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Hornets give Celts the slip

   Mason, Wesley able to dominate Boston

                   By LEONARD LAYE
                       Sports Editor


   Hornets 97

   Celtics 95


   BOSTON -- The days of easy games in Boston are over. The days of
   close Hornets victories are not.

   Fueled in part by the lessons of last month's loss in the FleetCenter,
   the Hornets returned Friday night and added another notch to their
   string of last-second wins, this one a 97-95 victory over the Celtics.

   The Hornets (27-17) are now 10-2 in games decided by five or
   fewer points. They take a four-game winning streak into today's 7:30
   p.m. Charlotte Coliseum game against Atlanta and have won five of
   six.

   ``We hit the big shots when we had to,'' point guard David Wesley
   said. ``We got the stop when we needed it. We've been very good
   on doing that in close games.''

   Wesley and forward Anthony Mason came up with the big numbers.
   Wesley scored 28 on 10-of-16 shooting and had five steals. Mason
   had 24 (14 in the second half), hit 7 of 11 shots and gathered 13
   rebounds, helping the Hornets to a 40-36 edge on the boards.

   Wesley's penetration and pass to an open Matt Geiger produced the
   go-ahead basket with 19.6 seconds to play. Mason's free throw with
   2.7 seconds left accounted for the two-point margin. But it was
   defense that sealed it, as has been the case so often in the close wins.

   Between Geiger's basket and Mason's free throw the Celtics
   attempted a comeback basket, getting the ball into the hot hands of
   Antoine Walker (38 points, 11 rebounds, six assists). Walker broke
   past Bobby Phills up the baseline, Geiger ran at him and Phills
   recovered in time to flick the ball from Walker's hands as he went up
   for the shot.

   Mason grabbed the ball and was fouled by Walker, setting up
   Mason's 1-of-2 finish at the line.

   ``I retreated (on Walker's drive) but got back well and was able to
   get a hand on the ball,'' said Phills, who was back in the lineup for
the
   first time after missing seven games with a pulled left groin.

   Boston had one more chance after Mason's free throw. After two
   timeouts with 2.2 seconds to play, Walker took Ron Mercer's
   inbounds pass near the sideline, only a couple yards inside the
   midcourt line, and turned for a futile three-point attempt.

   ``We came up with some big stops,'' Mason said. ``Our defense is
   the difference in our close games.''

   The previous visit to Boston was marred by a storm of Charlotte
   turnovers. The Hornets got the ball up the floor OK but, apparently
   distracted by a Celtics press that creates helter-skelter play,
   Charlotte threw the ball away repeatedly.

   The Hornets' 22 turnovers produced 26 Boston points in a 102-96
   Celtics win.

   In the rematch the Hornets got off to a good start with seven first-half
   turnovers. And in the final quarters, when they lost the ball 12 times,
   they still usually got the ball across midcourt and into their offense.

   But the pressure never ceased.

   ``They're like fleas on a dog,'' Cowens said. ``You can't go
   anywhere without people picking and poking at you. They never go
   away.''

   Another major difference was the play of Wesley, a Boston starter
   last season who signed with Charlotte last summer as a free agent.
   Anxious, perhaps too much so, to do well in his return to the
   FleetCenter in the Dec. 23 game, he scored 12 points and made just
   2-of-8 shots while turning the ball over five times.

   ``I was very low the last time we were here,'' Wesley said. ``I didn't
   play that well. We didn't win. It was another game we gave away
   that we felt we could win.''

   NOTE: Wesley and two members of his family will be featured
   today on NBC's ``NBA Inside Stuff.'' Wesley and his brother
   Donald spent the day with their mother, Ramona, at Charlotte Motor
   Speedway. Wesley's mom, an auto racing fan, recently tried her
   hand at driving the track.

   Boston's Dana Barros (left) and Charlotte's Corey Beck were right
   in the thick of things as the Celtics and Hornets played at a frenetic
   pace throughout a game that was undecided until the final seconds.