Allan Houston shot the ball 11-for-13 in the first half against the New Orleans Hornets on Friday, yet he went scoreless in the second half and overtime as the Knicks crashed once again.  How can a player have such a change of form so quickly?

If you ask Houston the answer is simple.  His third-quarter benching caused him to lose his first half momentum which he never regained.  Knicks coach Don Cheaney, however, felt he had no choice but to bring his star off the court after Houston picked up his third foul early in the third period.

"I just got to do a better job," said Houston. "I'll take it upon myself. I don't want to shy away from it. I have to do a better job. Teams do make adjustments. I have to be able to adjust to their adjustments. When you're out of the game, it's hard to do that. I have to get back in the game and do something else."

Marc Berman of the New York Times reports that Chaney benched Houston early in the third to prevent him from getting into more severe foul trouble.  New Orleans guard David Wesley was attacking Houston every possession, restricting Houston to just three minutes in the third quarter. The move backfired, but Chaney knows Houston's got to regain rhythm after bench stints.

"You can't play a whole game," Chaney said.

New Orleans starting center Elden Campbell has returned to practice and could see his first minutes as a New Orlean's Hornet against the Cavaliers on Saturday, ESPN.com is reporting.

Campbell missed training camp with a left knee sprain that required arthroscopic surgery to remove loose tissue and has been rehabilitating at the Hornets practice facility.  He isn't likely to take over the starting role from Jamaal Magliore just yet, but his return certainly bolsters the front court for the 8-3 bugs.

"Sometimes you forget how skillful he really is because he's a big body and can make the hook shot and do things close to the basket, and can also come out and make the jumper,'' Silas said.

"It felt pretty good, and we'll see how it goes,'' Campbell said. "But realistically, it's not going to come overnight. I just want to get in there and then see the minutes gradually increase until I'm playing 30-plus a night.''

Barbara Barker of Newsday reports that the Hornets took note of Lee Nailon?s celebration. Then they did something about it.

The Knicks? Lee Nailon hit a jumper with 50 seconds left giving New York a 4-point lead over his former team. Nailon pumped his fist and let his emotions show as he went back down the court. Baron Davis and the Hornets fought back, forced the game into overtime and won 97-91.

"I thought we were going to win it," said Nailon, who finished with 18 points. "They hit some big shots down the stretch."

Davis said that Nailon was doing a lot of talking when the Knicks held a 14-point lead. "I didn't want him to be talking at the end of the game," Davis said. Davis hit three clutch three-pointers down the stretch to help bring the Hornets back.

He could see the tension on the Knicks? faces as they mounted their comeback. "They tensed up a little bit," he said. "I saw it and I tried to exploit it."

Brian Lewis of the New York Post reports that Lee Nailon is tired of talking about his last days in New Orleans. He doesn?t want to talk about the team that waived him last week or the reported spat with Hornets head coach Paul Silas.

Nailon and the Knicks will face his old team this afternoon in New York.

"Hell, yeah, I'm tired of talking about it. It's another game. If we play them ten times, it's still just another game. When we go down there, it'll be the same thing," said Nailon.

Nailon denies that he and Silas almost came to blows shortly before he was cut loose by the Hornets. "What do y'all think? Do you think I'd be here if I got into a fight with a coach? That's bad business," Nailon said. "Coaches talk. A lot of coaches are best friends. If you get into a fight I don't think coach [Don] Chaney would've accepted me here."

Chaney has not only accepted Nailon, he is taking advantage of his scoring ability by creating plays for him. "That's the human instinct. That could work out for us. I hope it does," said Chaney. "The guy can score. I'm going to put some sets in for him. I didn't estimate him being that devastating an offensive player; he can take guys. We're going to set him up in situations where he can get the ball in his area and we can feed off him."

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times reports that Kenny Anderson is unhappy. He knew he would be backing up Gary Payton when he was traded to the Sonics this summer, but he had no idea his minutes would be cut this much.

After a short run in the first half, Anderson sat the entire second half of Seattle?s 84-82 loss to the New Orleans Hornets. As he sat in the locker room after ghe gam looking at the stat sheet, he lamented.

"Six minutes," he said. "Whoa. Man. I really don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can do six minutes. That's not me. That's not where I'm at in my career. Not yet, at least."

Coach Nate McMillan said that he wasn?t happy with the level of intensity the reserves brought in the first half, so he decided to go with his starters almost exclusively. "Our bench hadn't showed me that they could change anything," McMillan said. "We wanted to try and make a run with our guys that we run with in the clutch."

Desmond Mason was the only Seattle bench player to log double-digit minutes.

"If I were anywhere else, this would really just drive me crazy, but I know the deal here," said Anderson, who scored one point and had one steal. "I know Gary is the man. But man, six minutes? I mean, I know I can get more time than that. I know there's got to be a way to get me on the court."

One man's trash is another mans treasure.

One week after suprisingly being cut by the New Orleans Hornets Lee Nailon was like the man who went from rags to riches for the New York Knicks yesterday. The fourth quarter has been one of doom for the Knicks all season long, and with a loss last night securing the unwanted record of worst start ever by a Knicks team it was Nailon who rose to the occasion.

Nailon scored 20 points in 22 minutes for the Knicks, including 10 in the final quarter, as New York defeated the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden to record their first win in five attempts.  Coach Don Chaney had vowed to give Nailon a significant run in the fourth as a second option to Allan Houston, but with Houston on the bench it soon became apparent that Nailon was the first option.

"I knew in the fourth quarters the team's gotten lackadaisical and been tired," said Nailon. "I wanted to step up and let everyone know we can win games in the fourth quarter. I just wanted to bring the attitude that guys can keep playing hard and stay together. The team stayed together."

I was very happy that we had a guy that we know could score and can score in many ways - in the low-post, outside the lane, he has a very good offensive presence," Chaney said.

John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Heat coach Pat Riley wishes he could have a "do-over". He regrets the two-year-old trade that brought Eddie Jones to Miami and he wishes he still had Jamal Mashburn and P.J. Brown on his team.

"I wish I could have kept that team together, and probably for all intents and purposes I should have," Riley said. "It's not a coincidence that when Brown and Mashburn went to Charlotte, that they became good, too."

Mashburn is the Hornet?s featured scorer while Brown helps to anchor the interior defense.

"That trade really solidified our ballclub," Hornets coach Paul Silas said. "I got myself a go-to guy, Mashburn, which I really didn't have before. I got a guy who can consistently give me 20 points a night and seven rebounds.

"With P.J., I've got a guy who can be the glue of your ballclub. He rebounds and he does all the dirty work, but he's going to come up with something to help you win every night. So you make decisions, and he (Riley) made a decision to move those guys, and I'm happy he did."

Since the move, the Heat has struggled to make a successful playoff run. In 2001, the Hornets, led by Mashburn and Brown, swept the Heat in four games in the first round. Last season, the Heat didn't make the playoffs.