Miles Bridges scored 29, LaMelo Ball scored 27, including the decisive final four, and the Charlotte Hornets beat the Lakers, 100-97.

The Summary

The Hornets got off to a strong start with a 4-point play off the hands of Miles Bridges. Unfortunately the Hornets went on to miss their next 15 attempts from deep. They struggled on the interior too, missing several rather easy bunnies around the basket. The Lakers helped out with a whole heap of unforced turnovers, and which kept the Hornets within seven after Seth Curry’s buzzer beating three to end the quarter.

The Hornets took their turn turning the ball over with reckless abandon in the second quarter. Unlike the Lakers, they didn’t balance it out with good shooting. They did, however, defend well on the other end to keep the Lakers close. At the half, the Hornets only trailed by 11 despite shooting just 28% from the field.

LaMelo Ball hit back to back threes to get the offense humming a little bit to start the second half. The offense wasn’t quite as good with LaMelo on the bench, so the Hornets didn’t make up any ground. The defense started to slip later in the quarter with a couple of breakdowns leading to very easy Laker buckets. Austin Reaves got ejected for two rapid fire technical fouls after the refs missed him getting slapped on the wrist. The emotions seemed to give the Hornets a jolt of life, and they went on an 14-0 run capped off by back to back Bridges threes to take the lead. They went into the fourth up three.

They added to that lead with two more threes from LaMelo. Offense was tough come by after that, and the Lakers quickly roared back into the game and took the lead back. The teams traded threes throughout the final frame to set up a highly competitive finish. The stars took turns going at each other, and the Hornets did their best to attack Luka Doncic defensively. After he shook Luka for a dropoff to Mark Williams, the Lakers started doubling him out top. Bridges and Nick Smith Jr. hit threes with the defensive attention away from them to keep the Hornets with a tenuous lead.

Rui Hachimura missed two free throws with a chance to tie the game. On the other end, LaMelo went one on one with Jarred Vanderbilt and drove by him for a floater to put the Hornets up four with 14 seconds left. LeBron, who was a thorn in the Hornets’ side all fourth quarter long, hit a contested three on a busted possession to bring the Lakers back within one with 6.8 seconds left. LaMelo made his two free throws after a take foul.

The Lakers got the ball into LeBron on the final possession, but this time both of his 3-point attempts drew front iron as time ran out.

The Good

Miles Bridges had been playing very good basketball prior to the last two games before the break, and he picked that back up in the first game back. He racked up four steals in the first quarter and five for the game while spending a lot of time trying to make life difficult for LeBron and Luka. He shot the three ball confidently and brought his typical ferocity attacking the basket. Another very good performance for Miles.

There had been a little bit of chatter that I saw during the break about whether or not LaMelo is a “winning player.” He scored 27 points, but most importantly, he put the game away when the Hornets need someone to do just that. He attracted double teams from LA and patiently moved the ball to his teammates to take advantage of the scrambling defense. When he got left on an island, he easily scored on the Lakers best defender to put the game out of reach. That’s a winning player.

The second half version of Nick Smith Jr. played a key part in the comeback. He hit all four of his threes including a pivotal one that took the Hornets from down one to up two when the Lakers were doubling LaMelo in the final minutes.

Jusuf Nurkic didn’t score, but his work as an offensive fulcrum was invaluable in his minutes. In the second half in particular, he drew a lot of attention on the block and kicked the ball to open shooters. His seven assists were no fluke. He was making quality passes for easy looks.

The Bad

I wanted to see Mark Williams light up the Lakers after they surprised him by saying he failed his physical. Instead, he was incredibly passive bordering on soft at points throughout the game. Unlike Nurkic, who used deep post position to attract attention and find open teammates, Williams threw up hook shots against one on one defense from about 12 feet from the basket. He finished with 10 points and nine rebounds against a Lakers team that gave almost half their center minutes to Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura.

Nick Smith Jr. looked real rough in the first half. His shooting was wayward and he looked frazzled with the ball in his hands. Thankfully he bounced back in the second half.

What’s Next

The Hornets play as tough a back to back as they can play. They’ll travel eastward and upward to take on the Nuggets in Denver.