The Hornets took the series against the ailing Pistons after defeating them 102-99 in a closely fought game. With this victory, Michael Jordan’s franchise has kept their hope of staying inside the advantageous top 8 very much alive. This mostly happened because a certain Hornet was playing as if he was LeBron James for the night.

The highly charged rookie LaMelo Ball led the Hornets in scoring and assisting. He showed off some insanely crafty passes, and that kept the Pistons confused all through the game. 

LaMelo Ball and his creativity were on show

The Hornets took away all the initial three quarters and forced pressure on the Pistons. It was LaMelo Ball who led from the front and scored 23 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and 2 steals to dilute the performance of Hamidou Diallo. To achieve this, Melo again matched his superior court vision with that creative mind to make every possession count.

Take for example his bullet-quick pass towards forward Jalen McDaniels that surprised his own teammates. Just as center Bismack Biyombo directed a pass from Terry Rozier to LaMelo, the latter took mere seconds to connect it with Jalen. 

The rookie was the same way all through the play. He also did that in the second quarter, sending a no-look pass towards Biyombo, who then converted an easy layup.

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Is Melo pulling tricks out of LeBron James’ bags?

Each of LaMelo Ball’s crazy passes showed heavy similarities to those of Bron’s trademark passes. Remember the game when LeBron James (Cavaliers) fooled the Lakers with a crazy no-look pass some three years ago? LaMelo seems to have picked his moves from The King with an aim to make them a frequently used weapon. 

More recently in the Orlando Bubble, the Akron Hammer had sent a full-court left-handed pass towards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to stun the Rockets. The Lakers were playing their second round of playoffs against James Harden’s side when Bron did what LaMelo now does so often.

Wasn’t this extremely similar to that LaMelo pass from just four days ago against the same Pistons team? Looks like the rookie is closely studying the game of the four-time NBA Champion.