David West scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, as the New Orleans Hornets smothered the Los Angeles Clippers to win, 95-81, at the Staples Center. on Wednesday night

Chris Paul finished with 16 points and 13 assists, and Peja Stojakovic had 16 points for New Orleans, which has won six of seven. Tyson Chandler hauled in 15 rebounds to go with 14 points in the win.

Corey Maggette scored 20 points, but got little help from the rest of the starting five for the Clippers, who have lost seven of eight. Chris Kaman was the next highest starter with nine points, though Al Thornton came off the bench to score 15.

Cuttino Mobley contributed 13 for Los Angeles, which has lost eight of its last nine at home.

“We’re not playing our best ball, but we’re playing good enough right now, and we’re heading in the right direction,” Hornets head coach Byron Scott said.

The Hornets spanned the first and second quarter with an 11-0 run, that ended when Bobby Jackson converted a three-point play to put the Hornets up 29-16, a little less than three minutes in.

But the Clippers battled back to even things up at halftime, as Kaman ended the second quarter with a pair of free throws to send the game into the break knotted at 41.

However, the tie game proved to be a bit of a guise for Los Angeles, which fell out of contention in the third quarter. The Hornets went on a 13-1 run in the middle of that stanza, in which Stojakovic nailed three straight threes.

West capped the surge with a pair of free throws to put New Orleans up 58-48 with 4:55 left, and the Hornets stretched their lead to 71-58 at the end of the third.

“They did some things I hadn’t seen before. They put three guys on me,” Kaman said. “The shots just didn’t go down. We were there in the first half, we just couldn’t finish.”

West then started the final quarter with a three-point play to give the Hornets a 16-point lead, and the Clippers didn’t cut their deficit to under 10 points for the rest of the game.

Game Notes – New Orleans made 25-of-27 from the free throw line, while Los Angeles made just 12-of-18…The Clippers shot 44 percent from the field…New Orleans had a 46-33 rebounding advantage…The teams combined for just 17 turnovers.