Healthy Clippers Rally Past Hornets

New Orleans Hornets center Tyson Chandler (6) tries to block the shot of Los Angeles Clippers forward Elton Brand (42) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Jan. 8, 2007, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Ty Russell) (Ty Russell - AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Elton Brand can sympathize with what the New Orleans Hornets are going through. He's just glad his Clippers teammates were the ones that got back from their injuries first. Sam Cassell scored 31 points, Cuttino Mobley added 20 and Los Angeles started to look healthy again in a 100-90 win Monday night against the Hornets.

"We haven't had our team in eight or nine games," Brand said. "Now we have a team and we're building on our season."

Playing for the first time in three weeks, Cassell scored 10 points during the Clippers' decisive 17-3 fourth-quarter surge, including a 3-pointer that gave Los Angeles the lead for good at 79-77 with 9:12 to play. He sandwiched another 3-pointer between two jumpers, and Mobley added a jumper for a 91-80 Clippers lead.

Cassell had missed seven games with plantar fasciitis in his left heel before returning against the Hornets, and Mobley hyperextended his left elbow last week at Miami.

They showed no mercy against the Hornets, who are without injured starters Chris Paul (sprained ankle), Peja Stojakovic (back surgery) and David West (right elbow surgery).

"It's about playing with confidence. It's about having that attitude. It's about bringing that swagger," Cassell said. "I'm going to bring that swagger every night. That's what it's all about.

"If we continue to do that _ have that swagger, keep our composure and just play hard _ the key to our success is how hard we play."

Desmond Mason led New Orleans with 28 points for the second straight game, picking up his first consecutive 20-point games since his final three games with Milwaukee at the end of the 2004-05 season.

It wasn't enough to prevent the Hornets from getting swept on a four-game homestand for the first time since March, when they lost three games in Oklahoma City and one in New Orleans. The last time the Hornets lost four home games in the same city was from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4, 1994 in Charlotte.

"Our mistakes are beginning to be the same things over and over again. That is the thing that is bothering me," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "We are putting too much pressure on ourselves when the game is on the line, and we are making too many mental mistakes, too many physical mistakes."

The Hornets committed six of their 15 turnovers in the fourth quarter and shot only 33 percent in the final period.

Brand knows that feeling. Fighting through injuries to Cassell, Mobley and Corey Maggette, the Clippers gave up double-digit leads in losses to Orlando and Washington on their current six-game road trip.