{"id":18494,"date":"2020-12-31T20:47:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T02:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=18494"},"modified":"2020-12-31T20:47:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T02:47:43","slug":"lamelo-ball-outplays-luka-doncic-in-hornets-win-over-mavericks-lamelo-ball-makes-hornets-history-with-20-point-performance-vs-mavericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=18494","title":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball outplays Luka Doncic in Hornets’ win over Mavericks, LaMelo Ball makes Hornets history with 20-point performance vs. Mavericks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

LaMelo Ball makes Hornets history with 20-point performance vs. Mavericks<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

Miles Bridges on LaMelo Ball after historic night: \u2018He\u2019s the third pick for a reason\u2019<\/h1>\n

LaMelo Ball’s NBA career is less than two weeks old, but the Hornets rookie already has a signature win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ball and Charlotte (2-2) beat Luka Doncic and the Mavericks (1-3) on Wednesday night, 118-99. Ball had his best night as an NBA player so far, scoring a game-high 22 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. In defeat, Doncic scored only 12 points with five assists.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“LaMelo\u2019s showing growth every single game,\u201d Hornets coach James Borrego told media postgame<\/a>. \u201cHe had his fingerprints all over that game\u2026playing with poise, confidence. He was a calming force out there for us.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ball, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, has come off the bench for his first four NBA games. He entered Wednesday night averaging 6.3 points per game \u2014 he’d made a few highlights, especially as a passer, but his impact had been pretty minimal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That all changed against the Mavericks, as Ball came out aggressively. He got to the line soon after entering, then dished out a couple of assists before nailing a 3-pointer from 30 feet out. Then he grabbed an offensive rebound to hit a buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the fourth quarter, with the game well out of reach, Ball hit a right-elbow jumper, a left-wing 3-pointer and then a switch-hands layup to ensure there’d be no Mavs comeback.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the biggest concerns about Ball entering the NBA was his shooting. In the highlights above, it’s obvious his mechanics aren’t conventional \u2014 there’s a whole lot of leg movement. But against Dallas, that didn’t stop him from hitting four of his five attempts from beyond the arc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ball is always going to be a big story due to his family. His older brother Lonzo plays for the Pelicans, and their father LaVar has made a big to-do for years about how good his sons are. Whether Ball overcomes the various worries about his game in a long NBA career remains to be seen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For one night, though, Ball looked like he might be the best player on the floor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMelo\u2019s a great player,\u201d Hornets forward Miles Bridges told media postgame<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s the third pick for a reason.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

Against the Mavericks, Ball finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists off the bench in a 118-99 win over the Mavericks<\/a> on the road. It was the first time a Hornets rookie<\/a> had record 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in a game since Kemba Walker did so in April of 2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s the first time in nearly three decades<\/a> that a Hornets rookie has recorded 20 points, five rebounds and five assists off the bench in a game since Kendall Gill did so in 1991.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ball had it all going on Wednesday, shooting 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-5 from the three-point line while adding a block and a steal to his stat line in the win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

LaMelo Ball\u2019s historic night ended in a laugh<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With 18 seconds left, Ball corralled an offensive rebound from a missed three-pointer by Vernon Carey Jr. Realizing the shot clock had only reset to 14, Ball circled out to the perimeter, handed the ball to Jalen McDaniels<\/a> and raced to the far corner, leaving his teammate to be credited with the turnover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ball did it all with a smile on his face, which was easy to do after a 22-point, eight-rebound, five-assist performance as the Hornets blew out the Mavericks on the road<\/a>, 118-99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHO IS” LA MELO BALL”<\/strong><\/p>\n

LaMelo LaFrance Ball (born August 22, 2001) is an American professional basketball<\/a> player for the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> of the National Basketball Association<\/a> (NBA). He was selected by the Hornets with the third overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ball began high school at Chino Hills High School<\/a> in Chino Hills, California<\/a>, where he won a state championship and achieved national success as a freshman with his older brothers Lonzo<\/a> and LiAngelo<\/a>, Lonzo is a current NBA guard. Before his junior season, a coaching dispute prompted him to leave Chino Hills and sign with Lithuanian professional team Prienai<\/a>. In 2018, he played in the Junior Basketball Association<\/a> (JBA), a league created by his father, before returning to high school as a senior with SPIRE Academy<\/a> in Geneva, Ohio<\/a>. A former UCLA<\/a> commit, he was a five-star recruit<\/a> but chose to forgo college basketball amid eligibility concerns and play in Australia for the Illawarra Hawks<\/a> of the National Basketball League<\/a> (NBL) in 2019, winning NBL Rookie of the Year<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ball and his brothers have attracted national attention since playing together in high school. His father, LaVar<\/a>, also grew into a media personality<\/a> in 2017. Ball has a signature shoe by his father’s company, Big Baller Brand<\/a>, and a role on his family’s Facebook Watch<\/a> reality show Ball in the Family<\/a><\/i>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/header>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LaMelo Ball makes Hornets history with 20-point performance vs. Mavericks Miles Bridges on LaMelo Ball after historic night: \u2018He\u2019s the third pick for a reason\u2019 LaMelo Ball’s NBA career is less than two weeks old, but the Hornets rookie already has a signature win. Ball and Charlotte (2-2) beat Luka Doncic and the Mavericks (1-3) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2405,330,11,8,1314,2432,1456,1156,2404,14,106,1,7,9,10],"tags":[800,3469,3470],"class_list":["post-18494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-basketball-sports","category-business","category-entertainment","category-global-business-entrepreneurs","category-global-gamers","category-global-news-updates-and-more","category-global-sports","category-high-school-sports","category-most-commented","category-nba-sports-news","category-news","category-sports","category-us","category-world","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-la-melo-ball","tag-nba-2020","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}