The Charlotte Hornets suffered their second last second loss in as many nights, this time at the hands of the Pacers.
The Summary
Charles Lee and his staff decided to experiment with the lineup and put Collin Sexton in the lineup in place of LaMelo Ball. It’s similar to what the Spurs have been doing with Victor Wembanyama. Early returns were not great however, as the Hornets came out flat and fell into an almost immediate 16-4 hole. But LaMelo came in like a WWE wrestler off a hot tag and immediately changed the complexion of the game. He made a couple of quick buckets and hit Josh Green for a three. He helped the Hornets chip away at the deficit with Pascal Siakam offering some resistance. The quarter ended with LaMelo wrangling a loose ball and tossing up a running, fading 3-pointer that banked in.
The second quarter was more of the same. Balls at the first few minutes of the quarter, and his team struggled to find their way without him. He checked in and immediately got the offense rolling again. He even briefly put the Hornets ahead with a 4-point play. They fell behind again later in the quarter, but LaMelo’s buzzer beating layup brought them back within two at the half.
Some funky foul calls made for a disjointed start to the second half, and a frustrated Hornets team fell behind again. True to form, LaMelo checked in about halfway through the quarter and immediately hit a three and energized the squad. He hit a couple more as the quarter wound down and had the Hornets within three going into the fourth.
Threes by Knueppel and Bridges tied the game and set up a grandstand finish. The Hornets operated as though they weren’t allowed to shoot from inside the arc, and the 3-pointers were not going down. The Pacers were almost gifted three points when the officials inexplicably counted a 3-pointer that Aaron Nesmith caught and shot as jumper with only 0.3 seconds on the shot clock. It was fortunately overturned on review, and that was followed by three Knueppel free throws to give the Hornets the lead. The Hornets had a chance to go up five with a late fast break, but LaMelo threw a rather ill advised lob to Diabate. After a Pacers basket and Hornets miss, Pascal Sialam made a falling layup to put the Pacers up one with 10 seconds left. Charles Lee tried to call timeout, but the referees never looked his way before Diabate inexplicably tried to inbound the ball. It was stolen by McConnell.
After Ben Sheppard made one of two free throws, Charles Lee was finally given the timeout he’d been seeking. The play resulted in a jumper from Collin Sexton, but he left it short.
The Good
Before we get to the basketball stuff, I applaud LaMelo for being open to the idea of coming off the bench. There’s no harm in experimenting with lineup combinations at this point, and kudos to LaMelo for not having too big an ego to let the coaching staff bring him off the bench.
On the basketball side, LaMelo played an incredible game. He made some questionable decisions down the stretch, but his total game was outstanding. There was a palpable difference in the energy and attitude of the entire Hornets team when Ball was pulling the strings. He personally seemed to do really well coming off the bench. Now it’s a matter of figuring out what to do in the other minutes.
The Bad
It’s becoming frustratingly common for the Hornets to play poorly against their most vulnerable opposition. They’ve now lost to the Pacers twice, who struggle to beat just about everyone else in the league. They simply do not seem to play with the same focus and cohesion in these games. The ball movement was underwhelming on offense and the defense was just kind of soft. I think we’re just going to have to live with this all season.
There were times I forgot Brandon Miller was even playing in this game. He didn’t do a whole lot in the first half. To make matters worse, he got ejected early in the second half, though I think that was more bad officiating than bad Brandon Miller. He was assessed a technical on the first half for inadvertently elbowing Ben Sheppard while Sheppard was fouling him. He seemingly forgot he had that technical on his name when he spent a couple minutes dogging the officials about a sequence of foul calls in rapid succession that went against him.
There is just something so, so annoying about watching TJ McConnell beat you. I don’t know what it is.
What’s Next
The Hornets get a chance to redeem themselves against another bad team. They travel west to face the Jazz as the start of a Western Conference road trip.