Coach Paul Silas has tried to take a realistic approach to the Hornets' current problems, saying he'll be happy if the team can just hang around the .500 mark until Jamal Mashburn and George Lynch return from injuries.

But Hornets players say they can't afford to take that view, even if it is true. They want to keep striving for perfection even though they are shorthanded, and they know they can't rely on Mashburn and Lynch coming back to save the day later in the season.

"If we take that attitude, we'll continue to win one game and lose two and then win another one and lose two more," forward P.J. Brown said after Saturday's 107-90 loss at Washington. "You can't play like that. I don't look at it that way, and I hope nobody else does, either.

"When's Mash coming back, anyway? Nobody has any idea. And George, he hasn't played in a long time, so who's to say what his game is going to be like when he does come back. He's missed more than a year, so you don't know what he's going to be able to bring. We hope he comes back strong, but we can't bank on it.

"We've just got to go out there and play better. We've got enough talent as it is, we've proven that. It's not like we're 5-20 or the worst team in the league. We've been right there in the hunt and beaten some good teams. We've got the guys right now to get the job done. So we've got to stop talking about it and go out there and do it."

The Hornets have lost six of their last eight to fall to 13-17 and 10th in the Eastern Conference standings.

They'll be off until Thursday, when they will play Golden State to open a five-game homestand.

? Baron Davis played Saturday night despite a sore right knee, extending his streak to 194 straight games. He hasn't missed a game in his three-year NBA career.

But Davis was wondering if he made the right decision after going 6 of 21 from the field and scoring 14 points in the loss.

"You can say I gutted it out if you want, but that don't mean nothing," Davis said. "I didn't have much of an effect on the game. Maybe I would have done the team a better service had I not played."

? Silas made an interesting comparison when talking about Michael Jordan's 51-point outburst Saturday night, likening Jordan's fade-away jumper to the bobbing and weaving of Muhammad Ali in his prime.

"Mike is quick enough still that he can get around you if you get up on him too close," Silas said. "And if you don't, he's got that fade-away that you can't block. He's almost like an Ali when Ali used to fade back and you couldn't hit him with the jab. Mike is the same way. He fades back on that shot and if he's hitting, it's almost impossible to stop him."