The Charlotte Hornets suffered a 125-119 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, but it certainly wasn’t the fault of LaMelo Ball. The Hornets star poured in a career-high 50 points in the defeat, with Charlotte outscoring Milwaukee by seven points in his 40 minutes on the court. Ball also tallied 10 assists, five rebounds and six 3-pointers, making him the first player in franchise history to hit all these benchmarks in a game, per StatMuse.
It did take Ball 38 shots and 17 3-point attempts to get to his final scoring number, so it wasn’t the most efficient 50-burger ever. Still, it was an impressive performance against a Bucks team that’s starting to finally find its groove after a brutal start to the season.
Unfortunately for the Hornets, Ball didn’t get much help. While Brandon Miller poured in 32 points of his own, Josh Green was the only other Charlotte player to reach double figures in scoring with 11. Some of this was because Ball and Miller took 61 of the Hornets’ 100 field goal attempts, but they lost the game when the star point guard was off the court. Charlotte got outscored by 13 points in the eight minutes Ball sat as Miles Bridges’ absence was felt. Grant Williams also left the game with what looked like a bad injury.
The Hornets dropped to 6-10 overall and 1-7 on the road with this loss. That has them in 11th place in a messy Eastern Conference where the seventh-seeded Atlanta Hawks are 7-10. There’s going to be a lot of jockeying for position among mediocre and flat-out bad teams in the East.
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Charlotte is hoping to at least be in contention for a play-in berth this season, and Ball’s health will be paramount. The Hornets star only played in 58 games total over the last two seasons, but so far he has played in all 16 games this year. He’s on track for an All-Star nod with averages of 30.2 points, 6.9 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game. The point guard is third in the NBA in scoring and has teamed with Miller for some massive performances of late.
Clearly, LaMelo Ball has shaken off his recent fourth-quarter benching.
Jason Patt is the head of the editorial team at ClutchPoints. The Illinois alumni specializes in NBA, NFL, and MLB coverage, and he has previous bylines at SB Nation, FanSided, and Forbes.