Antawn Jamison, right, of the Cavaliers shoots over Peja Stojakovic of the Hornets at the Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday. (David Liam Kyle/Getty Images)

The Cleveland Cavaliers took a long sigh of relief after their unimpressive 105 – 95 win over the visiting New Orleans Hornets Tuesday night. But while the victory snapped the Cavaliers three game losing streak, this team has a long way to go to where they need to be.

“We’re definitely not where we want to be right now,” Brown said after the Cavaliers improved to 44-14. “Everybody feels it. We’ve got to fight through it. It’s going to be a nice mental challenge for us. It’s going to be a nice physical challenge for us to get to where we need to be in order to win games at a high level, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and I think everybody in that locker room hopefully is, too, because we’re all competitors.”

Newly acquired Cavalier Antawn Jamison was all smiles after his first win as a member of the Cavs. Jamison scored 18 points in his first start for Cleveland.

“It feels good to get one,” Jamison said. “It wasn’t pretty, but those are the games you have to find a way to get a victory and we found a way to do that.”

LeBron James added 20 points and 13 assists for the Cavaliers. It was his 15th game with 20-plus points and 10-plus assists (most in the NBA).

But the story of the night wasn’t on the Cavaliers side. It was the play of rookie guards of the Hornets (30-27). Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison combined for 59 points, including a franchise-record 23 from Thornton in the second quarter.

Thornton finished with a career-high 37 points and set two other team records: most points by a rookie and most points off the bench. He hit his first five shots and 10-of-13 in the second as the Hornets scored 40 points in the quarter.

Thornton, a second-round pick out of LSU, entered sixth in the NBA among rookies with a 10.8-point scoring average. He nearly equaled his previous career high of 25 just in the second quarter.

“I would rather have a ‘W,’” Thornton said. “The records mean something, but they would mean more if we had won.”

The Cavaliers’ defense tightened when it had to in the fourth, particularly on Thornton. He didn’t score over the final 8:27 and didn’t have a basket from the floor over the final 9:55 as Delonte West and James did a better job of getting up in his face.

“Their defense really stiffened and made it hard for us to get clean looks,” Hornets coach Jeff Bower said. “They made it hard for some of our cuts to be run and to get the ball moved cleanly. They’re an outstanding defensive team and they did a good job on those late possessions.”

Cleveland was struggling to put the Hornets away when Mo Williams, struggling to find his touch since returning from a shoulder injury, broke an 89-all tie with a 3-pointer with 4:13 to play. West followed with a block of Thornton, then came down to the other end and knocked down another 3 to stretch the Cavaliers’ lead to 95-89.

“There’s 82 games in the regular season. You’ll have ups and downs,” James said. “We’ve had way more ups than downs. We have the best record in the Eastern Conference and one of the best records in the league. You can go two or three games where you don’t win a game. That’s not our worries.”

Game notes: J.J. Hickson was replaced in the lineup by Jamison. Hickson missed the game with flu-like symptoms…Daniel Gibson did not play after starting for then-injured Mo Williams…Williams is 9-of-33 from the floor since returning from his shoulder injury.