Charlotte Hornets guard Devonte Graham hit two free throws with 15 seconds left to secure a 118-110 road victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Hornets trailed by as many as 18 points before rallying to pull away in the fourth quarter. They improved to 4-5, going 2-2 on their current road trip.
Rookie point guard LaMelo Ball just missed a triple-double, totaling 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
Gordon Hayward led the Hornets in scoring with 26 points. Miles Bridges added 20 and Graham 17.
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This wasn’t only the first time Ball and his brother, New Orleans point guard Lonzo Ball, played in the same NBA game, it was the first time they played against each other at any level.
LaMelo closed in on his first NBA triple-double over the first three quarters, with 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Lonzo struggled for much of the game, finishing with five points (2-of-8 shooting) to go along with three assists and two rebounds.
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Bridges’ role switch, from starting small forward to second-unit power forward plays to his strengths. This accentuates the best part of his game — power — without him constantly having to guard smaller, more nimble guys.
Bridges made seven of his first nine shots, one of the few Hornets to play well in both halves Friday.
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Hornets coach James Borrego wants his team conscious of shot value, which means taking a majority of field-goal attempts either at the rim or outside the 3-point line. They had eight first-half dunks, so they clearly attacked the rim. The 3-point shooting was frequent, although anything but accurate.
Charlotte was 3 of 19 from 3 before halftime; two makes by Graham and one by Bridges. Combine that terrible jump-shooting with eight first-half turnovers, and the Hornets were probably lucky to trail at halftime by only 12.
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Borrego said pre-game he didn’t plan any lineup changes, but he did say he wants to continue experimenting with guards Graham, Terry Rozier and Ball playing together some.
Borrego used that lineup some in the fourth quarter in the victory over the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday. The sample size going into New Orleans was small -- 12 minutes over four games -- but the Hornets were minus-15.4 points per 100 possessions with Graham, Rozier and Ball playing together.
Borrego utilized that Ball-Graham-Rozier lineup the second half of the second quarter.
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Borrego sounded thrilled pre-game that there will be a G-League season (held in a bubble on Disney’s campus near Orlando, Fla.) and that the Hornets will be one of 17 NBA franchises fielding a team.
The G-League season will start in February with those 17 teams, plus an elite development team called Ignite. The Hornets have four rookies — Vernon Carey, Nick Richards, Grant Riller and Nate Darling — who need the minutes they’ll get at Disney with the Greensboro Swarm.
Borrego said it’s too soon to be specific who will go the G-League and whether all four will be there the entire span at Disney. But considering the circumstances — no summer league and just three weeks between the draft and training camp — saving the G-League season was a big boost.
“Today was a big day for us,” Borrego said. “It’s an unprecedented time (due to the pandemic): The lack of summer league, practice time, shootaround time (to coach players not in the rotation). Lack of game-time reps. We just don’t have them right now. It would have really set back our development program” had there been no G-League season.
