LaMelo Ball scored 34 for the second game in a row, but the Charlotte Hornets dropped a tightly contested game to the Hawks, 125-120.

The Summary

The Hornets were slow out of the starting blocks. They were slow to get their motion offense going in the half court. They hoisted a lot of threes, but very few went in. They spent most of the first half slogging behind the Hawks by a double digit margin. That changed late in the half when a spurt of scoring and assisting by LaMelo Ball brought the Hornets within four by the end of the half. One of the scores was his first dunk in what feels like forever.

The Hornets made a couple of pushes in the early third quarter but couldn’t quite get over the hump. The Hawks made a run to push the lead back to double figures for a brief period of time, but the Hornets rallied right back to get back within a possession. The Hornets got a couple of late stops that would have given them a chance to take the lead, but a couple of unlucky bounces on the rebounds gave the Hawks some freebies.

The Hornets tied the game early in the fourth with a corner three from Josh Green. They tied a few times over the first several minutes and kept the Hawks within arm’s reach, but they struggled to get over the hump and overtake the Hawks. The task only got taller when LaMelo Ball got called for his sixth foul trying to set a screen on Trae Young. The Hornets couldn’t get enough offense in his absence and dropped the game.

The Good

LaMelo Ball became the first player in NBA history to score over 30 in back to back games to start the season in a Charlotte Hornets uniform. He made a career high nine 3-pointers and was the engine that made the Hornets offense go. He might be leading the league in scoring in the morning.

Miles Bridges had a good followup to a poor first outing. He made his first three 3-pointers of the season and scored 27 points. He was one of the few Hornets that had success attacking the basket and scoring at the rim.

Ball dunked a basketball in an NBA game for the first time since February 10, 2023.

Get that man fired 🆙 @MELOD1P | @drpepper pic.twitter.com/RPG2EKVLxW

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) October 26, 2024

The Bad

LaMelo Ball was called for six fouls and turned the ball over 10 times. It didn’t feel like he was particularly reckless or out of control, but he needs to clean up a few things to stay on the floor. At least most of his fouls were him trying to be physical instead of picking up cheap ones instead of trying on defense.

The Hornets were 16-of-45 from inside the arc. I don’t have any particular reason for that. The Hornets just have to make more shots. That’ll hopefully come with more rhythm as the season goes on.

I say this after a lot of Hawks games, but Trae Young is a chore to watch as an opposing fan. He spends the full 48 minutes looking for whistles. He’s probably annoying to do literally any activity with. Probably has terrible house rules for party games and won’t let you call a two foot putt a gimmee on the golf course.

What’s Next

The Hornets make the quick flight back to Charlotte to play a back to back against the Heat for the team’s opener.

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