LaMelo Ball sat most of crunch time in loss to Toronto. Hornets coach explains why
So much for building momentum.
Fresh off an impressive outing that caught people’s attention nationally given the beatdown they put on the defending NBA champions, the Charlotte Hornets were back home with an opportunity to keep it going.
It didn’t happen.
Done in by Immanuel Quickley burying a 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Hornets succumbed to the Toronto Raptors 97-96 at Spectrum Center on Wednesday night. Consider it yet another lesson learned.
“Honestly, I would say just closing games but also being ready for success,” Collin Sexton said. “When we’re up, handle success the right way. At the end of the day, don’t get too high. Don’t be like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re good.’ The game’s never over. When you’re up five, take it to 10. You’re up 10, take it to 13, 14. You have to easily inch away and not always try to get, ‘OK, let’s go from 10 to 20.’
“We have to handle success a little bit better, and we have to make sure that we’re humble in those moments of highs. I think when we’re up 12 or up 10, we have to be willing to throw the knockout punch and put them to sleep like that. That’s how I would try to look at it.”
They certainly had their chances to do it to Toronto (23-15).
Instead, they let a third consecutive win slip through the cracks and spoiled LaMelo Ball’s go-ahead bucket with 1.6 seconds remaining. On a night they led by as many as 13 points, the Hornets (13-24) couldn’t close it out.
And letting Quickley get off a clean look didn’t sit well with them, either.
“I think that we just had a little bit too much separation, (need) a little bit more physicality,” coach Charles Lee said. “We were kind of glued to his body and then just kind of getting through that screen. Got to have that second gear to be able to get through it. But we’ll look at the film and see where we can kind of get better at the end of the game, too.”
Miles Bridges has his thoughts on what went wrong.
“Yeah, I feel like we had the same physicality we had against the Thunder,” Bridges said. “The difference was turnovers and then they had a lot of offensive rebounds. So, we fix that and we win by a large margin.”
Here are some other key takeaways from the Hornets’ loss:
LaMelo sits most of crunch time
LaMelo Ball spent a bulk of crunch time riding an exercise bike in the tunnel.
Rather than having the star point guard on the court, Lee went with the combination of Sexton and Sion James in the backcourt. Ball, who posted 15 points along with seven assists and seven rebounds, only logged five minutes overall in the fourth quarter.
So, what went into the decision?
“I liked how that group was playing also,” Lee said. “Just trying to be a little bit mindful of where we are in a back-to-back and our allocation of minutes to put us all in the best position to be healthy. So, I thought that group did enough to kind of keep us in it, keep it close. And it’s helped us kind of extend some leads at times too, with their defensive aggressiveness and Collin’s ability to knock down the three.
“I thought he scored it at a pretty good clip tonight, too, and was able to get to the paint, which was something that we were lacking at times. So, just a tough decision that I have to make.”
And one that everybody has to be on board with for it to be effective.
“I would say giving up yourself for the team is a huge thing,” Sexton said. “And I feel like as a team, you have to do it each and every night. Sometimes you might have a wide open shot, but then your teammate might have a better shot. And little plays like that allow us to build trust.
“And even just off the court, we’re always talking to one another, uplifting one another, laughing and joking, and that rolls over onto the court. So as long as we win, it don’t matter who did it and who’s playing well. At the end of day, whoever has the hot hand, we have to continue to feed the hot hand.”
PJ Hall making most of chance
Still shorthanded at center due to injuries to rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner and veteran Mason Plumlee, the Hornets had to once again turn to PJ Hall for reserve duties behind Moussa Diabate.
And although Hall isn’t going to blow you away, he’s effective in his own right. Playing almost 15 minutes, against the Raptors, he tossed in eight points and snatched seven rebounds. That came on the heels of his career-best 13-point performance in Monday’s win over Oklahoma City.
“He’s taken advantage of the opportunity,” Lee said. “I’m really happy for him with how he’s been playing, how he’s performing. But I think it also just shows the homework our front office has done to be able to evaluate him as a person and as a player, what he can contribute.
“For him to want to come play summer league, and then after summer league still wanting to be in the organization, it just shows what we’re building and what we have going on.... And he’s definitely one of those guys who’s made a great impact. He’s stayed ready for his opportunity and now he’s making the most of it.”
Trainer’s room
With a little more than an hour to go before tipoff, assistant coach Jermaine Bucknor was sitting in the front row along the baseline, flanked by Bridges and Brandon Miller.
One player was in shorts and the usual warmup attire; the other had on sweats.
That snapshot gave an indicator of where things stood with Miller.
Nursing a left knee contusion, Miller didn’t play against the Raptors, joining Kalkbrenner and Grant Williams in street clothes on the bench.
“So Brandon’s obviously just been kind of managing his knee a little bit, going into a back-to-back,” coach Charles Lee said. “It was important for us as we continue to evaluate him and just see him on the court, to just try to give him an opportunity to have the most success to be available going forward.”
“So, he’s going to continue to get evaluated right now, and we’ll see, but we’re just trying to manage him and make sure that he can be most available as we keep going with this back–to-back and then an upcoming West Coast road trip as well.”
As for Kalkbrenner, he missed his eighth straight outing rehabilitating a sprained left elbow. The rookie center has started in all but one of the 26 games he’s appeared in, averaging 8.7 points and 6.4 rebounds, but hasn’t suited up since Dec. 20.
“Yeah, Ryan is going to be OK,” Lee said. “He’s been making really good progress in all seriousness, and I think that he’s kind of come back to some of the team activities now.
“We’ll continue to evaluate him after every team activity he does and in on-court sessions, but I do think he’s trending in a good direction.”
Sounds like Williams is in the same boat.
More than a year removed from tearing his right ACL, Williams is apparently in the final stages of his comeback. There’s no definitive date for his return, but it could be trending to take place this month.
“Grant’s obviously been out for an extended period of time with his injury now, has been able to be more involved in team activities and five-on-five play,” Lee said, “and so far he’s responded really well.
“But when you’ve missed that much time from basketball, we want to make sure that we’re reintegrating him into game play at the appropriate time.”
Up next
A brief two-game homestand will conclude 24 hours after it began when the Hornets host the Indiana Pacers at 7 p.m. on Thursday. After that, Charlotte hits the road for a nine-day trip with stops in Utah, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 6:55 PM with the headline "LaMelo Ball sat most of crunch time in loss to Toronto. Hornets coach explains why."
