Luckily there wasn’t much excitement waffling around anyway, considering it was a Monday night and the visiting team was also among the NBA’s worst record-wise.
But the small smattering of feel good vibes quickly seeped out of the sparsely-populated Spectrum Center in the second half of the Charlotte Hornets’ 117-106 victory against Detroit that extended their season-best win streak to five games.
That’s because LaMelo Ball wasn’t on the floor or even on the bench during crunch time after sustaining the latest injury in a season overloaded with them for the Hornets. Ball came up gimpy in the third quarter, exiting with a right ankle injury after posting 18 points, six rebounds and five assists. He will be sidelined indefinitely after X-rays taken at the arena revealed a fracture. And with only 19 games remaining, Ball’s third season could very well be over prematurely.
“Disappointing,” Gordon Hayward said. “Certainly disappointing. He’s a major part of our team. I felt like we were rounding the corner, so it’s disappointing.”
About the only positive thing the Hornets (20-43) can take from yet another frustrating ailment is that it’s not the same ankle that’s caused Ball to miss 27 games this season. And, unlike the two other times he’s gone down this season, Ball’s injury came on a non-contact play and was essentially of his own doing.
With Detroit’s Killian Hayes guarding him, Ball went behind his back, dribbling the ball initially with his left hand before catching it with his right. His right foot appeared to buckle when he went to plant and he collapsed to the floor in front of the Hornets’ bench, limping off to get checked out and never returning to see the Hornets hold off the Pistons after leading by as many as 24 points.
“I don’t think many of us noticed what happened,” Hayward said, “because it wasn’t a significant play where it was like, ‘Oh man, something just happened. So we all just found out right after the game. I think a lot of us during the game thought it might have just been a tweak or something and we were just being cautious with him not coming back.
“It’s just difficult. Injuries are the most difficult part of basketball.”
Ball was in a good groove of late, spurring the Hornets through easily their best stretch of the season. He’s connected on a 3-pointer in 51 consecutive games, the longest streak in franchise history and the third-longest active streak in the NBA. That also happens to be the second-longest streak in league history by a player 22 years old or younger, trailing only Atlanta’s Saddiq Bey (51).
Ball also notched a double-double in six straight games, the longest streak of his career, before it was snapped Monday. He averaged 25.2 points and 11.3 assists over his past six games before going down against the Pistons, the first time in his career posting at least 25.0 points and 10.0 assists over a six-game span – and the only player in franchise history with such a streak.
Overall, he averaged 19.4 points, 7.3 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 31.9 minutes per game. But now Ball is about to add to the 183 games the Hornets have already missed due to injury, a number that ranks sixth in the league. His likely lengthy absence another wrinkle in the battle for the No. 1 pick to land French phenom Victor Wembanyama, given the Hornets have the fourth-worst record and the league’s bottom three teams will each have 14% odds to win the lottery in May.
All because yet again, not long after the Hornets welcomed someone back, they lost another healthy body. It’s their recurring theme for 2022-23, a campaign that probably can’t end soon enough at this rate due to the absurd number of injuries that have victimized and derailed their plans.
“Unfortunately, we are experienced in playing without all of them, so it’s not like it’s going to be brand new,” coach Steve Clifford said. “It’s tough, too, because he was starting to play so well and the team. Obviously, we are playing better and better. But they are not going to wait for us and they are going to be keeping score Wednesday night, too.
“So, we’ve got to be thinking about the things that matter.”
Still, it’s hard for them to not feel badly about their star point guard’s status and ponder how it will affect things over the coming days and weeks.
“He was figuring it out,” Hayward said. “We were starting to figure it out as a team. I think he and I were starting to build. I think me personally, I was starting to build a good relationship with him on the court, and we were finding easy buckets for each other.
“Some of that is what we’ve gone through the whole year, not being able to build that out on the court with different guys being injured — him at the beginning of the season, then me right after that, and now him again. It’s been back and forth with different people through the year, which is tough.”
