What Charles Lee had to say after Hornets’ latest loss without LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller
Starting off a new year healthy — or victorious — wasn’t in the cards for the Charlotte Hornets.
Once again missing their dynamic backcourt duo of LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, the shorthanded Hornets couldn’t finish adequately enough down the stretch of a 98-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night, pushing their losing streak to a season-worst nine games.
Chalk up the Hornets’ latest defeat to a lack of critical plays during crunch time, a familiar theme throughout the Hornets’ struggles dating back to Thanksgiving.
“I think it’s exactly what we were expecting,” coach Charles Lee said. “You build a good lead … I felt our process, our execution gameplan-wise on both ends of the court in the first half was good, built the lead that we needed to. And I thought in the third quarter, they took their intensity to another level, kind of slowed us down offensively.
“They just made a couple of more plays at the end of the game.”
Lee had plenty of praise for Miles Bridges, who posted 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists. He nearly extended his career-best streak of recording at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, but it ended at three games after falling one rebound shy against the Pistons.
“Yeah, I just loved the competitiveness from him, the never quit and always fighting mentality that he has,” Lee said. “It’s great. Things weren’t always going his way, and I think as a team things haven’t always gone our way. But we talk about what are the actions we are going to take to move forward, and just handle adversity and embrace adversity and try to get each other through it.
“He’s always thinking about, ‘How can I impact the game, impact winning?’ And that’s what I love and appreciate about him.”
So what did the Hornets take from falling for the 17th time in their last 18 games?
“Just keeping our composure, including myself,” Bridges said. “I had six turnovers, so I put that on me. But I think we did a good job competing, but when they turned up their physicality and theory pressure, we kind of backed down a little bit. You can’t do that.
“It was just a learning experience.”
As for Ball and Miller, they haven’t appeared in a game since the Hornets’ Dec. 26 defeat in Washington. Listed as questionable, which seemed like a positive sign given both had been deemed either doubtful or out on the injury report over the last week-plus, Ball (left ankle soreness/right wrist soreness) and Miller (left ankle) still weren’t good enough to go, keeping each sidelined for their third straight game.
The next opportunity for their return will be Sunday in Cleveland, when the Hornets (7-26) conclude their mini two-game road trip against the Cavaliers.
Overcoming the absence of their dynamic backcourt to snap a lengthy skid could’ve provided a needed boost for the Hornets, knowing how much the duo means in the grand scheme of things. Especially Ball, whose solid start to the season has him on the radar for the All-Star game in San Francisco in February.
The Hornets star ranks first among all Eastern Conference guards with 947,444 votes, more than 200,000 ahead of anyone else. That places him atop Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell (718,084), Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard, New York’s Jalen Brunson (477,253) and Atlanta’s Trae Young (353,452).
Easily, Ball is having his best season since his All-Star campaign in 2022, when he became the fourth-youngest player in league history to earn the distinction, behind only Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Magic Johnson.
Averaging career bests this season in points (30.1), field goals (10.5), 3-pointers (4.5) and free throws (4.7) has Ball on a lofty trajectory. He’s also dishing 7.4 assists, grabbing 5.3 rebounds and collecting 1.3 steals per game, and sits fourth in the NBA in scoring, setting a pace that has him on track to establish a new franchise single-season record.
He’s also draining a league-best 4.5 3-pointers per game, leads the league in fourth-quarter points per game (9.6) and is one of four players this season to register 30 points, five rebounds and five assists per game. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic are the others.
