Half: Hornets 49, Lakers 45

NEW ORLEANS — Kobe Bryant was scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting in the first half of Game 4 tonight against the New Orleans Hornets. Chris Paul wasn’t a whole lot better for the Hornets, scoring only four points on 1-for-3 shooting. Paul scored his first points by driving past Bryant late in the half and then earned a technical foul for yapping about it. Until then, he had been CP0 instead of CP3. Bryant couldn’t guard Trevor Ariza in the opening half and swapped defensive assignments with Ron Artest, who had been checking Marco (2-for-6) Belinelli. Ariza had 16 points, the same as Artest.