{"id":16249,"date":"2020-12-31T03:57:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T04:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=16249"},"modified":"2020-12-31T21:02:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T21:02:53","slug":"nba-rookie-shuts-down-critics-in-brilliant-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=16249","title":{"rendered":"NBA rookie shuts down critics in brilliant display"},"content":{"rendered":"

When LaMelo Ball debuted last week, he left reason for concern.<\/a><\/p>\n

The promising star scored zero points, and tripped over his own feet, grabbing the unwanted attention from Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal, who called his mishap out on Twitter.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/shaqtin\/status\/1341935978211139586<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the star who was the talk of the town preseason has hit back at critics with a brilliant display in his second NBA game against the Dallas Mavericks, scoring 20 points.<\/p>\n

Ball had 15 points, six rebounds and four assists in the first half alone to power Charlotte's offence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He also made an eight-year first, becoming the first Hornets rookie to record at least 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a single game since Kemba Walker in 2012.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/jkubatko\/status\/1344487840202297345<\/a><\/p>\n

Although he still has work to do on his defence, his confidence and aggression was enough to suggest he had shook off any doubts lingering from his scoreless debut.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Hornets coach James Boreggo suggested last week that he was keen to give Ball a bigger role in the team, seeing him play more minutes against the Mavs.<\/p>\n

The extended minutes allowed Ball to get the 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists while shooting 80 per cent of 3s deep in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The Hornets come up against the Memphis Grizzlies on January 2.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When LaMelo Ball debuted last week, he left reason for concern. The promising star scored zero points, and tripped over his own feet, grabbing the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16251,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16249\/revisions\/16251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}