PHOTO/TROY HULL

Charlotte's Nicolas Batum glides to the basket for two of his 23 points in the Hornets' 117-113 win against the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday at Spectrum Center. The Hornets improved to 16-13 on the season.

A lack of physicality could cost the Charlotte Hornets games.

The 16-13 Hornets have not gone under .500 this season. However, substandard defense and sluggish first quarter performances are an issue.

“I’m looking for a jolt,” coach Steve Clifford said after Tuesday’s 117-113 win against the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’m looking for a push here in these next two weeks where we play better, we put 48 minutes together and we do it a few nights in a row. Then we’ll see if we can be a good team or not.”

Said guard Nicolas Batum: “Yes [we are thinking about staying above .500], because we know we can be a good team. We know that we can be a better team.”

Against the Lakers, Charlotte allowed 41 points in the first quarter. They responded in the second half by outscoring Los Angeles 58-40.  Charlotte’s slow start illuminates deeper issue of repeated slow starts.

“They had 40 [points] in the second half, and that was really the story,” Clifford said. “Again, the fight is there. The NBA is a first quarter league, and that’s where we are coming up short.”

Said Batum, who scored the winning shot against the Lakers and had a double-double with 23 points and 10 assists: “We lost a couple games that we regret. We have a lot of regret. Tonight we almost made a huge mistake again. We can’t have games like that. We have to take care of business.”

Charlotte won without their leading scorer, point guard Kemba Walker, producing a single point in the fourth quarter against Los Angeles. He finished with a double-double (28 points and 10 assists and eight rebounds) and his seven rebounds (five offensive) in the fourth quarter dictated the outcome.

“He was really looking to make the right plays,” Clifford said. “He got the ball inside a lot on passes in the fourth quarter. Again, I don’t know how many [of his rebounds] were late [in the game], but he had the big defensive one, he also had two big offensive rebounds.”

Said Walker: “We have to be better. We can’t afford to start out games like this, especially at home against teams in this league. If we keep playing like this, things won’t work out well for us. We have to do better and keep learning from these mistakes.”

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