updated 2:42 p.m. ET March 31, 2004

LOS ANGELES - Shaquille O’Neal believes the Los Angeles Lakers are playing better than they have all season — even when they had several blowouts over good teams while winning 18 of their first 21 games.

He gives special credit to their two newest stars, saying Karl Malone and Gary Payton “are like the soul of our team.

“I just mean Karl’s out there getting everybody involved. Gary’s out there making faces, playing mean,” O’Neal said after the Lakers overcame a woeful start to beat the short-handed New Orleans Hornets 107-88 on Tuesday night.

“I’m very proud of our guys,” O’Neal said. “Everybody is playing very spirited basketball. It’s fun playing like that and it’s fun to watch, I’m sure.”

Malone and Payton, both in search of their first championship ring, joined the Lakers as free agents last summer.

Malone said defense is the biggest difference now from early in the season.

“We’ve got four guys who start that made first-team all-defense,” he said. “Gary was defensive player of the year, so we’ve got guys who definitely know how to do it.”

Kobe Bryant scored 23 points and Payton added 20 as the Lakers (51-23) extended their winning streak to nine games despite falling behind by 12 points in the opening four minutes.

“After that start, I think it really got them motivated to up the tempo of that ballgame,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We got active. We didn’t read the defense very well at the start of the game, but once we started playing at a higher pace, we played pretty well.”

The Lakers, who have an NBA-best 20-4 record since the All-Star break, are 1½ games behind Western Conference-leading Sacramento with eight games remaining including five at home. The Kings have nine left including six on the road. The teams meet in Sacramento on April 11.

New Orleans (37-37) lost for the fifth time in six games, dropping to .500 for the first time this season and into a tie with Milwaukee for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Hornets played without injured stars Baron Davis and Jamal Mashburn.

“There’s not much you can do about it,” New Orleans’ P.J. Brown said. “Injuries are part of the game. Everybody’s got to go through it. It’s something you can’t control.”

New Orleans coach Tim Floyd said he hopes Davis plays at some point during the five-game road trip that began Tuesday night.

O’Neal had 15 points and nine rebounds; Malone added 11 points, eight rebounds and nine assists despite sitting out the fourth quarter, and Devean George and rookie Brian Cook scored 10 points each for the Lakers.

One game after having a season-low 12 assists, the Lakers had 21 in the first half and 30 overall — six each by Bryant and Payton. They shot 51.9 percent to 39.2 percent for the Hornets.

“We did an excellent job moving today and getting points off of turnovers,” Bryant said. “It was an ugly game to start with. We were a little out of sync, we just had to settle down. Once we did that, we were able to cut them up.”

The Lakers finished their interconference schedule with a 25-5 record against Eastern Conference teams, including 15-0 at home — just the second time they’ve ever accomplished that feat.

Darrell Armstrong and Brown scored 13 points each and Jamaal Magloire had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Hornets.

The Lakers put the game away by outscoring the Hornets 13-3 to finish the third quarter and at the start the final period for an 89-67 lead.

“We had another one of those horrible third quarters, I thought,” Brown said.

The Lakers went ahead for good by outscoring the Hornets 27-12 for a 58-47 lead. George scored all 10 of his points and O’Neal and Payton had six each during the run. It was 60-53 at halftime.

Armstrong scored nine points to help New Orleans take a 14-2 lead. It was 20-8 before the Lakers went on a 21-11 run to finish the first quarter, cutting the Hornets’ lead to 31-29.

Notes: The Lakers placed Kareem Rush on the injured list because of a bone bruise in his right foot. Rush is averaging 6.5 points and 1.4 rebounds in 68 games. ... The Hornets have lost nine straight road games. They are 20-30 since winning 17 of their first 24 games. ... The Lakers won a season-high 10 straight from Nov. 19-Dec. 9. ... Davis has missed three games since spraining his left ankle March 23. He is listed as day-to-day. ... Mashburn hasn’t played since March 7 because of a severe bone bruise in his right knee. “It’s just bone on bone,” he said. “I’m hoping to be back for the playoffs, that’s my goal. I guess the knee has goals of its own.” ... Malone had three steals to give him 2,075 in his career, tying him for ninth place on the NBA’s career list with Mookie Blaylock.

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