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Wednesday, Feb. 28 7:30pm ET
Charlotte has won five in a row, but not easily

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The Charlotte Hornets have won five consecutive games but aren't exactly feeling invincible.

Stephon Marbury
New Jersey's Stephon Marbury dishes off in front of Charlotte's Jamal Mashburn.

The Hornets struggled for three quarters and had to climb out of a 14-point deficit before Jamal Mashburn rallied them to a 91-88 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday night.

In their current winning streak, the Hornets have needed big fourth quarters to beat four of the five teams.

"If we keep doing this it's going to bite us," Charlotte coach Paul Silas said. "We're not that good that we can just not be on all cylinders and not blow people away. We can't keep letting this happen."

Charlotte trailed by 14 midway through the third quarter when David Wesley scored 13 of his 26 points to cut the score to 70-69 at the end of the period.

But the Hornets let New Jersey build its lead right back up, allowing the Nets to open the fourth quarter with a 15-4 run that gave them an 85-73 lead with 6:58 to play.

"We can't keep living like that," Wesley said. "We can't keep putting ourselves in a position to dig out of holes, Fortunately we did tonight, but someone's going to catch us."

The Nets could have been the team to do that, but they went cold over the final six minutes of the game and scored only three more points. Stephon Marbury shot 4-for-11 in the fourth quarter, missing three consecutive 3-pointers in the final minutes.

"I need to figure out how this team is going to learn to close out games," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "They're standing around, shooting 20- to 30-foot 3-pointers, letting the clock tick down to two or three seconds, and it's mind-boggling to me."

While the Nets were missing everything they threw up at the end of the game, Mashburn finally starting hitting some shots.

He scored 10 of his 23 points over the final 1:51 to rally Charlotte and overcome his own poor shooting night.

"We shouldn't have been in a position that I needed to do that," Mashburn said. "We had a bad shooting night and we let them stay in the game way too long."

Mashburn shot just 5-for-20 from the floor and had only 10 points at the start of the fourth quarter when Charlotte trailed 70-69.

But he started an 8-1 run with two free throws to help Charlotte cut New Jersey's lead to 86-81 with 3:01 to play. He then scored the final 10 points of the game for the Hornets.

Marbury missed a 3-point attempt, Mashburn got the rebound and converted at the other end with a 17-footer.

Keith Van Horn then missed a 3-pointer, Eddie Robinson got the rebound and passed the ball to Mashburn, who was fouled by Kenyon Martin. Mashburn made both free throws to cut it to 86-85 with 1:27 left.

Marbury then missed another 3, Robinson got the rebound and Mashburn hit a turnaround jumper to put Charlotte up 87-86. Marbury then missed consecutive 3s and Mashburn answered with four consecutive free throws.

Wesley led Charlotte with 26 points. Mashburn added nine assists and eight rebounds.

Marbury led the Nets with 19 points on 8-for-22 shooting. Van Horn and Johnny Newman scored 15 each, while Martin, Lucious Harris and Aaron Williams added 10 each.

Game notes
The Hornets can still file for relocation this season because the NBA extended the deadline for teams to do so until March 26. ... The Hornets have won five in a row since forward Derrick Coleman went on the injured list. ... New Jersey was called for a delay of game in the third quarter for not coming out of the huddle quickly enough after a timeout. ... Evan Eschmeyer was New Jersey's only starter who didn't score in double figures, scoring nine points.

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