Kings win as Hornets lose back-to-back

Ron Artest scored 24 points, Kevin Martin added 22 on his 25th birthday and the Sacramento Kings handed the New Orleans Hornets back-to-back losses for the first time in seven weeks, beating the Western Conference's top team 112-103 Friday night.

The Hornets had won nine straight games before falling at home to Golden State on Wednesday. They were unable to bounce back in Sacramento, falling behind by 26 points in the second quarter before a second-half comeback attempt fell short. It was the first time New Orleans lost consecutive games since falling at Denver and Dallas on Dec. 12-14.

Peja Stojakovic led the Hornets with 25 points in his first regular season game at Arco Arena since being traded to Indiana for Artest on Jan. 25, 2006. Stojakovic, who has played more games (518) and scored the second-most points (9,498) in the Sacramento era, got a standing ovation in pregame introductions.

He showed that he hasn't lost the outside touch that delighted Kings fans so much during his 7 1/2 seasons here, making seven 3-pointers. But Stojakovic shot an airball with just over 2 minutes left and New Orleans down by eight.

Chris Paul had 15 points and 19 assists a day after being picked for his first All-Star game. Tyson Chandler added 21 points and Morris Peterson had 15.

The Hornets found their stroke in the third quarter and cut Sacramento's lead to 12 points following back-to-back 3-pointers by Stojakovic. New Orleans made six 3s in all for the quarter. But Artest beat the buzzer off an inbounds pass from John Salmons to give the Kings a 96-82 lead heading into the fourth.

The Kings seemed to have the answer whenever the Hornets tried to get close in the fourth quarter, getting a key 3-pointer by Salmons, an inside basket by Brad Miller and finally a jumper by Martin after New Orleans had cut the lead to eight in the final minutes.

The Hornets scored only once in the final 2:45, getting a meaningless basket in the final seconds by Chandler.

Miller finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds and Mike Bibby scored 15 points for the Kings, who have won six of eight games.

Sacramento got off to a fast start, moving the ball around to create easy baskets. Back-to-back dunks by Miller and Mikki Moore gave Sacramento a 10-point lead early and an 11-0 run late in the first quarter made it 34-17.

Artest scored seven of Sacramento's first nine points of the second quarter, making it 43-21 with a 3-pointer that led Byron Scott to call a timeout. The Kings built the lead to 26 points on a 3-pointer by Martin with 4:12 remaining in the quarter and led 66-44 at the half when Artest put back his own miss just before the buzzer.

Notes:@ Scott will become the sixth person to coach both the East and West in the All-Star game, having led the East side in 2002 when he was in New Jersey. Paul and David West also were named to the team Thursday. "It's fantastic to be able to participate in that weekend and to coach some of these great basketball players. It's much more of an honor when you have a couple of your own and even more when its in your home city. It's going to be a great weekend for all of us," Scott said. ... The other coaches to lead both conferences are Larry Brown, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Flip Saunders and Lenny Wilkens.