trial, 43 witnesses and widely divergent versions of what happened the night in 2002 when Costas "Gus" Christofi was killed.
Christofi, 55, was killed in Williams' bedroom while the ex-Net was giving friends and members of the Harlem Globetrotters a tour of his mansion. Williams was playing with one of his shotguns when it went off.
Williams, 36, faces eight charges, the most serious of which is aggravated manslaughter. He is also charged with trying to make the shooting look like a suicide by wiping down the shotgun and putting Christofi's hands on the gun. Collectively, the charges carry 55 years in prison. SKIT REVIEW: The league is reviewing Saturday's pregame skit by the Mavs to determine if it was demeaning to the Kings. Among the vignettes was a cartoon depicting Kings guard Doug Christie being led on a leash tugged by his wife, and one of forward Chris Webber being showered with money at the University of Michigan.
