LAKERS GET BAD REVIEWS LOSS TO HORNETS FRUSTRATES L.A. N.O. 113, LAKERS 103.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a miserable night.

The Lakers played their part to perfection Saturday night in the basketball revival of ``Oklahoma!'' They took the stage against a New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets team that hadn't sniffed .500 in weeks and left with yet another inexplicable loss.

So went this trip to the land where the corn is as high as an elephant's eye. The Lakers were left feeling smaller than a snail after losing 113-103 to the NBA's lowest-scoring team. Only twice in the previous 21games had the Hornets scored 100 points.

The Lakers were out of answers after reaching the midpoint of their season with a 26-15 record. They have been good enough to beat the Western Conference's top four teams but also bad enough to lose to four of its five worst teams.

Maurice Evans, who scored a career-high 23 points, voiced the frustration felt across the locker room. Only three days after winning at San Antonio -- where the Spurs were all but invincible the past two seasons -- the Lakers fell to a 16-23Hornets team.

``If we take care of business and we win the games we're supposed to, we're sitting at the top of the league easy,'' Evans said. ``That's the frustrating thing about it. We're still in a great position. We're still ahead of the curve.

``But it's like we're fighting and fighting and fighting, and then we shoot ourselves in the foot and make it difficult and take two steps back. We've got to be more focused and play together.''

The Lakers added another bad loss to a ledger that already included games against Seattle, Portland, Charlotte and Memphis. The Lakers also lost to the Hornets on Dec. 6, but that at least was before Chris Paul suffered a severe ankle sprain.

As it was, the Hornets were playing their second game with David West (26 points) and Bobby Jackson (15 points) back from injuries. The Hornets scored 59 points in the first half and led by as many as 13 in the third quarter before holding on late.

The Hornets came into Saturday averaging 89.9 points per game. They left having scored 23 more points than that against a Lakers team that stressed defense from Day 1 in training camp.

``Our defense is obviously not very good right now,'' Evans said. ``We've got to learn to trust one another on both ends of the floor. I think that that's evident in why we lose certain games, especially to teams that aren't as talented as we are.''

Case in point: The Hornets hit nine consecutive shots and scored 34 points in the second quarter. Another example: Rasual Butler connected on two 3-pointers in the final three minutes when the Lakers were slow to rotate to him.

``They just played better than we did,'' Kobe Bryant said. ``We battled back in certain situations. They just played better. They deserved to win.''

The Hornets were playing the second game of a back-to-back set after losing to San Antonio. The Lakers had all day Friday to get here from Dallas and an off night to rest. It didn't matter as the rain turned to snow Saturday night in the state capital.

``It seems like our focus is a lot sharper, and we're able to sustain it against San Antonio,'' Evans said. ``But it seems like we have more mental lapses when we play teams like tonight.''

In spite of it all, the Lakers had a chance to win in the final 2:25.

They went into a timeout down 102-99 and came out of it to watch Jackson miss a 3-pointer. Bryant drove to the basket at the other end but had his layup blocked by Butler.

Butler buried a 3-pointer at the other end to give the Hornets' a six-point lead. Bryant missed a 3-pointer of his own, and West knocked down a 13-foot fadeaway to make it 107-99 with 1:27 to play. And that was it, the game got away from the Lakers in 58 seconds.

``Giving them 113 points, that's a problem,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``Not having a chance down the stretch, that's not smart on our part.''

Bryant had only three points at halftime -- all from the foul line -- but led the Lakers back in the third quarter by scoring 14 points. He made only 2 of 8 shots in the fourth quarter and finished with 23 points on 7-of-22 shooting and had seven assists.

Butler had 20 points and hit 4 of 7 3-pointers as the Hornets won for the fourth time in five games. Smush Parker was the only other Laker in double figures with 13 points. The Lakers were outrebounded 46-37.

The Lakers missed injured starters Kwame Brown and Lamar Odom in the worst way, and they were left with a funny feeling as they exited Ford Center. Nothing was going their way.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) New Orleans' David West drives around the Lakers' Luke Walton on Saturday.

Ty Russell/Associated Press

(2) The Hornets' Tyson Chandler dunks over the Lakers' Brian Cook during Saturday's game.

Layne Murdoch/Getty Images