Charles Lee addresses LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller's minutes played in Saturday's win

After trailing by 12 late in the fourth quarter on Saturday night, the Charlotte Hornets rallied to an overtime victory over a Toronto Raptors team who had just won nine straight games.

In a game regarded as the team's best win of the season, and their second half of first winning streak of the year, the story after the game was not about the team's success. Rather, it was about how the two franchise players were on the bench during the team's comeback.

At the 8:31 mark, the Hornets were trailing 96-86 when they subbed LaMelo Ball. At the 6:11 mark, the team trailed 98-88 when they subbed Brandon Miller.

Only Miller saw the court again, who checked back in four minutes later with the Hornets' deficit down to just two points.

Ball not seeing the court throughout the remainder of the fourth quarter and overtime sparked massive debates online, none bigger than the idea that the Hornets may be a better team with LaMelo off the court. It added more fuel to the fire that began a few weeks ago, a fire started by Yahoo's Kelly Iko that said LaMelo was "open" to being traded away from the Hornets.

While the debates remained on social media, Head Coach Charles Lee stated postgame that the decision to sit his two stars was not a matter of talent, but rather, return to play.

For the last few years, LaMelo has been dealing with severe ankle injuries that even kept him out of multiple games this season. As for Brandon Miller, he's in just his sixth game this season, missing 13 straight with a shoulder injury after the second game of the season.

"Our performance staff and player development group did a good job of developing a plan to maximize him, and so minutes going forward for a while we will have to be mindful of putting him in the best position to be available for as many games as possible," Lee said a few weeks ago a day after LaMelo's first game back from a multi-game absence.

Six games later, and the minutes restriction still has yet to go away, though, Ball has started playing in back-to-backs.

"Coming into a back-to-back today we wanted to be mindful of where his minutes are," Lee responded after being asked whether or not Ball's lack of minutes was apart of a restriction.

"You just have to keep the process, the long-term vision in mind when you are in these moments. We want to win this game, every game we want to win really badly. I think those two guys help you do it, but we do have good depth," Lee said. "You lean on that depth in moments like this, and the maturity of those two guys to understand that there is a bigger picture, and trying to maximize their availability."

"I thought they did a good job of staying engaged even if they had to sit out for longer stretches than they are used to, and then when they come in the game they have an impact."

LaMelo finished with 14 points, 2 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Brandon Miller recorded 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists, just one night after his 27 point outburst against the Chicago Bulls.

"I'm glad that they are where they are at, and see how they recover after their first back-to-back in a while. So, really happy with the process and also their approach and maturity to deal with it."

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