Lakers Fall to Hornets : Pro basketball: But Lynch makes most of playing time, getting 24 points and 10 rebounds in 130-122 loss.

George Lynch, again taking advantage of playing time, was the bright spot in the Lakers’ 130-122 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night at the Forum.

Getting 40 minutes, 17 more than his previous high, Lynch made 11 of 13 shots and scored 24 points while grabbing 10 rebounds. It was his first NBA double-double in only his second start.

When James Worthy intercepted a pass by David Wingate at halfcourt and streaked in for a slam dunk with a minute to play in the third quarter, the Lakers seemed to be rolling.

They had already scored 100 points and had a six-point lead against a team they hoped was also wearing down after having played the previous night.

Little did the Lakers, or the crowd of 16,011, know, it would be their last points for 5 minutes 4 seconds.

By the time Nick Van Exel converted a jumper with 7:56 to play, the Hornets had a 107-102 lead. That cushion grew to 119-108 with 4:31 to play after Dell Curry’s three-pointer, part of his 11 fourth-quarter points.

Van Exel made five more three-pointers to tie the Laker record for a regular-season game for the second time in a row. He finished with a team-high 29 points, one fewer than Charlotte’s Alonzo Mourning, who also had 17 rebounds.

“He’s coming back,” Hornet Coach Allan Bristow said of Mourning. “His timing is a little off. He sort of wants to blend in, but also get back to what he was doing before. It’s going to take a while.”

The Hornets put Mourning back in the starting lineup after he played a reserve role the night before at Sacramento in his return from a sprained ankle. Mourning responded by scoring 14 of the Hornets’ first 18 points, then appeared to re-injure the ankle.

Mourning went to the bench, and the Hornets went on a 13-0 run to take a a 31-21 first-quarter lead, and it appeared the Lakers were going to be routed again by the Hornets.

The Lakers had not forgotten the 141-124 loss at Charlotte on Nov. 24.

“I remembered they kicked our butts pretty good,” Coach Randy Pfund said before the rematch. “Dominated us on the boards. I remember the running game. It wasn’t a bad running game for us, but we were so far behind it wasn’t much help.”

But instead of disintegrating, as they did in the loss in North Carolina, the Lakers fought back.

They rallied to make it 45-45 midway through the second quarter, then took the lead as Van Exel, after making five of seven three-pointers the last game, made all three attempts from that range in the first half.

Van Exel had 13 points by halftime, North Carolina product George Lynch had 16 and the Lakers had a 67-65 lead, their best first-half output of the season. Mourning had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Hornets, despite playing only 16 minutes.

The game was briefly tied, but the Lakers never trailed in a 33-point third quarter. You would never know this was the same team that had failed to break triple digits in scoring in 14 of the previous 18 games--they had 100 points heading into the fourth quarter, good for a three-point advantage.

Laker Notes

Some players might be thrilled to make the All-Star game, the rookie version or otherwise. Not Nick Van Exel. “I’ll probably just try to get it over with as soon as possible,” the Laker guard said of his participation in the NBA’s inaugural rookie game next month at Minneapolis. “All-Star games, they’re no fun at all. I like to win, and it seems in these games everyone tries to go out and have fun, not win.” Said Coach Randy Pfund, when told Van Exel was less than enthusiastic about going: “Nick always has a different slant on things.” . . . Antonio Harvey missed his second consecutive game because of a strained hip muscle.