CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Los Angeles Lakers are starting to grow up before coach Luke Walton's very eyes.

The Lakers won their second straight to open a four-game Eastern road trip with a 110-99 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night at the Spectrum Center, and Walton couldn't have been happier with the way his team responded at crunch time.

The Lakers dominated the fourth quarter in a game that previously saw 19 lead changes, and they wound up leading by as many as 15 in the final five minutes.

That was precisely the way Walton hoped the Lakers would follow up their 107-104 victory at Philadelphia on Thursday night that opened the trip.

"That was a sign of growth," Walton said. "And even Philly was a sign of growth, too. I'm seeing more composure. This is nice to see. It's part of the process of growing with a young team. Learning how to maintain on the road. A big part of that was we only turned the ball over six times in the second half and that was huge. That's one thing we've been struggling with. So we're definitely doing a lot of things better, and it's nice to see on the road when you don't have the home crowd to kinda get you over the hump."

The Lakers (10-15) had lost five straight coming into the trip.

Jordan Clarkson led the Lakers with 22 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter when they outscored the Hornets 34-24. He played the entire fourth quarter, as Walton stuck with the hot hand and kept starter Lonzo Ball on the bench down the stretch.

"We were just exploiting what we were scoring on, to be honest with you," Clarkson said. "We ran the same play the whole last four or five minutes just trying to get all the options we can, and we were making the right play."

The Lakers also got 18 points from Brandon Ingram. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 15, Brook Lopez scored 13, Kyle Kuzma had 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Julius Randle also scored 12. Randle also went the distance in the fourth quarter, and his driving layup with 8:20 remaining gave the Lakers the lead for good at 85-84.

Clarkson took over from there. He finished seven of 12 from the field and hit seven of eight from the free throw line, on a night when the Lakers shot 50.6 percent from the field and were nine of 27 from 3-point range.

"I thought JC had maybe the best quarter I've ever seen him play," Walton said. "They kept switching their defense up and he just kept taking what the defense gave him, which is what you want to do as you mature in this league. I thought he did a really nice job handling himself down the stretch."

The Hornets (9-16) have now lost three straight and seven of their last eight. They lost to Chicago in overtime 119-111 on Friday night.

"I feel like our guys kind of ran out of juice to me," said Hornets associate head coach Stephen Silas, who filled in for coach Steve Clifford for the fourth straight game as Clifford deals with health issues.

"Based on last night's minutes and last night's play I tried to keep them down as much as possible, but you could just see out there that they were tired. When you put as much into last night as you did and come up with a loss, I was happy that they fought back and gave a lot tonight."

Kemba Walker led the Hornets with 23 points. Dwight Howard finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Marvin Williams scored 13 and Johnny O'Bryant scored 11. But all five of the Hornets' bench players were at least minus-eight in the plus-minus.

"We've got injuries and of course that hurts us," said Michael Carter-Williams. "And we're also in a little bit of a slump, too. So obviously that hurts us too. And a few calls didn't go our way tonight. So everything, all of those things combined, I think it's like a perfect storm almost."

NOTES: The Lakers were fully healthy, while the Hornets were missing F Cody Zeller (torn meniscus), F Frank Kaminsky (ankle sprain) and G Jeremy Lamb (shin contusion). ... The Hornets had won five straight previous games against the Lakers. This was the first matchup of the season between the teams. They will meet again in Los Angeles on Jan. 5. ... The Hornets finishing up a four-game homestand. ... The Hornets recalled G Julyan Stone from Greensboro of the G League on Saturday. ... There were three technical fouls called during the game, one on Lakers coach Luke Walton, one on Hornets G Kemba Walker, and one on Hornets C Dwight Howard. ... The Lakers will continue on the trip at New York on Tuesday, then they will close out the trip on Thursday at Cleveland. ... The Hornets will now head out on a two-game trip, with games at Oklahoma City on Monday and at Houston on Wednesday.