Despite the Hornets falling to the Sixers by double digits on Saturday, LaMelo Ball came away with yet another positive from his performance. As part of his stat-stuffing box score, Ball finished with a career-high four steals.
After the game, head coach James Borrego spoke on Ball’s defensive performance.
“A quick snapshot, I thought he was active,” he said. “As I go back and watch the film, I’ll see the details of his off-ball awareness and his activity. But I thought he was active tonight on both sides of the ball, especially defensively. He was trying to get in there, get his hands on balls, deflections.”
Ball has had at least one steal in every game this season for the Hornets, a sign of his activity on that end of the court. Through the limited sample size, Ball has a defensive rating of 108.9. It isn’t a great rating, but is on par with the Hornets starters, a sign more of how poor Charlotte’s starting unit has been this season.
Interestingly, when he plays alongside Miles Bridges, the teammate he has spent the most time on the court with this season, the pair’s defensive rating is 102.5. That figure is both great relative to the Hornets and relative to the league as a whole.
Ball still has a way to go on the defensive end but his activity is promising on that end of the court.