New on Sports Illustrated: Hornets to look to score against suspect Wizards' defense

Now that the Charlotte Hornets don't have to worry about reaching a double-digit losing streak, they can put their attention on winning back-to-back games.

The Hornets visit the Washington Wizards for Thursday night's game.

It's the Wizards who are mired in a bit of a slump with consecutive losses and defeats in three of their past four games.

The Hornets rode guard Terry Rozier's 30 points to a 97-92 home victory against the New York Knicks, breaking an eight-game losing streak Tuesday night.

"We snapped our losing streak," Rozier said. "Hopefully we can build on something."

Until defeating the Knicks, Charlotte hadn't won a game since Jan. 4. There hadn't been a home victory for the Hornets since Dec. 17.

"It was our defense, getting out in transition," Hornets forward Miles Bridges said of the difference in the latest outcome.

Still, the Hornets were nowhere close to the team mark for futility, which is 23 consecutive losses to end the 2011-12 season when they were known as the Bobcats.

"You get a win and make things a little bit better," Rozier said. "Just pulling it out, that's what it's all about. Sometimes you're not going to shoot well."

Rozier said he has done some recent extra shooting to try to rediscover his form.

"You try to do the work early, grind when no one is looking," he said. "It's all feeling comfortable, being confident."

Charlotte might uncover more confidence against Washington unless the Wizards make some fixes at the defensive end. They've allowed more than 150 points in each of their past two games, including Tuesday night's 151-131 loss at Milwaukee.

"We didn't show any resistance," Washington guard Bradley Beal said. "Pretty much getting whatever they wanted (in the first half). ... We have a few bad habits on defense. We can correct them."

Washington coach Scott Brooks put the defensive woes more succinctly.

"You got to make them miss shots," Brooks said.

Center Thomas Bryant said the Wizards need to be aggressors from the beginning of games to get things turned around.

"Sometimes we have to be more connected out there," Bryant said.

This begins a six-game homestand for the Wizards, who are 5-9 in January.

"The ultimate goal is to just win," Beal said. "We've got to win ball games. We have to pick ourselves up."

The Hornets could have plenty of energy still ready to unleash based on a limited recent schedule, though they've had lots of travel with last Friday's game played in Paris.

"I felt pretty energized because we had only two games in the last 12 days or so," Hornets post player Cody Zeller said.

Charlotte broke its losing streak despite some shoddy shooting from the field.

"We want to shoot better than 38 percent," Charlotte coach James Borrego said. "Most nights, that's going to be tough to win an NBA game. To gut it out and make those winning-type plays to get you through a game is impressive."

Washington won 125-118 in a Nov. 22 meeting in Washington and the Hornets won a rematch by 114-107 on Dec. 10 at home.

--Field Level Media