NBA: Hornets and LA Lakers register victories 

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Peja Stojakovic had 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead the New Orleans Hornets to a 110-103 upset win over the Phoenix Suns yesterday.

Devin Brown and Marcus Thornton both added 19 points for the Hornets, who won for the second straight time under new coach Jeff Bower after he replaced the fired Byron Scott last week.

The Hornets lost 124-104 when the teams met in Phoenix eight days ago, in a game that turned out to be Scott's last in charge of the Hornets. This time, New Orleans (5-8) handed the Suns (10-3) just their third loss of the season.

"They were embarrassed by the way they performed at our place," Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. "You knew they were going to play better here.

"No doubt in my mind."

The Hornets were without all-star Chris Paul, allowing rookie Darren Collison to start in his place.

The first round draft pick out of UCLA turned in a solid performance with 15 points, five rebounds and five assists despite missing 11 of his first 12 shots.

"The most important thing when you're having a tough shooting night is try to get the win, and the second thing is always keep your confidence," Collison said.

"You can never let your confidence get away from you in a game like that. If a team's playing off you and you're open, go ahead and shoot it."

Emeka Okafor had 13 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, who out-rebounded Phoenix 56-38 and dominated the Suns defensively at times.

"We are too good to quit," Stojakovic said. "We have good talent on this team and you can't give up. We had a bad start but we can come back from that.

"Hopefully we can just raise our level of playing and get some consistency."

Amare Stoudemire had 23 points and Jared Dudley scored 17 for Phoenix. Jason Richardson scored 16 points and Steve Nash contributed 13 points and 10 assists for the losers.

"They made some big shots at the right time," Gentry added. "They were the better team tonight and played a good all-round game."

Meanwhile, Pau Gasol made the most of his season debut, scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls 108-93 yesterday.

Kobe Bryant added 21 points to pass Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the club's career scoring list.

Ron Artest added 15 points for the reigning NBA champs, who finally had their full starting lineup intact as they posted their ninth win in a dozen games to begin the season.

Gasol missed the first 11 games of the year with a strained right hamstring.

He shot nine-of-15 from the field as the Lakers won their second straight game.

Bryant had nine rebounds and eight assists. He also vaulted past Abdul-Jabbar into second-place on the Lakers' all-time scoring list with 24,182 total points. Jerry West (25,192) is in first place while Abdul-Jabbar has 24,176.

The Lakers blew the game open in the third at Staples Center arena by extending their lead to 20 points.

It was also the eighth win in the past nine game for the Lakers against the Bulls who are in the midst of a lengthy six game road trip.

The Bulls were led by Derek Rose who had 20 points. John Salmons had 18 points with all coming in the opening half for the Bulls.