LaMelo Ball is doing something that can’t be ignored. What’s gotten into the Hornets’ star?
Well aware how much the level of difficulty raises up a few notches, Brandon Miller shook his head.
As the subject of the fourth quarter was broached, rattling off a sampling of the numbers being stockpiled by Charlotte Hornets star point guard LaMelo Ball, Miller smiled wryly. After all, Miller has an up-close view of Ball’s scintillating performances, giving him a unique perspective.
“It’s exciting, it’s fun,” Miller said. “It’s not really a surprise. I’ve been saying it. I think it’s just something that he does. He’s used to this league. He’s been in this league for a minute. We look at him like a vet. So, he’s going to continue to get better.
“His fourth quarters are more aggressive. I think he’s hunting more shots, which is a good thing for us, because the more shots he gets, the more opportunities because we have great rebounders behind us to help us out.”
Things were a bit in reverse in the Hornets’ 114-99 loss to the Orlando Magic at Kia Center on Tuesday night, with Ball registering a career-best 16-point first quarter en route to tossing in 36. But he still posted 12 points in the fourth, and the fifth-year pro’s numbers during the game’s final quarter heading into their matchup with the Magic were off the charts, indicating just how much of an engine he’s been.
Entering Wednesday night’s action, Ball leads the NBA in scoring in the fourth quarter, averaging 11.2 points. The 4.1 made field goals and amount of shots he nails beyond the 3-point arc (2.1) also puts him above everyone else in those categories. He’s also eighth in fourth-quarter assists per game, distributing 1.8.
Wait, there’s more. And plenty of it.
Ball topped 15 or more points in the fourth quarter four times so far in 2024-25, the third-most instances in a season in franchise history since 1996-97. Only Glen Rice (five times in 1997-98) and Kemba Walker (10 occasions in 2018-19) have accomplished the feat. This season, nobody else in the league has netted 15 points in the fourth quarter multiple times.
“I think he’s doing a heck of a job creating some opportunities when sometimes it’s not there,” coach Charles Lee said. “You’ve got to give the defense credit sometimes. We might run a good action and we don’t get what we need, but he does a really good job of trying to make something out of nothing.
“But there’s times where I feel like the defense does a good job and there’s other ways to attack instead of him trying to feel like he has to do it by himself. So, we are trying to clean up some of our spacing things to try to help him because he’s helping us.”
Ball’s clutch numbers — which is when the score is within five points with five minutes or less remaining — this season are also eye-popping. In 24 clutch minutes, he’s posted 28 points, knocking down 9 of 16 attempts overall including a 4-for-10 showing from 3-point range. He’s drained all but one of seven free throws and hasn’t committed a turnover.
For him, it’s no big deal. Simply all in a day’s work.
“I’m just trying to win,” said Ball, who’s third in the NBA in scoring at 29.9 points per game. “That’s it.”
Through the season’s first month, Ball’s fourth-quarter highlight reels have been extraordinary. Like his turnaround game-tying 3-pointer in Sunday’s loss in Philadelphia. It was another one of those plays that got a rise out of the always-excitable Eric Collins, the team’s longtime play-by-play man whose voice is synonymous with viral social media clips of his calls of Ball’s highlights.
Ask him which of Ball’s fourth-quarter highlights sticks out most and Collins doesn’t hesitate. There’s only one answer.
“It was the shot in Philadelphia, the inbounds play in Philadelphia,” Collins said. “He just comes off a curl, gets the ball, never looks at the basket. He’s behind the line, fades out of bounds, body going to the left and still able to hang long enough to just swish it. It was beautiful.
“Not many humans, No. 1, want to take that shot, and not many humans, No. 2, can make that shot. And the fact that he made it with just no care that he could theoretically miss, that just speaks volumes for the guy and the kind of guy he is. He’s a winning player who’s playing the game the right way.”
Describing Ball’s scintillating play isn’t always easy, though. Collins can’t waver and must explain what’s going on with Ball in real time, which can throw the veteran off his game a tad in the booth.
“LaMelo, in my opinion, he’s kind of a broadcaster’s dream,” Collins said. “He’s kind of a broadcaster’s nightmare sometimes. But he’s a dream for me because I love unpredictability. You don’t know what you are going to see and when it’s going to happen. So, that’s something that’s just gold for me. It’s something I’ve been waiting to do a long time in my professional career. Love it.”
Then there’s the flip side for Collins.
“He’s a nightmare sometimes just because he’s so unpredictable,” Collins said. “I can be in the middle of a story and he’s at the other free-throw line, 75 feet away from the cup and I think I’m safe to tell some story about someone with a free throw streak or someone who’s related to someone who used to be with the Wallendas or whatever. And he throws a three-quarter pass and it messes me up.
“But anyway, I’ll happily take that nightmare for the dreamy part and everything else. Because as an announcer you are always looking for something unique, something you’ve never seen before. And he does that every single ball game and the fourth quarters, have just been … It’s fantastic. I love it.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
