Hornets, LaMelo Ball eliminated after embarrassing play-in loss to Pacers

With their season on the line, the Charlotte Hornets turned in their worst performance of the year in embarrassing fashion on Tuesday night, losing 144-117 to the Indiana Pacers in the play-in tournament opener.

From the opening tip, the Pacers proved to be the dominant team after jumping out to a 14-point lead just five minutes into the contest. Pacers forward Doug McDermott scored 14 points by the 7:08 mark of the first quarter, the most in the first five minutes of a game this season.

Overall, eight players scored in double figures for the Pacers, who were without Myles Turner, Caris LeVert and others.

Domantas Sabonis led the Pacers with 14 points, 21 rebounds and nine assists. Oshae Brissett tied a game-high with 23 points, while McDermott had 21 points and Malcolm Brogdon chipped in 16 points and nine assists as the Pacers shot 55.2% from the field.

Indiana will now face the loser of the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics for the eighth seed.

“Obviously, we didn’t get off to a great start,” Hornets head coach James Borrego said. “There were very few high moments throughout this game. We just couldn’t find our footing on either end of the floor; they were the aggressors. These are the moments that you learn from and grow from for all of us, including myself.”

Once the Pacers jumped out to an early lead, the Hornets looked to be defeated and were unable to play with any urgency or energy. Miles Bridges scored a team-high 23 points, Cody Zeller had 17 points and Terry Rozier added 16 points while missing all nine 3-point attempts.

LaMelo Ball had 14 points and finished a minus-35 on the court.

Charlotte allowed Indiana to shoot 54.2% from the field in the field half, including 50% from 3-point range. Conversely, the Hornets shot 37.5% from the field and 21.1% from beyond the arc as the Pacers led by 24 points at halftime.

“In a 30-point loss, there is nothing that goes right,” Zeller said. “If it was a close game, we could talk about a few things here or there but they just came out and punched us in the mouth, early on and throughout the whole game. It was disappointing because, obviously, we needed this one to continue our season.”

The inexperience of the Hornets certainly showed throughout the contest.

They didn’t respond when they needed to and time after time, allowed the Pacers to continue to pile on to their advantage. For a team that needed to win, there weren’t very many answers for the lack of energy to start the game but Borrego hopes it can serve as a valuable learning opportunity.

“This is just something you have to learn over time,” Borrego said. “This is another learning block for us and we gotta learn from it and grow. Hopefully, next time we’re in this position, we respond better.

“This is a great training ground for our group. It’s just how we respond now. To me, that’s the bottom line. How do we respond this summer in our type of work? This has gotta be used as fuel to only get better.”

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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