Despite what happened, the vibes are still high for Lee, Ball and the Hornets as they picked up their seventh consecutive win.
Both Charles Lee and LaMelo Ball were involved in a nasty head-to-head collision on Monday night for the Charlotte Hornets.
With 9:15 left in the first quarter, Ball attempted to save the ball from Miles Bridges' error pass. Lee, moving along the sideline, was unaware of Ball and instinctively leaned down to recover the ball.
As a result, both sides collided, leaving the Hornets franchise star on the ground for minutes.
Ball eventually returned to the game after receiving a 1-inch laceration above his eye and went off with 26 points and eight boards to pace the Hornets' 102-95 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
"That's Melo just continuing to compete. I took a play off—and you're not supposed to take any plays off—and I thought the ball was going out of bounds. I was gonna save it from going into the stands, and he was going to save the ball," Lee told reporters. "We went head-to-head.
"Credit to him, he didn't yell at me too bad. I apologized, obviously."
Ball, on his end, didn't find anything wrong with his accidental incident with Lee.
“He went for the ball and I went for the ball and obviously we bumped heads,” Ball said. “It was unfortunate, but hey, I’m still alive and breathing, so who cares? We got the win, so that’s what most important.”
With Ball's resiliency, the Hornets have picked up their second consecutive win, tying their longest run since the 2004-05 season.
Lee can only be ecstatic about how Ball maintained his readiness to play despite undergoing treatment on his face, as Charlotte continues to maintain their momentum heading to the critical point of the regular season.
“I love his spirit of, ‘Hey let me get to the back, get cleaned up and get back out there,’” Lee said. “It just shows the growth that he continues to have to take a bump or a bruise like that and shake it off.
"He really helped our team.”
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