LaMelo Ball and the Hornets visited Los Angeles tonight and came away with a 135-117 blowout win over the Lakers. Subsequently, Luka Doncic of the Lakers spoke to the media and gave the Hornets their flowers for getting going tonight.
The Slovenian star was asked what he felt about his opponents tonight and whether he felt that lower-seeded teams gave their best shots against the Lakers due to the star-studded nature of the matchup.
“Maybe yes, maybe not. But I feel like Charlotte has a lot of great young players. We saw them win some big games. When they’re rolling, they’re rolling. LaMelo, Kon, Brandon, Bridges, they have a good young group,” said Doncic initially.
These four players that Doncic mentioned combined to score 100 out of the 135 points that the Hornets scored tonight. LaMelo led all scorers for them and finished tonight with 30 points, 11 assists, and six rebounds after having only three points in the first half.
He shot 10-20 from the field (50.0%), but 17 of his 20 shots came from beyond the arc, of which he made nine shots (52.9%). He hit four threes in each quarter of the second half to close out the win for the Hornets.
“It’s hard to play against them. Obviously, their record is not the best, but they have some good wins,” Doncic further added.
The Hornets recently defeated the Thunder in a blowout 124-97 win on the road, as well as the Cavaliers, not too long before that. Therefore, Doncic is simply trying to emphasize that the Hornets should not be underestimated despite being the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference.
“I mean, he hit some crazy shots, but that’s what he does. He was shooting a lot of shots off the dribble. We planned for that, but he hit some crazy shots. As I said, he does that, so he got really hot.”
“He made nine threes (tonight), eight threes in the second half, so it was hard to stop him,” the Slovenian star further added on how LaMelo Ball found his rhythm in the second half.
Luka Doncic and LeBron James combined for 68 points tonight, but it wasn’t enough to fuel their offense against the Hornets. Doncic finished the game with 39 points, three rebounds, and four assists while shooting 15-26 from the field (57.7%) and 6-11 from three-point range (54.6%).
Lamelo Ball was at the center of trade rumors recently. But nights like this show Ball can still be the franchise player for the Hornets if he simply locks in on a nightly basis.
The Hornets tied their regular season series against the Lakers after losing their first matchup 111-121 in November. They have now improved to 15-26 following this win and will face the Warriors in their next game on Saturday (January 17).
Meanwhile, the Lakers have fallen to 24-15 following this loss and now head to Portland to face the Trail Blazers on Saturday as well.
