The Lakers were let down by the Hornets young core to their fourth loss in five games

ballervisions 2026年1月16日

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Lakers’ struggles against youth and speed are once again delivering devastating blows in front of a sellout home crowd.

The Charlotte Hornets’ young core sliced and diced the Lakers’ defense and hopes Thursday at Crypto.com Arena, downing Los Angeles 135-117 behind a combined 81 points from LaMelo Ball, Bradon Miller and Miles Bridges.

“I feel like Charlotte has a lot of great young players. I know we’ve seen them win big games when they’re all good. LaMelo [Ball]Right [Knueppel]Brandon [Miller], [Miles] Bridges. So, they have a good, young team. It is difficult to play against them. Obviously, their record is not very good, but they have good ones,” said Luka Dončić, who has 39 points.

The Lakers started well, connecting on their first six shots and making their first four attempts from 3. Luka Dončić would score 19 points in the first quarter, pushing the Lakers to a 13-point lead.

It looked like the Lakers were on the verge of improving on their win over the Hawks. Then their lead, which ended up being the biggest of the game, slowly eroded.

“I want to win every game, so it doesn’t matter if you start from a loss or a win. So I want to win every game because obviously we had a good start and then we fell,” said Dončić.

The Hornets went on to outscore the Lakers 74-54 at the midway point. LA’s success in attacking the paint in the first quarter was contained by the Hornets switching defenses to stop it.

It led to the Lakers scoring just 18 points in the paint in the first half and assisting on nine of their 20 field goals, while the Hornets assisted on 19 of their 25 shots.

The Lakers couldn’t find a crack in the Hornets’ defense and turned off the valve against their goals despite LeBron James pouring in 29 points, nine rebounds and six assists on the night. Every time the Lakers made a run, the Hornets responded with a bucket or a ridiculous shot of the ball.

In the Lakers’ last chance, trying to regain control they had earlier, Ball connected on a contested corner 3—one of his four in the fourth. That gave the Hornets a 15-point lead and caused Lakers fans to head to the exit with five minutes left.

“They made a funny shot,” JJ Redick said. “They had 150 against Utah and they blew out OKC by [Oklahoma City]. I think everybody, our coaching staff and the guys in the locker room, we all knew that. They got our full respect and attention pregame as well [I] he thought we were fighting. Another team that had a hot shooting night.”

Ball would put the last dagger of the night with 1:30 left, drilling a 3 from the wing and pushing their lead to 16, chirping toward his Hornets bench. It was a déjà vu moment when he and this Charlotte team beat LA by three last season after his late-game heroics.

The Chino Hills native finished with a team-high 30 points and 11 assists.

The Hornets hit 20 total 3s on the night and shot 54% from the field, dropping the Lakers’ record to 24-15 and 10-8 at home in their fourth loss in five games.

The Lakers will play the next two over the weekend, against Portland on Saturday and then return home against the Raptors on Sunday.