CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Charlotte Hornets coach Charles Lee sheepishly walked into the press room after his team’s 102-95 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans and immediately threw himself under the proverbial bus.
“Stupid … coach,” said an embarrassed Lee, shaking his head before sitting down to take questions from reporters.
Lee and LaMelo Ball were involved in a head-to-head collision in the first quarter near the Charlotte bench, briefly sending the star point guard to the locker room to be checked out by trainers. Ball returned after having a 1-inch laceration above his eye glued shut by trainers and scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Charlotte to its seventh straight win.
The bizarre incident occurred when Ball was attempting to save an errant pass from Miles Bridges near the Hornets bench. Lee, who was pacing the sideline at the time, never saw Ball coming and instinctively bent over to retrieve the ball.
As Lee lowered his head to retrieve the ball, Ball came racing into into him, sending the second-year coach into the scorer’s table.
Ball wound up on the floor for several minutes and both men grabbed their heads. When Ball got up, he grabbed a towel and put it over his right eye as he was escorted to the locker room.
He returned to the bench a few minutes later.
“I took a play off and you’re not supposed to take any plays off,” Lee said, taking full blame for the collision. “I thought the ball was going out of bounds and I was going to save it from going into the stands and he was going to save the ball. We went head to head. Credit to him he didn’t yell at me too bad.”
Ball laughed off the collision while speaking to The Associated Press in the locker room after the game.
“He went for the ball and I went for the ball and obviously we bumped heads,” Ball said. “It was unfortunate, but hey, I’m still alive and breathing, so who cares? We got the win, so that’s what most important.”
Lee, who never left the sideline and continued to coach, said he loved how Ball was quick to return to the game.
“I love his spirit of, ‘hey let me get to the back, get cleaned up and get back out there,’” Lee said. “It just shows the growth that he continues to have to take a bump or a bruise like that and shake it off. He really helped our team.”
Ball turned in one of his better games this season, scoring 18 points in the first half to keep the game from getting out of hand after the Hornets fell behind by 22 points.
In the second half, Ball made several big shots including a rare two-handed dunk after blowing by a defender in traffic. He added five assists and finished with just two turnovers.
“It was a great job by him of responding to a foolish coach,” Lee said.
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