Gerald Henderson added 18 points for the Bobcats, who have won eight of the past 10 meetings with the defending NBA champions.
The Lakers have a winning record against every team except the Boston Celtics and the Bobcats. And this time it wasn’t even close.
While Kobe Bryant scored 20 points, he missed 11 of his first 16 shots as he played despite an illness that kept him from shootaround.
Angry Lakers coach Phil Jackson used all but one full timeout before the fourth quarter, but couldn’t prevent the Lakers from their most lopsided loss of the season.
Hawks 94 Pistons 79: At Auburn Hills, Josh Smith had 27 points and 14 rebounds as the Hawks rallied for a victory over the Pistons.
Atlanta trailed by as many as 15 points in the second quarter but held the Pistons to 28 percent shooting in the second half as they pulled away to win.
Mike Bibby added 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Hawks, while Marvin Williams had 15 points.
Detroit had five players score in double figures, but Tracy McGrady led the Pistons with just 14. Detroit scored only 28 points in the second half as it lost for the fourth time in five games.
The Pistons made their first six 3-point attempts before Charlie Villanueva missed early in the second quarter, and didn’t commit their first turnover until moments later.
Spurs 102 Nets 85: At Newark, Manu Ginobili scored 10 of his 22 points in a game-breaking second-half run and the Spurs put in another dominant performance with a victory over the Nets.
Tim Duncan added 15 points and 11 rebounds, Tony Parker had 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists and DeJuan Blair had 10 points and 11 rebounds as the Spurs won for the ninth time in 11 games and 17th in 20.
San Antonio’s 46-9 record is tops in the NBA and the best 55-game mark since the Avery Johnson-coached Dallas Mavericks had the same mark in 2006-07 en route to a franchise-best, 67-win season.
Brook Lopez had 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Nets, who never led in the final roughly 30 minutes.
Trail Blazers 95 Timberwolves 81: At Minneapolis, Wesley Matthews had 23 points while LaMarcus Aldridge added 21 to lead the Trail Blazers to a victory over the Timberwolves.
Dante Cunningham had career highs with 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Blazers, who have now won 16 straight games against the Timberwolves and five in a row overall, their longest winning streak of the season.
Kevin Love finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, just barely extending his double-double streak to 41 games, the longest since Moses Malone had 44 in a row in the 1982-83 season. He only attempted seven shots and was outworked all night by Cunningham and Aldridge.
Martell Webster led the Wolves with 17 points.
Bucks 102 Clippers 78: At Milwaukee, Carlos Delfino scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half and made a career-high seven 3-pointers to lead the Bucks to a victory over the Clippers.
Everyone pitched in for the short-handed Bucks, who came in losers of seven of the last eight.
John Salmons added 16 points and tied a career-high with 12 assists for Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings scored 20 points to match his best performance since returning from surgery and Luc Mbah a Moute finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Mbah a Moute did an admirable job trying to slow Clippers’ star Blake Griffin, who still finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists.
The Clippers have one win from seven matches to start their 11-game, 21-day road trip.
Rockets 121 Nuggets 102: At Houston, Courtney Lee scored 22 points and Shane Battier added 17 as Houston shot well from 3-point range and controlled Carmelo Anthony in a win over Denver.
Aaron Brooks had 18 points off the bench and Luis Scola added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who shook off a bad offensive start to go 14-for-32 from 3-point range (44 percent) and beat the Nuggets for the second time in a week. Houston won 108-103 in Denver last Monday, despite Anthony’s 50 points.
Anthony scored 16 points on 4-for-14 shooting and didn’t leave the bench in the fourth quarter. He was held under 20 points for the first time in nine games.
