Familiar Refrain Is Heard at Sports Arena : Pro basketball: After losing, 130-112, Hornets are upset at not being able to beat ‘Denver and the Clippers.’

Future bulletin board material, or the Charlotte Hornets’ only significant shot of Saturday night:

“I’m disgusted,” guard Kendall Gill said. “I can understand losing to Utah and Phoenix, but not to Denver and the Clippers. Those are games I said at the beginning of the season that we’re supposed to win.”

The Hornets were defensive, all right, but not when it mattered most. During the game, they allowed the Clippers season bests for points in a half and a game in a 130-112 rout at the Sports Arena.

If this were a coming out party for the Clipper offense, it was a coming along party for Doc Rivers, who finished with a season-high 23 points. After an injury-influenced beginning to his career in Los Angeles, Rivers, still playing with his left hand taped to protect torn ligaments in the left thumb, has averaged 17.8 points in four games since moving into the starting lineup.

“The hand is not 100%,” said Rivers, who also had nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. “But physically, I still am pretty good. Conditioning wise, I’m almost there. The most important thing is that my rhythm is coming.”

In addition to poorly timed comments, Gill had 24 points. Teammate Larry Johnson, the No. 1 pick in the June draft, added 23 points and 16 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end.

The Clipper offense should have picked up when Charlotte came to town. The Hornets, who dropped to 0-10 on the road and 4-13 overall, began the night allowing a league-worst 115.4 points a game.

The Clippers (7-10) quickly attacked one obvious tender spot by having 6-foot-4 Rivers post up 5-3 Muggsy Bogues. That was worth a large portion of Rivers’ 15 points in the first half, helping the Clippers to a 65-46 lead at intermission.

“Muggsy is a heck of a player,” Rivers said. “What we were trying to do was get him out of the game. We were not necessarily just trying to score on him, but we also wanted to get some fouls.”

The Clipper were ahead by as many as 14 points in the first quarter and ended with a 32-20 lead, the Clippers’ first 30-point quarter in 5 1/2 games and their best start since getting 38 in the fourth outing of the season. They pushed the cushion to 22 points in the second quarter, 65-43, when Rivers blew through the defense for a layup.

That also gave the Clippers their highest-scoring half of the season. The previous best was 63, Nov. 6 against Phoenix.

And, for a change, there was a carry-over into the second half. After failing to score at least 100 points in their five previous games, the Clippers had 94 at the end of the third quarter, worth a 16-point lead, and were ahead by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter.

“The Clippers hadn’t scored over 100 points in the last few games,” Charlotte Coach Allan Bristow said. “They scored 130 tonight. That should tell you something. . . . We would substitute a guy who can’t play defense for another guy who can’t play defense.”

It turned into the Clippers’ first cruise-control game since beating Denver in the fifth game. At 51.6%, it was also a season-high in shooting and only the third time they had made at least half the attempts.

Clipper Notes

Gary Grant missed his first game of the season because of a strained groin suffered in the second quarter Friday against Washington. . . . As unusual it is to have a power forward shooting free throws on technical fouls, Loy Vaught has done so on several occasions for the Clippers. A good shooter from the line during college who slumped to 66.2% last season as a rookie, Vaught went into Saturday’s game at 84.6%, second-best on the team among regulars behind Grant. Vaught had not missed a free throw in five games before facing the Hornets, the last miss having come Nov. 19 at Portland. “He’s got confidence in me,” Vaught said of Coach Mike Schuler. “The numbers don’t lie.” . . . The Clippers have three days before their next game, Wednesday against San Antonio at the Sports Arena, their longest break of the season so far. Considering recent results, they could use the break but will probably will practice two of the days. . . . “Practice time is always good because you get to go back and work on a lot of things,” Schuler said. “A lot of times, there is slippage when you don’t get to work on everything because of back-to-back games or a busy schedule.” . . . The Clippers, who began wearing black shoes the night they beat the Lakers at the Forum and liked the results so much they stayed with them, switched back to white Saturday. “Tennis shoes have nothing to do with losing, but any change is good right now,” said James Edwards, who made the suggestion. . . . Washington’s Michael Adams, who reinjured his dislocated finger during the first quarter of Friday’s victory over the Clippers, decided Saturday to return home and skip the final three games of the Bullets’ trip.