LaMelo Ball racked up 27 points and 15 assists and Nick Smith Jr. scored 22 of his 26 points in the first half as the visiting Charlotte Hornets rolled to an easy 145-134 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday in a late-season dustup.
The Hornets (17-49) led by 26 points at halftime after unleashing a 3-point shooting barrage in the first half and cruised to the win, their third in their past four games.
San Antonio (27-38) made up no ground in the third quarter and lost for the fourth time in its past five games while playing its first game in a month without star guard De’Aaron Fox, who was ruled out for the rest of the season on Thursday with a torn ligament in his left pinkie finger.
Miles Bridges added 21 points for Charlotte, with Josh Green hitting for 20, Mark Williams producing 14 points and 10 rebounds and Jusuf Nurkic also scoring 14 points. The Hornets went 26 of 46 from beyond the arc.
Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 26 points while Devin Vassell scored 22, Jeremy Sochan hit for 14, Sandro Mamukelashvili had 13 and Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie added 12 points each. Friday’s game was the first of a home back to back for San Antonio.
Charlotte led 37-26 by the end of the first quarter when Smith canned a 3-pointer with 2 seconds remaining in the period.
The Spurs put up meager resistance in the second quarter. Charlotte stoked its lead to 25 points when another Green trey made it 67-42 with 4:05 to play in the half. The Hornets built their margin to 29 points before Castle’s 3-pointer with 3 seconds left brought San Antonio to within 81-55 at the break.
Smith led all first-half scorers with 22 points off the bench that included a 6-for-6 showing from beyond the arc. Green added 15 points for the Hornets before halftime, Ball had 13 points and 11 assists and Nurkic scored 10 points. Charlotte shot 63.6 percent from the floor and 66.7 percent on its 3-point attempts.
Vassell led the Spurs with 14 points in the first half with Castle adding 12.
