Hornets 93, Suns 78
Hakim Warrick scored 18 points and Jared Dudley added 16 as the Phoenix Suns cruised to a 93-78 victory over the host New Orleans Hornets on Friday.
Channing Frye grabbed 16 rebounds and Steve Nash had 12 assists as Phoenix (1-2) avoided its first 0-3 start since the 1996-97 campaign.
Carl Landry had 17 points for New Orleans (2-1), which shot a franchise-worst 28.9 percent while playing without guard Eric Gordon for the second straight game.
Gordon hit the game-winning shot when the Hornets won their season-opening game in Phoenix on Monday but bruised his right knee during the contest.
New Orleans trailed by 17 points with 11 minutes to play before a 10-2 push got the Hornets within 82-73 on Emeka Okafor’s rebound hoop with 6:03 to play.
But Dudley scored five points and Marcin Gortat had four as Phoenix put the game away with an 11-3 run.
Gortat had 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
Okafor had 16 rebounds for New Orleans. Jarrett Jack scored 12 points but was just 6-of-20 shooting.
The Suns led 52-45 at halftime and used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to build a 68-51 lead on Gortat’s layup with 4:54 left in the period.