The Charlotte Hornets played strong through the middle portion of the game but ultimately fell short despite a strong performance from LaMelo Ball.
The summary
The Hornets fell behind early as they struggled to contain the Magic in the paint. To make matters worse, LaMelo Ball picked up two quick fouls. That’ll come back later. Nick Smith Jr. and KJ Simpson helped stopped the Hornets’ early bleeding with a couple of quick threes. A couple minutes later, Seth Curry’s 4-point play helped the Hornets crawl back within two heading to quarter two.
The first few minutes were about as ugly a stretch of play as you’ll see in NBA game. The teams traded turnovers and missed shots for a few minutes. They made up for that tough stretch with a much more visually appealing remainder of the period. LaMelo had a couple of really nice dimes to set up dunks for DaQuan Jeffries and Mark Williams. Miles Bridges had a few nice forays to the rim. Unfortunately the Magic continued to take the Hornets to the basket on the other end, so the home team found themselves in a double digit hole by halftime.
The Hornets came storming back to take the lead in less than four minutes thanks almost entirely to LaMelo and Josh Green. The tying bucket was a half court lob from LaMelo to Green, the second such lob thrown by LaMelo on the evening, then LaMelo powered inside for an and-1 to give the Hornets the lead. It was all part of a 19-3 Charlotte run that put them ahead by a few possessions. However, near the end of all the madness, LaMelo picked up his fifth foul and had to make his way to the bench. With backups filtering in, the Hornets struggled to find offense and let the Magic creep back into the game, and it went into the fourth quarter with both teams tied at 83.
The Hornets took the first lead of the fourth quarter with a strong bucket by Jusuf Nurkic. LaMelo Ball made up for lost time by slicing and dicing through the Magic with his ball handling and using a wide array of finishes to get the offense going. He splashed a deep three to tie the game at the midway point of the quarter after Paolo Banchero had helped the Magic to a lead. Nick Smith Jr. hit a three a few possessions later to keep the game even, but that was answered by a couple of Magic buckets. NSJ missed a spin into a floater in the final minute, and the Hornets were forced to start fouling with about 35 seconds to go. LaMelo got called for pushing off on the ensuing inbound play, which fouled him out of the game and gave the ball back to the Magic, effectively ending the game.
The Good
The foul trouble is not ideal, especially considering it’s been a recurring issue this season, but outside of that, LaMelo Ball played a fantastic game offensively. He was very judicious seeking out his 3-pointers and instead spent a lot of time using his dribble to probe around inside the arc looking for teammates or scoring opportunities. 25 points on 13 shots is not the type of efficiency we’ve seen much of from LaMelo. It’s that type of performance that can significantly elevate this team when it has its key pieces.
We’re in a stretch of good NSJ right now. He scored 13 points while making 3-of-7 threes. He’s now had four straight games shooting over 40% from three. His shooting splits are enough to give a person whiplash. We’ll see if he can ride this good shooting for the rest of the season.
There are only 10 games left.
The Bad
The Hornets game plan whenever they’ve played the Magic this season is to sag off and goad the Magic into taking more 3-pointers than they normally do. They succeeded in doing that, as the Magic attempted six more than their season average in 3-point attempts and only converted 31%. However, you’d expect the defense inside the arc to be more disruptive given how packed in it’s supposed to be. That wasn’t the case. The Magic still managed to shoot 58% inside the arc. Some of that was simply Paolo Banchero doing his thing, but the Magic also got a fair few easy looks at the basket, and the Hornets were only able to generate seven steals+blocks. Basically an all around zero of a defensive performance.
Miles Bridges is in a bit of a rough patch. It seems as though the Hornets struggle to have both he and LaMelo Ball playing well at the same time. It’s very strange.
What’s Next
The Hornets actually get two whole days off before they head back on the road for a brief two game road trip that starts north of the border.