Tuesday’s game for Hornets had the makings of so many before it this season. A beaten and battered Charlotte side headed into a game undermanned and in need of a victory with the playoffs quickly closing in.
While the storyline may have been similar, each one of those contests has played out differently. But Tuesday’s in Detroit was particularly special as it was the latest example of the special season LaMelo Ball has pieced together.
Ball scored 11 of his team-high 23 points in the final frame including a pair of free throws with 5.8 seconds left to put Charlotte up by three points, carrying the Hornets through the finish line for a 102-99 win.
“Melo made big plays down the stretch,” head coach James Borrego said. “He’s built for those moments, those big fourth quarter, winning plays. Big shots, big steals, big free throws, all that adds up to a winning player. He’s been fantastic since he’s been back.
“It definitely was a big game,” Ball added. “We all came into today knowing we had to win. The whole team just locked in on that – coaches, players, staff, everybody – and just came out with a win. We’re really happy.”
It was just the third game since Ball’s return from a fractured wrist, but he looked the most like the version of himself that was a runaway favorite for Rookie of the Year yet. Ball scored in nearly every form and fashion in the fourth. At the basket, in the midrange, behind the arc and at the free throw line.
Those free throws and the sequence surrounding them, though, may offer the starkest look at how unusual Ball’s rookie season has gone. With Charlotte leading, 100-98, Pistons fellow rookie and 19-year-old Killian Hayes drove to the basket and drew a shooting foul on Bismack Biyombo.
The ensuing challenge by Borrego served as both a chance to potentially overturn the call and also a chance to ice a rookie that had attempted just 11 free throws on the season before the shots.
“It was a tough call,” Borrego said of the challenge. “That was not a simple call to make. We only had one timeout. If I had two timeouts, that would have been an easy call for me. Only having one timeout, I thought it was worth the challenge to see if we could get that possession reversed if not a jump ball there…It was the risk and, obviously, it was a long walk for the young fella. It was a long walk and a long wait and thankfully it went in our direction.”
Hayes split the free throws to keep the Hornets up a point. Ball took the ensuing inbound, evaded Hayes in the backcourt and ran off nearly have the remaining time before being fouled. With much more relaxed body language, Ball cooly stepped to the line and knocked down both free throws with a smile hardly ever leaving his face.
“I think that’s what makes him special,” Borrego said. “That’s one of the areas that has surprised me the most this year is his ability to find winning plays down the stretch of big games. Whether it’s a steal, a rebound, a free throw, a big shot, a big pass, he’s got his imprint all over fourth quarter and end-of-game situations. He doesn’t shy away from the moment. He loves the moment and embraces it.
“That’s a special quality about a young man that’s only 19 years old. Not many young guys have that.”
Each of the Hornets final seven contests carry added significance as they teeter in the middle of the play-in spots. News on Tuesday morning, then, that the Hornets would be without P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges as well as Devonte’ Graham, Cody Martin and Gordon Hayward was as frustrating as it was unwelcome.
As has been the case all season, though, the Hornets adapted on the fly. The starting lineup of Ball, Terry Rozier, Caleb Martin, Jalen McDaniels and Bismack Biyombo was the 21st different starting lineup used this season, nearly every one of those changes made out of necessity due to injuries.
That starting lineup had also only played together once before for a total of two minutes before Tuesday. It was no surprise, then, that much of the night was a slog offensively. The Hornets shot just 40.9% from the field, 25.8% from the 3-point line and reached the 30-point mark in a quarter just once, scoring exactly 30 points in the opening period.
But the Hornets slowed the Pistons down offensively as well, save for Hamidou Diallo’s career-high 35 points. But as Detroit slowly chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter, trimming the lead down to as little as two points, Ball stepped to the plate, scoring or assisting on six of the final eight Hornets points.
“Every game’s important late in the season,” Rozier said. “We didn’t have anything going for a little minute. Melo came in and put us on his back. Like I said, it doesn’t matter how we have to get the win as long as we get it.”
Ball finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists, a stat line that has been done by a rookie only six times this season with Ball now accounting for half of those occurrences.
“After every game, I like to look back and just see (how I performed) before going onto the next game,” Ball said. “Honestly, (the game) does get slower and slower every game, just picking and choosing your spots and stuff like that. I just keep trying to learn and get better.”
As has been the conclusion to the storyline most often this season, the shorthanded Hornets walked away victorious on Tuesday. Charlotte still sits in the eighth seed, two games behind Miami in seventh and 1.5 games up on Indiana in ninth.
It won’t win them any extra favor that it came shorthanded or that it featured Ball’s further ascension from rookie to star, but it will provide yet another building block for the Hornets’ program moving forward.
“It’s in the top tier of our resilient wins all season,” Borrego said. “To have this group come out here on the road, Detroit plays hard. This is a gritty team and this time of year, this is not our typical lineup on the road but we found a way. That’s the name of the game. Nobody cares that we have guys out. The league doesn’t care. Detroit doesn’t care. Chicago doesn’t care. Nobody cares. Nobody’s feeling sorry for us.
“You just have to stay with it and it’s built out of resilience and standing up within the game, moving on to the next game. We have to stay poised, stay resilient and stay together. I’m really proud of this group. To get this win is significant for our program.”
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