Hornets ride fourth-quarter rally past Lakers

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - David West and Chris Paul combined for 72 points to help the New Orleans Hornets sting the Los Angeles Lakers 116-105 on Tuesday, the visitors surging past the Western Conference leaders with a fourth-quarter rally.

West delivered a career-best equaling 40 points and Paul added 32 with 15 assists to end the Lakers's six-game winning streak while handing the home side just their second loss in 20 contests at Staples Center.

"We knew that we were going to have score a lot of points," Hornets coach Byron Scott told reporters.

"But the last two games that we played them we stood around and allowed them to guard us. So tonight we had a lot more movement and guys were in attack mode early and we stayed that way for the entire game."

Trailing 99-94 with 8:31 remaining, the Hornets (21-10) found new life, outscoring the Lakers 22-6 to claim their fifth win in six games. West had 15 points in the run and finished with 11 rebounds.

"He was rolling and when he's going like that we are going to feed him," Paul told reporters.

Kobe Bryant scored 39 points for the Lakers (27-6), including 20 in the third quarter, but did not score in the final nine minutes.

"We felt pretty confident that we were able to somehow slow him down (and) make some other guys make plays," West told reporters.

Only Derek Fisher's two three-pointers prevented the Lakers from being completely shut out during the Hornets' winning run.

"We were out of flow pretty much all night defensively," Bryant, who made six three-pointers, told reporters.

"We weren't able to corral them like we normally have the last few times we've played them. Everybody wants to talk about offense, defense is where you win or lose games."

(Writing by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by John O'Brien)