LaMelo Ball seems like he could do no wrong at this point. Against the Indiana Pacers, Ball put up a season-high 32 points and ended with a near triple-double with 11 rebounds and eight assists. His dominance was felt all game long and the Charlotte Hornets needed every ounce of it.
He got to his spots with ease and started a ridiculous run that led to the Hornets being up by 25 points at one point in the game. Everything that could have gone right for the Hornets did, at least for the first 30 minutes or so. The second half was a little bit of a different story, but they still pulled out the win 121-118.
The Hornets had a little collapse around the eight minute mark in the third quarter. The Pacers yanked their starters out of the game and let the second unit show their stuff. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has done this a handful of times in his 20 year coaching career. This time it worked to perfection. Their second unit erased the huge deficit and were hanging around long enough where they could of tied the game in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter. It was two former Hornets in Jermey Lamb and Brad Wanamaker that almost completed the comeback.
Fortunately the Hornets, LaMelo Ball and crew held off the hot second unit, but that just can't happen. As you can imagine, James Borrego was visibly not happy at the press conference. “It's definitely a growth opportunity here,” Borrego said. Being a young team in the league things like this happen. Especially for the Hornets. Despite improving to 10-7, a lot of their wins this season have been tightly contested. This is the first time this season they were in a position to blow a team out. They were in unfamiliar territory against the Pacers and it showed.
LaMelo Ball admitted that their youth showed because of that huge lead.
“It's kind of tough being up 20. We're a run and gun team. We don't know if we wanna keep going or if want to slow it down a little. We just gotta pick and choose, watch a little film and go on from there.”
Good to see the 20 year old know the glaring weaknesses of the team. LaMelo Ball and the Hornets have now defended home court well. That's five straight wins as well, which is the first time they've done that since 2018. This team is looking to make its way into the postseason and right now, it looks like they're on the right track.
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