LaMelo Ball Becomes Youngest Player Ever To Make Seven 3-Pointers
LaMelo Ball becomes youngest player ever to make seven 3-pointers in a single game as hot streak continues
LaMelo Ball made a career-high seven 3-pointers and finished with 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, and the Charlotte Hornets beat the short-handed Houston Rockets 119-94 for their second straight win.
Miles Bridges had another strong outing with 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Gordon Hayward added 19 points for the Hornets, who opened the fourth quarter on a 19-1 run to blow open a tight game.
LaMelo Ball entered the NBA with many of the same question that his older brother Lonzo have had. The two were both transcendent passers entering the draft, but would it matter if defenses didn’t think they could score? The elder Ball brother has struggled to overcome that flaw throughout his entire career. LaMelo, on the other hand, is quickly turning into a long-range sniper.
LaMelo hit only 23.2 percent of his 3-pointers over his next 15 games. His last six, however, have been a different story. The Hornets rookie had made 14 of his last 28 long-range attempts entering Monday, but he took things to another level in a 119-94 victory over the Houston Rockets by making seven of his 12 looks from behind the arc.
Ball became the youngest player ever to make seven 3-pointers in a single game at 19 years, 171 days old. Only three other teenagers in NBA history have matched the feat: Luka Doncic, Coby White and Anfernee Simons. Yet Ball was the first of the group to do so in a double-double. His 10 assists topped any of his predecessors, as did his seven rebounds.
But no rookie is perfect, and no two rookies develop at the same rate. Ball is already making the most valuable shots on the floor. If he starts making the rest of them, he’s going to be an All-Star in the near future.
