LaMelo Bell Punches Hornets Mascot in Wild Postgame Scene After Trip Leads to Bam Adebayo Injury

LaMelo Ball, Hugo the Hornet
Credit: Jacob Kupferman/Getty; Brock Williams-Smith/NBAE via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• LaMelo Ball hit the game-winning shot on Tuesday night
• The Charlotte Hornets star was accused of tripping the Heat's Bam Adebayo earlier in the game
• After the game, Ball punched his own mascot

LaMelo Ball hit the game-winning shot, tripped up Bam Adebayo and punched the Hornets mascot, not necessarily in that order, in Charlotte’s win-or-go-home Play-In game Tuesday night against the Miami Heat.

Seconds after eluding the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez and driving to the basket for a go-ahead layup with 8.7 seconds to go in overtime, Ball collapsed to the floor as his teammates fell on top of him — as the Hornets won their first-ever Play-In game.

“We drew up a good play, I feel like, and just orchestrated it," Ball, 24, said after the game, where he received a Prime Playmaker chain. "It worked."

Earlier in the back-and-forth battle, however, Ball’s sportsmanship was called into question when he collided with the Heat’s Adebayo.

In video from the possession, Ball fell to the ground after he missed a shot and got tangled up with the Heat star, who also fell. The Hornets guard seemingly pulled Adebayo’s leg up — possibly to protect his arm — in the process.

Adebayo left the game and did not return, leading his head coach Erik Spoelstra to speak out about the play.

Bam Adebayo
Credit: Jacob Kupferman/Getty

"He should have been thrown out of the game for that," Spoelstra told reporters after the game. "There is no place in the game for that."

Amid the wild game, and before Ball whaled on the Hugo the Hornet, the Amazon Prime stream went dark for almost two minutes during overtime, causing fans — even famous ones — to go apoplectic.

"Tell me the game didn't just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH," LeBron James posted on X, as the words "technical difficulties" flashed on the screen.

Thankfully the stream returned and Charlotte rejoiced at the win, where Ball was later seen repeatedly punching his own mascot.

Read the original article on People