Hornets’ LaMelo Ball, Malik Monk are cleared medically. Will they play Saturday?
The Charlotte Hornets could have LaMelo Ball and Malik Monk back for home games this weekend against the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat.
Ball and Monk were medically cleared after practicing with the Hornets Friday. The will be listed as questionable for Saturday’s home game against the Detroit Pistons.
Ball suffered a fractured wrist in a March 20 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Malik Monk has been out since April 1 with a right ankle sprain.
Ball had his cast removed April 19, and a CT scan showed the broken bone had healed. That meant Ball recovering flexibility in his right (dominant) hand was the last barrier to him playing again. Monk sprained his ankle in a nationally-televised road loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
The Hornets (30-32) are still waiting on the recovery of small forward Gordon Hayward, who suffered a right foot sprain April 2. Hayward was still in a walking boot at the Hornets’ home game Tuesday, and coach James Borrego has said Hayward isn’t close to a return.
LaMelo Ball has been NBA’s top rookie
Ball had a spectacular first half of his rookie NBA season, winning the first three Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month awards. Ball averaged 15.9 points, 6.1 assists and 5.9 rebounds in the 41 games he played before injuring himself in a hard fall on a drive to the basket.
Since Ball’s injury, the Hornets have gone 10-10. While they have slipped of late in the Eastern Conference standings — from fourth to eighth — they are still on track to at least qualify for the NBA’s play-in tournament for the 7th- through 10th-place teams, deciding the last two playoff spots.
Predictably, scoring has been the biggest challenge with Ball, Hayward and Monk out. The Hornets have had seven games since Ball’s injury in which they have scored 97 or fewer points.
Coach James Borrego has called Ball the Hornets’ “engine” offensively for his look-ahead passes and court vision.
Ball has been a prohibitive favorite to win NBA Rookie of the Year. In a recent Observer poll, nine of 12 media members likely to have a vote for that award said they still anticipated voting Ball first-place. The remaining question in that balloting was how many games Ball might miss with the injury.
Transition period after missing six weeks
While Ball’s return would be an automatic boost for the Hornets, he will likely need a transition period to get back to form. The challenge is the point guard position obviously requires a lot of fine-motor skills to Ball’s dominant hand. However, since this wasn’t a lower-body injury, Ball likely lost less conditioning than he otherwise would have from six weeks of inactivity.
When Ball spoke with media April 20, he expressed surprise his injury was nearly so serious as it proved to be.
“I still didn’t think it was broken. I never thought it was what it was,” Ball said of the 24 hours following his hard fall.
“I thought it was a sprain — nothing too big — so I’d finish out the game. Probably ice it after the game and be cool for the next one. It started irritating more and more.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 4:59 PM.
