The Lakers have been local heroes with no foils, a team so successful it sucked the drama out of this movie.

New Orleans was an early favorite to fill the role of chief antagonist, but coming into Tuesday night's game at Staples Center, the Hornets didn't seem up to it. The first two times they met in N'awlins, the Lakers gobbled up the home team like tasty bowls of gumbo.

Whether New Orleans' 116-105 win Tuesday meant much, we'll just have to wait. The Lakers' sixth loss of the season is still four fewer than the Hornets, and the dynamic - a clear-cut leader and a pack of runners-up - is still intact.

But No. 2 feels a little better.

"Our character was tested those first two games," New Orleans coach Byron Scott said. "I think (the Lakers) felt we couldn't beat them. We needed to prove that we could."

Coming into the game, with the Hornets in a tight battle with a handful of teams for Next Best, there was a certain resignation to the conversation.

New Orleans forward David West didn't want to concede the Lakers' inherent superiority, but admitted the defending Western Conference champs were "a tougher Basketball team" than they were last spring when they edged the Hornets for best record by one game.

More tellingly, West, who scored 40 points, said before Tuesday's game, "I know we'll be chasing them the rest of the year."

As satisfying as the win was for the visitors, there wasn't the kind of celebration that marked, say, the Lakers' win over Boston on Christmas Day.

"We know it's a big game every time we play them," point guard Chris Paul said. "It's so intense out there. But it's too early to read too much into it. We play them four times, and this was just one game."

West said the Hornets were "anxious to get back out there and play them again." That's what happens when you get run over by a team on your home floor, then they back the car up and run over you again.

But even he downplayed Tuesday's win, when asked about the ego boost.

"We were a pretty confident team already," he said.

New Orleans has had its issues, even without the Lakers on a dominating roll. With Paul evolving into an MVP candidate last season, the Hornets caught most of the league sleeping. They put together an impressive second-half run that left them just short of the No.1 seed in the West.

They didn't exactly build on the momentum. They lost five games in one seven-game stretch in November, and have a lot more in common with fellow chasers Denver, San Antonio and Phoenix than they do the Lakers.

More than likely, if they do challenge the Lakers, it will be in a far-off place - the postseason.

Asked if the Lakers' big lead had the rest of the conference worried, Scott smiled.

"Not really," he said. "People do understand they're the best in the West. But you all start out (equal) in the playoffs."

Tuesday night the Hornets were the aggressors from the beginning, and had a six-point halftime lead. Kobe Bryant's 20 points in the third quarter led the Lakers back to the front, but New Orleans stayed poised down the stretch, and pulled away.

For what it was worth.

"We told the guys it wasn't a statement," said Scott. "We told them if we won, we'd be in second place. If we lost we'd be in second place."

Until further notice, isn't everyone?

Reach Gregg Patton at 951-368-9597 or gpatton@PE.com