While the tone of Friday’s media availability from Hornets head coach James Borrego seemed to indicate that both LaMelo Ball and Malik Monk would return on Saturday, the Hornets made it official prior to tipoff that both would be available against the Detroit Pistons.
Ball will return to the starting lineup, replacing Devonte’ Graham, while Monk will come off the bench, as he’s done for nearly the entirety of the season. Neither player will be on a specific minutes restriction, but both will be limited to runs of four to five minutes throughout the night in their first games back.
Ball has been out since March 20 with a fractured wrist while Monk went down on April 1 with a sprained ankle late in a loss to the Nets. Despite their absence, as well as Gordon Hayward’s, the Hornets maintained their winning pace for the season, sitting at 30-32 and in the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with 10 games left.
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