But when you're as injury-depleted as the Hornets are, you can't overlook anyone - at any time.

Which is why a razor-thin 111-110 Tuesday night win against the Kings and 104-98 nail-biter over the Clippers on Wednesday night don't look terribly impressive on paper.

To the Hornets and their fans watching back home, however, they were every bit as impressive and satisfying as wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers - the Eastern and Western Conference leaders - might have been.

Coupled with a had-to-have 90-86 victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night, the Hornets are still in the hunt for a second straight Southwest Division title.

A three-game winning streak and losses by the Spurs to the Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder have New Orleans just one game behind San Antonio - with the Houston Rockets wedged in between - going into tonight's game at Golden State.

How the Hornets defeated the Kings and Clippers is a story in itself.

First, they went into the important road trip without starters Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler - and sixth man James Posey was out with an injury as well.

If that wasn't bad enough, their health concerns grew considerably when all-star forward David West strained his left ankle late in the first half Tuesday night.

What coach Byron Scott didn't know was that West would turn into the ultimate warrior, basically playing on one leg.

West not only played the second half, but he matched his career high by scoring 40 points. As it turned out, the Hornets needed every single one of them.

Amazingly, West was on the floor just 24 hours later for the victory over the Clippers, one in which fellow all-star Chris Paul shaked and baked and dazzled the crowd with 30 points, 14 assists and six steals.

Then, there were strong performances by a supporting cast that included Rasual Butler, who drained the big 3-point basket at the buzzer to beat the Kings; Julian Wright, who scored 32 points in the back-to-back wins; and Devin Brown and Sean Marks - who came off the bench to help.

As a result, the Hornets, who have moved up from the seventh seed to the fifth spot in the playoff race in the last two games, are suddenly in good shape for a strong stretch run - especially if Stojakovic, Chandler and Posey, or any combination thereof, return.

They're going to need them with their final seven games all coming against teams with winning records.

If they win the Southwest Division title again, they will certainly have earned it.