Michael Olowokandi hit a hook in the paint with 56 seconds left to give Los Angeles a 91-90 lead. After Elton Brand blocked Elden Campbell's shot, Lamar Odom missed two free throws with 20 seconds remaining.
Campbell missed a jumper, but Olowokandi knocked the ball out of bounds. After a timeout, Davis inbounded to Campbell, who immediately handed it back to Davis. The Los Angeles native made contact with Quentin Richardson while banking in the shot. No foul was called.
"It was a great call by (Charlotte coach Paul Silas)," Davis said. "I thought he was going to call a pick-and-roll."
 The Clippers collapsed on Baron Davis too late to prevent his game winning shot in overtime. Garrett Ellwood /NBAE/Getty Images |
Davis led six Hornets in double figures with 19 points and tied a career high with 15 assists. P.J. Brown scored 10 points and added 18 rebounds.
Charlotte trailed by as many as 17 points in the second quarter but rallied for its first victory this season in which it came back from a double-digit deficit.
"Even though we were down, we just weren't making shots," Davis said. "We kept fighting and fighting to the end. We needed to win a game like this, to fight back at the end and get our confidence."
Los Angeles, which fell to 2-12 away from the Staples Center and 0-4 on its six-game road trip, was paced by Brand and Odom, who scored 22 points apiece. Brand added a team-high 14 rebounds.
"I missed two big free throws again to win the game," said Odom, who also missed 1-of-2 with Los Angeles trailing by 90-88 with 2:15 left. "I have to knock those down. They felt good. I just missed."
"The way I look at it, if you're going to win on the road, you've got to make plays," Clippers coach Alvin Gentry said. "Free throws are part of making plays. Until we learn to make our free throws, we'll lose every time."
The Hornets trailed, 62-51, entering the fourth quarter, but whittled the deficit to 81-79 on a 3-pointer by David Wesley with 28 seconds left. It was Wesley's third shot from the arc in the final 67 seconds.
"Those were the most unexpected points at the end," said Wesley, who was scoreless before the fourth quarter and finished just 4-of-14 from the floor. "I got good looks at the basket most of the night. I put a little extra on it and they started going in."
After Earl Boykins hit 1-of-2 free throws with 23 seconds left, Richardson blocked Wesley's 3-pointer. But Bryce Drew snagged the ball, passed it to Davis, then got the ball back just outside the arc and nailed a 3-pointer with 7.7 seconds left.
Odom lost the ball in traffic and the game went to overtime.
"It was a game we should have won," Richardson said. "By not making the stops down the stretch, we paid for it. Bryce hit a big shot. He was wide open, but still under those circumstances it's a tough shot."
Eric Piatkowski hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 left in the first quarter to give Los Angeles a 14-13 lead, which the Clippers held until Drew's shot from the arc. Los Angeles led by as much as 41-24 on a layup by Odom with 4:37 left in the first half.
The Clippers outshot the Hornets, 42 percent (35-of-83) to 37 percent (36-of-98).
"It was terrible free-throw shooting," Piatkowski said. "You knock those down and you win the game. This one hurts more than any other loss in the season. I said it was ours five times. To walk off the court dejected and as a loser really hurts."
"It's hard to lose when you lead the whole time," Richardson said. "This is a difficult one to swallow. We have to try to finish up this trip on a positive note."