The Charlotte Hornets nearly set the Orlando Magic's pursuit of a higher seeding in the East back, giving the visiting squad a scare before eventually losing 111-104.
Orlando raced to a 63-53 lead at halftime, but the Hornets came out firing on all cylinders to start the third quarter. Steered by LaMelo Ball's scoring or assisting on the team's first six field goals in the period, Charlotte took a 73-67 lead at the 7:04 mark of the third stanza. Unfortunately, the following possession saw Ball commit a foul, which happened to be his fifth of the night.
The 2022 All-Star fouled twice in each of the first two quarters. Despite battling foul trouble, Ball still ended up with a near-double-double effort, posting 25 points on a 9-13 shooting clip and nine assists in 29 minutes. However, in a contest where most of his teammates proved unreliable, the Hornets needed more from him. He probably could have played even better but couldn't be on the floor as much as he likely wanted.
LaMelo Ball's discipline requires more work
Preventing unnecessary or lazy fouls and learning to control his hands and body when defending or fighting for position have been recurring problems for Ball. It's great to see him try to be more aggressive, but he also has to master when to dial it down to avoid getting bad whistles.
It's worth noting that he did manage to avert his sixth infraction against the Magic until there were 34.1 seconds left in the game. The Hornets were down 110-104 at that point, and Ball displaying his frustration by blatantly pushing off a defender to get free for the inbounds play sealed the loss for his squad.
It's unclear what irked the star, as he was seen yapping after the offensive foul call. Perhaps it was due to not getting favorable whistles from the referees, as he went to the charity stripe just four times throughout the match.
Still, Ball has to take it upon himself to put his crew in the best position to win, and that means doing everything he can to be on the floor in key situations and crunch time.
To be fair, the 23-year-old playmaker has looked disciplined on some nights. It's worth noting, though, that Tuesday was the third time he fouled out this March. He was also thrown out in Charlotte's back-to-back losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers over two weeks ago.
There's little doubt about Ball's talent and superstar potential. However, the challenge for him is to become a better leader for the Hive, and part of that is working on his emotions on the court.