NEW YORK -- The Charlotte Hornets' first week of the season resembled a story arc in many crowd-pleasing movies.

There was a slow-developing plot but eventually there was a satisfying ending.

And for the Hornets, the star of the production is Kemba Walker.

Walker scored 30 points as the Hornets recovered from another slow start and rallied for a 99-95 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.

"We're playing very inconsistently," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. "That's the fourth game in a row where we've gotten off to horrific starts."

Walker said, "We don't want to continue to have bad starts because the results won't be like this all the time. You don't want at the end of the game to talk about our start. It shouldn't be that way."

Despite trailing by 13 points for the second straight night, Charlotte improved to 3-0 on the road and 4-1 overall for the first time since the 2000-01 season, the year before the original Charlotte franchise moved to New Orleans.

The latest win saw Walker score 15 points in a first half during which Charlotte trailed by 13 twice while allowing the Nets to make nine of their first 12 shots and shoot 47.6 percent.

"It was more defensively," Walker said. "At one point, we just couldn't stop them."

Eventually, the Hornets stopped the Nets and things began turning in their favor, allowing Walker to finish it off with eight points in the final six-plus minutes. He returned when Charlotte held an 82-79 lead with 6:19 remaining and hit three big shots down the stretch.

The first basket occurred with six minutes left when Walker blew past Brook Lopez for a layup and an 85-79 lead. Less than a minute later, he did a crossover move on Lopez and knocked down a 22-foot step-back jumper for an 87-82 edge.

Walker then sank a 3-pointer with 2:29 left for a 90-86 lead moments after Trevor Booker spun past Marvin Williams for a layup to make it an 87-86 game.

Brooklyn (2-4) also was within 90-89 after Lopez hit a 3-pointer with 2:10 remaining, but Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored on a reverse layup on the next possession.

Bojan Bogdanovic made it a one-point game by hitting two free throws with 1:19 left, but Williams hit an open 3-pointer from the left corner 14 seconds later for a 95-91 lead.

After Lopez missed a 3-pointer, the Hornets had a chance to ice it, but Walker was stripped by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson with 40.7 seconds left. Following a timeout, the Nets were unable to get the ball inbounds and had to call their final timeout.

Booker missed a contested 3-pointer when play resumed, and Charlotte sealed the game at the foul line.

Besides Walker, Nicolas Batum added 18 points and nine rebounds for Charlotte, which shot 41.9 percent. Reserve Spencer Hawes contributed 11 of his 13 in the second quarter when the Hornets rallied from a second 13-point deficit to get within seven at halftime.

Lopez led the Nets with 18 points but shot 3 of 13 after making his first four shots. Reserve Sean Kilpatrick added 19, and Bogdanovic had 14, but the duo combined to shot 9 of 32.

"Nothing was really going down, and that's not something we can have," Lopez said.

The Nets played their first game without Jeremy Lin (strained left hamstring) and started rookie Isaiah Whitehead at point guard. Whitehead finished with eight points in 23 minutes.

Brooklyn had 22 assists but only shot 40.2 percent. The Nets shot 33 percent in the second half when they misfired on 13 of 16 3-point attempts.

"I thought the third quarter really hurt us," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. "I thought we got stagnant, I thought the ball stopped moving, and again, they got into us. They started denying some passes, got us out of rhythm."

NOTES: Brooklyn G Jeremy Lin (strained left hamstring) said he was injured on a transition play when he was trying to attack the rim during the first half Wednesday in the Nets' win over the Detroit Pistons. Lin also said he is unsure if he will travel on Brooklyn's four-game West Coast swing Nov. 12-18 and that he had never injured his hamstring before. ... Charlotte coach Steve Clifford praised Lin extensively before the game after coaching him last season. "We don't have him back, but happy for him," Clifford said. "He deserves it." ... Nets G Randy Foye (mild right hamstring) was listed as probable, but he did not play. ... Charlotte C Roy Hibbert (right knee soreness) missed his third consecutive game and does not appear close to returning.