LaMelo Ball paired 34 points with 11 assists and eight rebounds as the visiting Charlotte Hornets opened the season by erasing an 18-point, first-half deficit to claim a 110-105 victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
Ball carried the Hornets home down the stretch, following his errant 3-pointer with a second-chance basket for a 100-98 lead with 2:10 left. Ball added a 3-pointer 30 seconds later before assisting on a Grant Williams trey with 40.3 seconds left that snapped a 103-103 deadlock.
Tre Mann chipped in 24 points off the Charlotte bench, terrorizing the Rockets’ defense off the dribble en route to 8-for-16 shooting that included 4-for-8 success from 3-point range.
Ball made all 10 of his free-throw attempts, and Miles Bridges contributed 10 points and nine assists for the Hornets.
Jalen Green led the Rockets with 28 points while Alperen Sengun added 25 points and 18 rebounds. Fred VanVleet put up 14 points and Amen Thompson scored all 13 of his points in the first half for Houston, which shot just 13-for-43 (30.2 percent) from beyond the arc.
Charlotte turned a 10-0 run bridging the third and fourth periods into an 85-83 lead when Ball fed Bridges for a transition alley-oop. Green responded with five consecutive points to push the Rockets back in front, but the Hornets repeatedly produced answers.
Green and Sengun tallied the Rockets’ opening 16 points and teamed to fashion an immediate response to a six-point flurry from Charlotte’s Brandon Miller that yielded a 12-10 Hornets lead. Thompson sank two free throws at the 3:36 mark for the Rockets’ first points from someone aside from Sengun and Green.
Sengun pulled down 11 rebounds in the first quarter, his career high for a period.
Green, Thompson and Sengun combined to score all 26 first-quarter points for Houston, which extended its 26-21 lead entering the second period to 58-40 when Sengun drilled a 3-pointer with 2:31 left in the half. Ball then sparked a 9-2 run that closed the half, producing two free throws, a floater and an assist in transition to help shave the deficit to 60-49 at the break.
Miller (left hip soreness) scored six points in 11 first-half minutes but did not return following the intermission.