DENVER -- Emmanuel Mudiay didn't dominate in his return to the Denver Nuggets lineup, but the rookie point guard came away with a win.

That was all that mattered to him.

Mudiay scored 11 points in his first action in a month but added six assists and two steals to help Denver beat the Charlotte Hornets 95-92 on Sunday night.

Forward Danilo Gallinari scored 27 points and guard Gary Harris added 12 points for the Nuggets, who snapped a four-game losing streak at home. Denver (14-24) is just 6-11 at Pepsi Center this season.

Mudiay missed 14 games with a deltoid sprain in his right ankle. It was similar to the injury that cost him most of the season with the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association last year.

Mudiay had been close to returning for about a week, but the Nuggets were cautious with the young point guard. Once he was cleared, he was ready but had to shake off some rust.

"It felt good," Mudiay said. "I came back and played. That's the main thing. Just wanted to get out there again, see how I felt. I felt pretty good.

"We got the win."

Guard Jeremy Lamb and center Cody Zeller had 15 points each for the Hornets (17-20), who have lost eight straight on the road and seven in a row overall. They finished 0-4 on their Western Conference road trip.

"It was a tough schedule for us to play here at the end of this tough road trip," Zeller said. "We've just got to get back on track, start playing defense. Get back to what we were doing at the beginning of the season when we were winning."

Charlotte has lost 10 of its last 12 games.

The Hornets had a chance to stop the losing streak but came up short at the end. With Charlotte down 10, guard Kemba Walker hit a driving layup and Zeller made two free throws to cut the lead to 95-89 with 1:47 left.

Denver missed two 3-pointers and Charlotte forward Marvin Williams sank one from the top of the arc to make it 95-92 with 47 seconds left.

Gallinari missed a shot from long range with 19 seconds left and the Hornets called a timeout to set up a final play, but Walker and forward Nicolas Batum missed 3-pointers.

"We tried to get the ball to Marvin and get some pin-down for Kemba and I, but they played really good defense," Batum said.

Batum finished with nine points and seven assists after missing four games with a sprained right toe.

"It's always a tough one coming back, especially your first game," Batum said. "And this city, maybe it's not the city to come back because it's tough to breathe in Denver."

Sunday's game was the first of eight straight at home for Denver.

"It was kind of an ugly win at the end. I'll take it," Gallinari said. "We needed one. We needed this one to open up a good homestand."

Mudiay played 39 minutes and showed explosiveness. He had a fast-break layup midway through the third quarter and a dunk with 9:20 left in the fourth to put the Nuggets ahead 84-80.

Forward Mike Miller, getting some rare minutes, hit two 3-pointers to help extend Denver's lead to 90-82 midway through the fourth quarter.

The Hornets went on a 21-2 run in the second quarter to take a six-point lead. Charlotte reeled off 15 straight points during a 5:37 scoring drought by Denver and led 56-53 at halftime.

"Second quarter, I felt we came out there and played as individuals," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "That caused us to have a very stagnant quarter and it carried over to our defense. I'll give our guys credit. In the second half, we held that team to 36 points and 24 percent from the field."

NOTES: Charlotte SG Nicolas Batum was back in the lineup after missing four games with a sprained right toe. ... Nuggets G Jameer Nelson was out with a left hip flexor injury suffered in Friday's loss at Memphis. Nelson had started 13 of the previous 14 games while PG Emmanuel Mudiay was out with a sprained right ankle. Mudiay played for the first time since Dec. 11. ... Hornets G Jeremy Lin played despite battling a tender right ankle. ... Nuggets PF Kenneth Faried missed his second straight game after the birth of his daughter, Kenzie Faried-Lewis. He did not make the trip to Memphis for Friday's game.