G Nicolas Batum, who has been playing despite a toe injury, finally needed a night off on Saturday.

SG Nicolas Batum missed Saturday's game against Oklahoma City. Batum has been playing with a sprained toe and finally needed a night off.

G Nicolas Batum (sprained right toe), a game-time decision, was able to start Friday night.

G Nicolas Batum scored 17 Wednesday.

G Nicolas Batum came into Wednesday night's game averaging 16.4 points, making him first in the NBA in scoring among veteran players with new teams this season. Batum was acquired last summer from Portland for G Gerald Henderson and F Noah Vonleh.

G Nic Batum sat out Thursday due to an illness.

G Nic Batum led the Hornets with 21 points in the loss to the Celtics Saturday."They had more energy than us tonight," Batum said. "And they should be more tired than us. We had a different game than them yesterday night. They had a double overtime last game, so we should've had more energy tonight. This team came out to beat us, and we didn't really respond."

G Nicolas Batum added 20 points, and Charlotte (14-8) matched its season-high four-game winning streak. The Hornets have won nine of their last 11 with the only losses coming to Cleveland and Golden State. The Hornets sit atop the Southeast Division and they are now 4-5 on the road.

G Nicolas Batum registered his first triple-double as a Hornet and was clearly the most-dominant player on the court as the Hornets routed the Miami Heat 99-81.The 6-8 guard, who was acquired from Portland in the offseason, finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in just 27 minutes, on a night when the Hornets raced to a 22-point first-half lead and eventually led by as many as 30.It was the fifth triple-double of his seven-year career."It's nice because it shows you can do many things on the court," Batum said. "Like I told (his teammates), to get 10 points and 10 rebounds is easy. But 10 assists, that's on you. I can get you the ball but you've got to score. They got in good positions and made big shots tonight, so it was all good."

G Nicolas Batum led the way with 17 points Wednesday.

G Nicolas Batum's clutch 3-pointer with 45.9 seconds remaining gave the Hornets the lead for good over the Bucks Sunday."It was the reason that we won," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. "If you look at us tonight, I don't think we played one minute where we weren't four out and one in. So the three-ball is the whole key to our offense. "Batum finished with 15 points,

G Nicolas Batum scored 17 but missed two 3-pointers in the final minute that could have made things interesting.

G Nicolas Batum scored 16 points and handed out 11 assists, and Charlotte used a big fourth-quarter run to win its fourth consecutive game and seventh straight at Time Warner Cable Arena."We stepped up," Batum said. "The last four games have been the same way -- a bad third quarter and then we came back in the fourth (quarter) with more energy, more intensity."We did a good job. We got good shots on offense, so it's a good win for us. ... If we play defense, we can beat anybody in this league."

G Nicolas Batum scored 24 points to lead seven players in double figures Wednesday.Batum has now scored 20 or more in four of his last five games. He had struggled with 1 of 9 shooting for four points in the loss at New York Tuesday, but was 7 of 12 Wednesday night with three 3-pointers."We had a bad game last night," Batum said. "We had no energy, no intensity last night. We tried to bring it tonight. It took us one half, but we were able to do it."

G Nicolas Batum was named the NBA's Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Nov. 9-15. Batum led the Hornets to a 3-1 week behind averages of 25.5 points (fifth in the East), 6.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists. The French native ranked fifth in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (57.7 percent), connecting on 15-of-26.

G Nicolas Batum's 33 points Sunday continued a high-scoring streak that has lasted for three games in which he has averaged 28.3 points on 57.4-percent shooting. It is his best stretch of basketball since he was 15 years old, he said."My role is different now," said Batum, who played seven years in Portland before he was traded in the offseason to Charlotte. "I'm more aggressive. I was the third or fourth option (in Portland). ... Now, my role is different here."Said Charlotte coach Steve Clifford: "He's playing with great confidence. He's shooting the ball really well. His decision-making is always really good. He has size, he has skill, he's a good competitor, and his basketball IQ is off the charts. He's playing at a really high level."The Blazers battled back in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 16-0 run that helped narrow the Hornets' lead to 91-84 with 6:50 remaining.

G Nicolas Batum led all scorers in the Bulls-Hornets game with a season-high 28 points Friday.

G Nicolas Batum had his best game yet as a Hornet, leading the way with a season-high 24 points and five rebounds.

F Nicolas Batum is one of four players in franchise history to have at least 60 points, 30 rebounds and 20 assists in the first five games.

Hornets coach Steve Clifford said that Batum is penciled in to start at shooting guard this season, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports.

Batum offers the ability to play at either wing spot, but the Hornets appear inclined to deploy their offseason acquisition at guard, leaving defensive maven Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to play small forward and match up against the opposition's top swingman. The Frenchman saw his all-around numbers tumble last season while missing 11 games due to a surfeit of injuries, but the Hornets appear optimistic that an offseason of full health can revitalize his productivity. Batum's greatest challenge will be demonstrating that he can still be an effective marksman, after shooting a career-low 40 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from three-point land.