Baron Davis is the Charlotte Hornets' best player. Jamal Mashburn, who is injured, is very good at what he does and P.J. Brown is very good at what he does, but a point guard is more valuable than a small forward or power forward because his skills are more rare.

Look around the league. How many players do you see with the touch to hit from 22 feet and the strength to score from beneath the rim, the willingness to look for a teammate and the skill to find him, plus the ability to beat his man anytime he chooses?

Davis does all this, as you saw in his 38-point, four-assist performance Wednesday against the Detroit Pistons, a team the Hornets play again tonight at Charlotte Coliseum.

What Davis had not been able to do, at least not until last week, is make the team his. As loud as his game is, he's not the type to stand on a locker-room chair and announce he has taken over. He's only 22 and in only his third season, and because good veteran players have surrounded him since he arrived, he has always been free not to lead.

That freedom has been revoked. For the 7-7 Hornets to do anything, they have to be his.

Are they?

"Yeah, definitely," Davis says from the bleachers Thursday after practice. "I'm the point guard and it's up to me."