More Coverage: Game Action Gallery
Just like they’ve done every outing of their road trip so far, the short-handed Charlotte Hornets gave everything they had until the very end before falling to the host Trail Blazers, 123-111, on Monday, March 1 in Portland.
LaMelo Ball led the way for Charlotte with a team-high 30 points, six rebounds, eight assists and four steals in the loss. This is Ball’s fifth consecutive 20-point game, making him just the third rookie in franchise history to accomplish this feat and first since Alonzo Mourning in 1992-93. He’s also the third-youngest player in NBA history with a 30-5-5 game, behind only LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Knotted at 59-59 coming out of halftime, Portland outscored Charlotte, 33-24, in third quarter after shooting 64% from the field in the frame (14-of-22). The Hornets scored the opening basket of the fourth before the Trail Blazers responded with a 12-0 run and never looked back, cruising to a 13th straight home win over the purple and teal.
“My guys are busting their tails,” said Coach Borrego after the loss. “They’re playing so hard right now. We’re undermanned, back-to-back, grueling season, but we’re not going to use it as an excuse. There could have been some fatigue there in the third, but we carry on, we fight on. We had our opportunities there. It was just the mental mistakes in the third quarter. We turned it over, Carmelo [Anthony] hits a couple tough threes – that really turned the game.”
Terry Rozier bounced back from a rough outing to finish with 20 points, six assists and four steals, while fellow starter Cody Martin nearly double-doubled with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds. Malik Monk (19 points) and Caleb Martin (11) both scored in double figures off the bench for a Hornets squad that was still without three starters in Gordon Hayward (hand), Cody Zeller (hip) and Devonte’ Graham (knee)
Anthony (season-high 29 points), Damian Lillard (23) and Robert Covington (21) all had 20-point games for Portland, with Lillard and Covington each double-doubling with an additional 10 assists and 10 rebounds, respectively. Big man Enes Kanter also double-doubled with 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench and Nassir Little cracked the double-digit barrier as well (11).
Portland connected on a season-high 24-of-46 three-point attempts (52%), nine of which came in the fourth quarter. Charlotte went just 10-of-17 from the free-throw line (59%), after knocking down all but one of its 27 shots at the charity stripe in Sacramento one night earlier.
The Hornets will now close out their six-game road trip against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, March 3 starting at 8 PM EST in Minneapolis, MN. Catch all the action on Fox Sports Southeast, the Fox Sports GO app and WFNZ 610 AM or 102.5 FM