So much for road weariness.

Coming off the longest trip they will have this season - six games in 12 days - the Hornets returned to the Charlotte Coliseum on Thursday night in unlikely fashion, storming to a 24-point lead in the first half and cruising to a 104-90 victory against Toronto.

The performance was surprising, and not only because it was the first game back in town after a Wednesday return from Denver. The Hornets are the only team in the league with a winning record on the road (8-6) and a losing record at home (now 3-5). They had lost five in a row in the Coliseum.

"We were very conscious of that home record," forward P.J. Brown said. "We had to start establishing our home court again. Maybe this will get us going."

The victory was Charlotte's fourth in the past five games and it lifted the team back to .500 at 11-11.

Each team was missing a key part of its roster. The Hornets played again without injured small forward Jamal Mashburn (lower abdominal strain) while the Raptors were without forward Antonio Davis (sore left knee).

There were still plenty of players around to make major contributions, and on this night, most of them wore teal and white, especially in the long stretch of almost three quarters before Toronto mounted a late and futile comeback attempt.