Few things in the sports are as exciting as March Madness and the NCAA Tournament. The drama, the stakes, the upsets, the cinderellas, the favorites, it all mixes together to create one of the exciting months of the year.
Unfortunately, like everything else in both the sports landscape and across the world as a whole, the tournament was unceremoniously canceled, leaving fans without brackets to be busted this year.
In an effort to fill at least a small portion of the hole in sports fans hearts, we decided to give our own version of a March Madness bracket for Lonzo Ball fans. With the better part of three seasons under his belt, Ball has begun to amass many impressive performances while in the NBA.
So, we decided to seed them, pair them up and pick which of Lonzo Ball’s games are the best. Each day, a new match-up will be revealed with a poll to vote at the end of the article. Fan votes will determine which game moves onto the next round until there is one winner.
For now, here is the field of what we narrowed down to Ball’s eight best games as a professional.
1. Lakers at Phoenix, Oct. 20, 2017
After a pretty terrible debut to open his NBA career, Ball and the Lakers traveled to Phoenix one night later. There, Ball had a showing much more suiting to a No. 2 overall pick, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter including many big shots down the stretch to seal a Los Angeles win.
2. Pelicans vs. Houston, Dec. 29, 2019
A sign of how great of a season Ball has had this year in New Orleans, three of the eight games in the bracket come from the 2019-20 season.
Ball’s season-high scoring performance came against a depleted Houston side while he hit seven three-pointers, a career-best mark he would match later in the season.
3. Lakers at Milwaukee, Nov. 11, 2017
Ball’s up-and-down rookie campaign saw a couple of his highest moments of his career, including his first career triple-double.
On the road in a loss to Milwaukee, Ball made history with a 19-point, 13-assist, 12-rebound triple-double. Though it came in a loss, it would be the first of many triple-doubles already in Ball’s career.
4. Pelicans vs. Minnesota, March 3, 2020
Ball was playing arguably the best basketball of his career including a two-game stretch in which he matched his career-high in three-pointers in consecutive contests.
The first of those came against Minnesota. Despite it being one of the most frustrating losses of the season for the Pelicans, little of that could be blamed on Ball as he nearly matched his career-high in points.
5. Lakers at Charlotte, Dec. 15, 2018
Ball’s second season in Los Angeles was largely disappointing from a personal standpoint but it also had another historical high. In Charlotte, Ball and James made NBA history as each notched triple-doubles in the same game.
6. Lakers at San Antonio, March 3, 2018
One of the final big performances of Lonzo Ball’s rookie season came against the rival Spurs. Ball has not always had big moments in the fourth quarter but in San Antonio, he caught fire from range.
Ball hit six three-pointers in the game with three of them coming in the final frame and each of them in a bigger spot than the one before.
7. Pelicans at Dallas, March 4, 2020
In the aforementioned two-game stretch in the final stretch of the NBA season prior to the suspension of the league, the second game saw Ball nearly lead the Pelicans to a huge road win.
Ball matched his career-high with seven three-pointers for the second game running and, along with Brandon Ingram, nearly sent New Orleans to a win over Luka Doncic and the Mavericks.
8. Lakers vs. Denver, Oct. 25, 2018
While not one of Ball’s better scoring or necessarily statistical performances of his career, his game against Denver on national television in his second year showed how impactful he can be.
After a slow start to the game, Ball came alive particularly on the defensive end and stuffed the stat sheet for a big win over the Nuggets.
