LaMelo Ball Had His Worst Game in a Month and It Didn't Even Matter

The Charlotte Hornets have gotten an incredible season from LaMelo Ball so far. His per-game averages are down, but the advanced metrics are generally up. The biggest thing is that when he is on the court, the Hornets put distance between themselves and the opponent.

Of course, he only plays 27.6 minutes a night, but what he does in those minutes is help the Hornets vastly outscore the opponent. Since January 1, he has led the NBA in plus-minus. Overall, including a poor start to the year, he's 11th in the NBA.

Plus-minus isn't the best way to determine on-court impact since it depends on other factors, but on/off splits are good. When he's on, the Hornets are 14.1 points better. That's the second-best mark in the NBA, behind only the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic on.

Generally speaking, when Ball plays, the Hornets do well, and they win. But what about when he doesn't do well, like last night? He shot poorly all night long, and he had four turnovers to go with four fouls.

In terms of plus-minus, he was -5. That was his worst total since the February 9 outing against the Detroit Pistons. He had the worst game he's had in a month, and it didn't matter. The Hornets cruised to a 27-point win.

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) grabs a rebound from Dallas Mavericks forward Khris Middleton | Sam Sharpe-Imagn Images

Therein lies the true strength of this Hornets team. They probably learned long ago that relying on Ball to be hot every night was a fool's errand. He is simply too inconsistent to count on a good game every single night.

For the last month, though, whether he shot well or not, the Hornets did extremely well when he was on the floor. Not last night, but the depth of this team shone. They more than made up for Ball's poor minutes with exceptional minutes from Josh Green (+36), Sion James (+30), and Grant Williams (+23).

Even Ryan Kalkbrenner was +18, which beats every starter in that metric. The Hornets finally have a couple of things they've long needed. First, they have the talent to help Ball when he's struggling. Last night, that was Brandon Miller, but it's also been Kon Knueppel this year.

Second, and most importantly, they have a real NBA bench. Josh Green was overmatched as a starter, but he's been incredible as a sub. Grant Williams could start for some teams, and he's also been excellent off the bench. Sion James and Ryan Kalkbrenner are impactful players as second-round rookies.

Finally, the Hornets have what they've always needed to be a competitive team, and it showed up in a big way last night.