One of the league's top scorers this year has been bitten by the injury bug yet again.
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Charlotte Hornets All-Star point guard LaMelo Ball has unfortunately suffered a left calf strain, and is set to have his status reassessed in two weeks, sources inform ESPN's Shams Charania.
The Hornets had gotten off to a solid 4-5 season start on the year, before stumbling of late. Most recently, Charlotte has lost four straight, and will now be without its offensive leader for a significant stretch.
At 6-13, the Hornets currently occupy the No. 12 seed in the lowly Eastern Conference. Although that's an undesirable standing for now, the Hornets are still just 2.5 games worse than the conference's No. 7 seed, the 9-11 Atlanta Hawks.
Ball's 31.1 points a night rank second only behind Milwaukee Bucks All-NBA power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo's 32.4 points per bout.
Heading into his most recent Hornets game, a 98-94 loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday, Ball led the league in the fourth quarter scoring by a significant margin — his 11.1 points in that final frame far outpaced the 8.5 fourth-quarter points per game of Toronto Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, according to StatMuse.
Across his 18 healthy contests on the year, the 6-foot-7 pro is averaging the aforementioned 31.1 points, a career-high, on .430/.356/.848 shooting splits. That 35.6 percent 3-point shooting mark arrives on a whopping 13.1 triple tries. Ball, 23, is also dishing out 6.9 dimes (against 4.5 turnovers), pulling down 5.4 boards, and swiping 1.1 steals a night.
Since being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Ball has struggled mightily with major health issues. He suited up for just 51 games in 2020-21, but his superlative performance during those games earned him Rookie of the Year honors.
He was an injury replacement All-Star during his second — and healthiest — season, in 2021-22, where he suited up for 75 games. Across the ensuing two seasons, Ball appeared in just 58 combined games of a possible 164.
Due to this new injury, Ball sat out the Hornets' latest matchup, a 99-98 NBA Cup midday defeat to the New York Knicks. 6-foot-5 vet Vasilije Micić started in Ball's stead, scoring nine points on 3-of-10 shooting from the floor (1-of-5 from long range) and 2-of-2 from the foul line, dishing out eight dimes, and pulling down two rebounds in 31 minutes.
The 2024-25 Hornets are playing under former Boston Celtics assistant coach Charles Lee, in his first year at the helm of the franchise. With Ball absent for this next slate of games, it seems likely Lee will run more of his offense through high-scoring second-year small forward Brandon Miller, who's averaging a career-best 19.9 points on .403/.360/.914 shooting splits, plus 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
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