LaMelo Ball made his Hornets season debut against the Heat, but Charlotte lost to Miami
.JPG "Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) knocks the ball off the hand of Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)")
The shrieks, shouting and cell phone cameras pointing at the court told you all you needed to know about what was happening in South Florida on Saturday night, and it was a sight the Charlotte Hornets had been waiting more than a month to witness again.
Nearly five weeks after going down with a sprained left ankle in the Hornets’ penultimate preseason game, LaMelo Ball was finally back, and the Hornets were hoping for an emotional boost to help them put the brakes on a seven-game losing skid.
“For sure,” coach Steve Clifford said. “He was able to do more this morning in shootaround and you could feel it. Again our guys have worked hard. We’ve had a couple of games here where the breaks or whatever didn’t go our way and they want to win badly. So when a player of his caliber comes back. It makes the game easier for everybody.”
Easier, maybe, but Ball’s return wasn’t yet the elixir for what ails the team. Ball’s return couldn’t completely lift the Hornets out of their three-week funk and they succumbed to Miami, 132-115 at FTX Arena.
“It just felt good to be back for real, get some run,” Ball said. “Defense, offense. It’s just basketball for real. It was just fun to be back.”
Ball, who finished with 15 points to go with six rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes, showed signs of rust and got caught up in foul trouble. He also misfired on his first seven attempts from 3-point range. But he also had a few moments of brilliance.
Like when the 21-year-old’s speed was on full display at the end of the first quarter after racing down the court in fewer than 3.3 seconds and tossing in a soft runner to pull them within a point heading into the second quarter. Still, not even his presence could get the Hornets on track.
“I feel straight,” Ball said. “More games, it will get easier. So, I think I’m in a good spot.”
Make it 10 defeats in their last 12 games now for the Hornets (3-11). They’re reeling.
Here’s what we learned in Ball’s season debut:
“We lost,” Kelly Oubre said. “That’s what bothers me.”
Third quarter of doom
Things unraveled quickly directly after halftime and the Hornets never recovered.
Miami drained its first nine shots of the third quarter, fueling its initial 25 points, and put a stranglehold on things with a 45-point outburst. Defensively, the Hornets were a step slow and had trouble getting it together.
Those miscues snowballed quickly and allowed the Heat to zap a hefty portion of the Hornets’ confidence. They never matched Miami’s energy level and paid dearly for it.
“In the third quarter, a lot of it was them but you’ve got to get into your guy to a certain degree,” Clifford said. “All the space they had , you can’t play defense like that. Guys have to be able to at least make it hard so you can help. It was blow by, blow by.”
No ‘D’
The number that really jumps out is 62.8%. That’s what the Heat (6-7) shot against the Hornets and it includes a blistering 10 of 20 from 3-point range.
Protecting the paint better is something they’ve discussed recently and they weren’t all that great in that category, either, and yielded 58 points inside. The Hornets were also outworked on the glass and couldn’t close out possessions, surrendering 17 second-chance points.
“Tonight we were really late the whole game and that started the first half,” Clifford said. “Those are areas where you are not going to beat good teams consistently. We could be .500 or something like that. But it’s just not a team defense you can win with. As much as anything, it’s a mindset, it’s a mentality. It’s what guys value the most and everybody can’t be thinking offense.”
Clifford knows their defensive issues can’t continue.
“You don’t want to come on the road and have to score 130 to win,” he said. “You are not going to beat a team like that very consistently if they have all their guys, too. You’ve got to have a way to play that makes sense in our league. And the way we defended tonight, we are not going to be able to get there.”
Offensive struggles
Remember when the Hornets had one of the league’s highest-scoring offenses earlier in the season? That certainly hasn’t been true lately.
Entering their date with the Heat, the Hornets were among the lower echelon in offensive rating. Their mark of 106.3 ranked 28th out of 30 teams. Offensive rating is the amount of points a team scores per 100 possessions and the Hornets need more than a little work on that side of the ball to get it into a good rhythm in every game.
“It’s a sign you are playing without your best offensive players to be honest,” Clifford said. “You have to have depth, which we do and this is actually going to help us in the long run. These guys are getting great experiences. We have some guys out there that are good players and you bring Melo back, you bring Terry back, you bring Gordon (Hayward) back, they are going to play a lot better.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 10:30 PM.
