Lakers beat Hornets on Bryant’s late 3

SaturdayPhiladelphia 95-90 Atlanta New York 91-75 Cleveland Detroit 110-107 Charlotte Milwaukee 95-99 Memphis San Antonio 112-103 Indiana Sacramento 99-111 N. Jersey LA Clippers 105-96 Utah LOS ANGELES As long as there’s time left on the clock, Kobe Bryant can still work wonders even when he’s having a horrible game.Bryant burnished his reputation as one of the NBA’s greatest closers, hitting a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left after missing his first 15 shots, to help the Los Angeles Lakers hold off the last-place New Orleans Hornets 88-85 on Saturday.“There’s always time to redeem himself,” Jarrett Jack of the Hornets said. “Nobody’s even going to talk about those first three quarters. They’re going to talk about that last shot he made to put his team over the top.”It was just the third field goal of the game for Bryant, who finished with 11 points on 3 of 21 shooting as the Lakers ended a two-game skid at home.“Kobe never gets down on himself,” Andrew Bynum said.Pau Gasol had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Bynum added 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Ramon Sessions had 10 points and 10 assists for the Lakers.Bryant was 0 for 7 on 3-pointers before making his only one. He had five assists, three rebounds and four fouls in 39 minutes. He endured the worst start to a game in his career, having previously missed his first 13 shots against San Antonio on Dec. 28, 2010.Jack had 18 points and 10 assists playing with a sprained right ankle for the Hornets, but he missed a go-ahead bank shot with 4.9 seconds left.Jason Smith added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and former Clipper Al-Farouq Aminu had 10 points for the Hornets, who lost while playing their second straight game with just eight players available because of injuries.