Baron Davis had 21 points and 10 assists to lift New Orleans to an 88-82 victory over the Knicks last night and give the Hornets their first winning streak of the season.

Lee Nailon had 18 points, and P.J. Brown and Dan Dickau added 17 points each for the Hornets, who looked nothing like the NBA’s worst team down the stretch as they held the Knicks’ comeback attempt at bay to end a 15-game road losing skid.

The Hornets (4-29) have their first winning streak in nearly a year. They snapped their 10-game losing streak – which isn’t even New Orleans’s worst slide this season – on Saturday with a home victory over Sacramento.

Allan Houston led the Knicks with 17 points, Stephon Marbury and Kurt Thomas had 15 each, and Jerome Williams – in his second straight start – had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

New Orleans opened an 85-80 lead with 4:56 left, but the Knicks got even with three points from Marbury and a jumper by Thomas. Then Nailon buried a jump shot with 1:15 remaining and Brown added two free throws to make it 84-80 with 32 seconds left.

Thomas cut the deficit to two with 15.8 seconds remaining but Dickau made four foul shots in the final 13 seconds to seal it.

The Knicks (17-18) have not been more than three games above .500 or two games below all season. Their only positive from the latest loss was that they held an opponent under 100 points for the first time in five games. The Knicks, who snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday against Portland, have now lost five of their last six contests.