LaMelo Ball is back. How’d he look and what did we learn in the Hornets’ loss to Detroit?
Dressed in gray sweatpants and a matching long-sleeved top, the guy who fills the most seats in the stands for the Charlotte Hornets was once again on the floor.
But this was different from the other appearances LaMelo Ball made of late, even if his routine was the same. Unlike on those occasions during the past two weeks when Ball warmed up on the Spectrum Center court, only to still sit the action out, this time the preparations were a bit more serious. Charlotte’s star guard returned after an 11-game absence nursing a sprained left ankle, finally feeling good enough to run the show for the struggling Hornets.
“Horrible, for real,” Ball said of his nearly monthlong absence. “I hate to be away from hoops and I’m glad to be back.”
It took Ball a bit to knock off the expected rust and his second-half spark ignited the Hornets against the Detroit Pistons until he fouled out in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. He was left powerless in overtime and could only watch from the bench as the Hornets got outplayed in the extra session and dropped a rough 141-134 decision to one of the league’s worst teams.
Ball rebounded from a slow start during which many of his shots were short and posted 23 points a season-high 11 assists in 34 minutes. But his mere presence wasn’t enough to alleviate the main issue the Hornets can’t seem to correct.
“Before we care about something besides how many points we score, we’re not going to win much,” an incensed coach Steve Clifford said. “Can’t play like that. ... We are playing no defense. Not one guy. There’s not a bright spot. We don’t run back on defense, we don’t guard the ball, our pick-and-roll stuff. All stuff that was good.
“I think we were as high as about 12th or 13th in defense about 10 games ago, and we’re right back to where we started — ground zero — where all we want to be is, ‘Let’s try to outscore the other team.’ That doesn’t work in the NBA. It never works.”
In fact, that was Clifford’s postgame message to the team.
“I just told them this is either you build a game that will actually work at the end of the year when you play the important games or you don’t,” he said. “That’s it. That’s what the NBA is all about. It’s not that we don’t have the talent to do it. All we care about is scoring. That’s it. If you’re going to try to play like that, you better have like five all-stars and we don’t have that kind of talent. So, it’s not something that will work.
“You can’t just outscore people in the NBA. You can’t. And you can’t decide you’re not going to do the things that take effort. Like rebounding or getting loose balls or putting your body in front of the ball. You can’t. It just doesn’t work that way. And that’s what we’re trying to do right now.”
Clifford’s edict was apparently heard loud and clear.
“He definitely talked to us and we got that message,” Ball said. “We’re going to come in (Thursday) and try to make it a better day.”
Here are some key takeaways from the Hornets’ sixth straight loss:
Phantom ‘D’
The scene kept playing over and over, repeating itself like a sequence in a bad movie.
Detroit’s big men – and its guards, too – had little resistance during drives into the paint, often throwing down rim-rattling dunks without the Hornets (7-21) contesting them. Isaiah Stewart had a pair of filthy dunks to punctuate consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter to break a tie.
“The easy ones at the rim of course, but also the open rhythm threes,” Mason Plumlee said. “You look, they shot 45% from three and they were getting to the rim, too. We didn’t take anything away. It’s going to be hard to win if you don’t.”
Even Bojan Bogdanovic had an uncontested layup directly at the front of the rim late in the fourth quarter. That just can’t happen. It’s unacceptable and the Hornets know it.
“I feel like that’s our problem,” Ball said. “We’ve definitely got to lock in on defense and figure it out. I feel like as soon as we get that down, we’ll turn this thing around.”
Too soon to call it
With the Pistons (8-22) in town, the Hornets got their first up-close view of the player they traded away in June after selecting him No. 13 overall. And while Jalen Duren didn’t torch the Hornets, he caused enough havoc in the paint to be effective.
Duren had a couple of nasty dunks, including a right-handed flush over Plumlee, and snatched a team-best and a career-high 19 rebounds. Duren also swatted three shots, which is the most he’s registered as a pro. And since Mark Williams has spent the bulk of his rookie season shuffling between Charlotte and suiting up for the G League’s Greensboro Swarm, it gives off an illusion the Pistons are ahead in the trade and might have even won it.
But it’s still too early to determine who got the better end of the deal, which included the Hornets acquiring five draft picks in the three-team trade with New York.
“I think it’s great for us because we needed that young, athletic inside player,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “I don’t look at the grades. I’m sure (Detroit GM) Troy (Weaver) and the office look at the trade and grades or whatever it is. I don’t think you can really grade that right now. I think his grade is going to come two or three years down the road.”
Casey compares the rookie to North Carolina native Bam Adebayo.
“What he brings to the table is rebounding, rim protection, his screening,” Casey said. “ … When we had our meetings we talked about him being a potential Bam Adebayo. People forget how raw Bam was when he first came into the league and J.D. is the same way. His future is going to be bright. So there’s going to be a grade from our standpoint down the road.”
Terry is tops
Perhaps no one is more thrilled to have Ball back than Terry Rozier.
Rozier is logging a hefty amount of court time and racking up more minutes than any other Hornet. His average of 37.1 per game is tops in the entire league, placing him just above Boston’s Jayson Tatum. Those minutes, and the manner they’re being distributed, come with a price.
“He is having to – this is the other part I talked to him about because it’s harder – the way we’re subbing with him is hard to play,” Clifford said. “It’s hard. Sometimes we have him play four minutes at a time just so we can keep one of those guys on the floor because we don’t have a lot of offense. And the more offensive players you have, the easier it is to sub.
“So it’s hard for him because he’s kind of being jerked in and out. … As these guys come back, I think it’ll be easier for him too. He’s been great. He understands and obviously we’ve talked about it. But it’s a hard way to play.”
Rozier hasn’t played less than a shade over 32 minutes in a game this season. He totaled 42 against Detroit.
“I’m just adjusting to doing whatever my team needs me to do,” Rozier said. “Coach always apologizes to me about the minutes, but it’s going to come with it. I’m not complaining. I love competing and I love going out there to do what’s best for the team. So, no complaints over it.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 10:05 PM.
