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Hornets stay perfect with rout of Clippers

Nov 10, 2010 - 5:00 AM New Orleans, LA (Sports Network) - Reserves Willie Green and Jerryd Bayless powered a balanced Hornets attack, scoring 19 and 15 points, respectively, to help undefeated New Orleans extend its franchise-record start with a 101-82 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Bayless also handed out nine assists, Chris Paul added 13 points and eight helpers, and Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza netted 12 points apiece for the Hornets, whose previous six wins came by single digits.

New Orleans has also won 14 straight against Los Angeles dating back to January 8, 2007.

Al-Farouq Aminu came off the bench for the injury-riddled Clippers and finished with team-highs of 20 points and eight rebounds.

Baron Davis returned from a knee injury that caused him to miss four games, but fellow guard Eric Gordon sat out with a shoulder injury suffered in Utah on Saturday and center Chris Kaman went down with an ankle sprain in LA's seventh loss in eight games to start the season.

"You just deal with [injuries] and just keep moving forward and try to help these young guys get better," Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro said. "Hopefully, the tide will turn eventually when we get healthy and we can get our feet under us a little bit. "

Kaman made the first bucket of the game but suffered the injury a little later amid an 11-0 Hornets run. Ariza capped the flurry with a three-pointer, and it was a 27-18 game at the end of the first.

The Clippers cut their deficit to three in both the second and third quarters. Aminu had the visitors within 44-41 before a Marco Belinelli free throw and Paul three-ball closed out the half.

Paul's 18-footer finished an 11-2 run to start the third, but LA clipped the margin down to 63-60 on a Blake Griffin basket with 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the frame.

New Orleans answered again with the final seven points of the quarter, as Ariza's three resulted in a 70-60 advantage with 12 minutes to play.

Green and Bayless combined on a 15-7 start to the fourth, and it was a double- digit game the rest of the way.

"We talked about our bench having to step up and play with a sense of urgency and not have as many mistakes," Hornets head coach Monty Williams said. "Willie (Green) and Jerryd (Bayless) offensively put up some points and I thought defensively we had good ball pressure."

Game Notes

Williams is the fifth coach in NBA history to start his career with seven straight wins, joining Larry Brown (1976-77 Denver Nuggets), Lawrence Frank (2003-04 New Jersey Nets), Buddy Jeannette (1947-48 Baltimore Bullets) and Kurt Rambis (1989-99 Los Angeles Lakers)...Belinelli had 11 points for the Hornets, who shot 8-of-16 from three-point range...Davis, who played his first five-plus seasons for the Hornets, scored four points in 11 minutes...Ryan Gomes scored 11 points for the Clippers, who committed 25 turnovers, leading to 35 points...Griffin came in averaging 18.1 points in his first seven games but had on 10 on Tuesday.