Spoelstra thought LaMelo Ball should have been kicked out. Instead, he won the game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- LaMelo Ball scored 30 points and had 10 assists in Charlotte’s 127-126 overtime win.
- Ball hooked Adebayo’s ankle, causing him to fall and leave with a lower back injury.
- Spoelstra called the play dangerous and said Ball should have been ejected.
LaMelo Ball was everywhere Tuesday night in Charlotte’s exhilarating, 127-126 overtime win over Miami in an NBA tournament play-in game at Spectrum Center.
He scored 30 points and took 31 shots. He had 10 assists. He made an awful turnover and then fouled a guy on a 3-point shot.
And after all that, Ball drove for the game-winning layup in rush-hour traffic with 4.7 seconds to go, sending the home sellout crowd into an absolute frenzy. Miami missed a hurried final shot and the Hornets had survived, by an eyelash, in a game it already seemed they had won and lost several times. Ball had won the biggest game of his NBA career, carrying the Hornets on his back for large portions of the contest.
But if it had been up to Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra, Ball wouldn’t have been in the game at all for those final seconds.
Early in the second quarter, Ball thought he had gotten fouled on another driving shot attempt. Miami’s Bam Adebayo — the guy who scored 83 points in a game earlier this year — had the ball and was attempting to throw it to a teammate while falling backward near the baseline.
Ball, who was on the ground, then reached out with his left hand, hooked Adebayo’s ankle and pulled. This caused an already off-balance Adebayo to fall clumsily to the ground and land directly on his tailbone. He left the game with 10:58 to go with a lower back injury and never returned.
Seethed Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra postgame about what Ball did: “I don’t think it’s cute. I don’t think it’s funny. I think it’s a stupid play. It’s a dangerous play. Obviously our best player is out. ... He should have been thrown out of the game for that.”
The officials, though, missed it entirely in real time. Ball might be punished retroactively with a fine and a flagrant foul, but there’s no doubt he’s going to play again Friday when Charlotte goes on the road to face the loser of the Philadelphia-Orlando game Wednesday night. The winner of that one will go to Detroit for a best-of-7, first round playoff series starting at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Ball said he was sorry after the game to Adebayo on two different occasions and pooh-poohed the idea that he might have swept Adebayo’s leg intentionally.
“I apologize on that one,” Ball said. “I got hit in the head. Didn’t really know where I was. But I’m gonna check on him. See if he’s OK and everything.”
Spoelstra, widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the NBA, gave the Hornets credit for playing terrific basketball several times. But he also said Ball should be penalized for his actions. The incident happened right in front of the Miami bench, and Spoelstra said he thought Ball was upset at the play.
“He was frustrated,” Spoelstra said of Ball. “I think he felt like he got fouled. So he takes the liberty of, like, yanking somebody. That should be penalized.”
This game, though, was Ball in a nutshell. Controversial. Mercurial. And completely essential to the Hornets, who needed everything he had to escape with this win before a sellout crowd of 19,698 that sounded louder for sustained periods than I’ve ever heard the Spectrum Center for a Charlotte game.
It wasn’t just Ball who was scoring, of course. Miles Bridges had 28 (and a game-saving block on Miami’s last attempt). Brandon Miller had 23 points and Coby White 19 off the bench — including an amazing turnaround 3-pointer near the end of regulation that sent the game into overtime in the first place. They made up for a horrible shooting night from rookie Kon Knueppel, who went 2-for-12 (0-of-6 from 3-point range) and didn’t play a second in overtime.
Ball wasn’t shooting well from outside either. He went 2-for-16 from deep, launching one after another with impunity from long range. But in overtime, he drove the ball downhill, straight into the teeth of the Miami defense (which, to be fair, had lost several teeth due to Adebayo’s absence).
It was all Ball late — for good and for bad. He made a tough layup to give Charlotte a 125-120 lead with 26 seconds to go. Then, after Tyler Herro hit a difficult three, Ball immediately turned the ball over on a bad pass in the backcourt. To make matters worse, Herro ran to the corner to try to shoot a go-ahead three with 23.5 seconds left, and Ball inexplicably fouled him while he was doing it. Herro made all three free throws with 8.7 seconds to go, and a five-point lead had turned into a 126-125 deficit in the space of 18 seconds.
So, LaMelo kind of needed that last-second layup to make up for that turnover/foul combo. And he got it, slithering into the paint after an accurate inbounds pass from Sion James and scoring.
“That shows growth,” Bridges said. “Before, Melo would have shot a step-back three to try to win the game. But he has a different sense of urgency, and he’s a winning player. He always gets talked about as just a player who wants highlights and all this, but he truly wants to win, and I feel like it’s on full display right now.”
It certainly was Tuesday. This was the full LaMelo Ball Experience in two hours and 41 minutes of game time. The Heat wanted him kicked out. The crowd of 19,698 and all his teammates wanted to hug him. It was a spectacular night — ultimately one of the best in Hornets history. He was right in the middle of it all.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
