MILWAUKEE — When the Charlotte Hornets glanced over at their opponent and how they’ve managed to construct a championship-level roster around a star, there’s a part of them that probably daydreamed about that exact scenario unfolding for them.
LaMelo Ball could very well eventually be the Hornets’ personal version of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo one day. At least that’s their hope anyway.
“You look at a guy in Melo, imagine Melo in five years,” coach James Borrego said. “Imagine Melo right now in five years. The amount of reps he’s going to have and the way he sees the floor now. Can you imagine what he looks like in five years? Special.
“But it just takes time to get there. He’s much further ahead than even I anticipated at this stage. So we’ve just got to continue to build on that and everybody else has got to make those decisions.”
Although they hung tough with the Bucks for most of the night, the Hornets still have a ways to go before that fantasy becomes reality. Done in by a couple of miscues in the closing seconds and unable to cash in on Ball’s fourth outing this season with 30 or more points and career-high tying seven made 3-pointers, they succumbed to Milwaukee, 127-125, at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night.
Antetokounmpo narrowly missed a triple-double for the Bucks (14-8), recording 40 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
Ball led the Hornets (13-11) with 36 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
Here are three things we learned in the Hornets’ third consecutive loss:
Kelly Oubre was the Hornets' bench
With Cody Martin sitting out his second straight game batting an illness he told The Charlotte Observer is like a bad stomach bug that had him feeling even worse Tuesday than he did on Monday, the Hornets were thin in the reserve department.
So Kelly Oubre took matters into his own hands.
Oubre pumped in 25 points, with 20 coming in the first half on the strength of five made 3-pointers. He had all but five of the points scored by a non-starter, continuing his impressive production. Oubre, who came in averaging 14.9 points, has drained five or more 3-pointers in a half in three games, and it marked the second time he’s done it off the bench, tying him with Ben Gordon and Malik Monk for the most by a Hornets bench player since the 1996-97 season.
What slow start?
The molasses-like problems the Hornets have had lately, which directly led to them dropping into hefty deficits prior to halftime, wasn’t something they had to worry about for once. They had it going early and often against the Bucks, ensuring there was not about to be a repeat performance of what transpired during their losing stretch.
In fact, it was the exact opposite. They led by as many as 18 points and netted 41 in the opening quarter.
Putting up 68 in the first half against the defending champs and their length was a confidence booster. That represented their second-highest output in a half this season, trailing only the 72 they posted against Portland at home on Halloween. The 10 3-pointers they canned in the first quarter tied for the most made in a quarter in an NBA game this season.
Share and share alike
An unselfish approach had the Hornets’ offense flowing.
It was obvious the Hornets made a more concerted effort to incorporate more ball fluidity into the mix against the Bucks, understanding that was an ingredient needed to hang with Milwaukee. Assists on eight of their first 11 buckets tipped off their trend and propelled them to a total of 30 assists overall on their 43 made field goals.
Ball, along with Terry Rozier, were the main catalysts. Rozier recorded seven assists in the first quarter, the most in a quarter in his career. That hadn’t been accomplished since Devonte’ Graham had that many in a game in 2020.
Ball had 10 points created off assists in the second quarter, engineering their offense to near perfection.
