LaMelo Ball scored 35 points and the Charlotte Hornets kept their late-season push rolling Sunday with a 122-108 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center.
Miles Bridges added 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while Coby White finished with 17 as Charlotte won its fourth straight and improved to 43-36. The Hornets shot 48.9% from the field, went 19-for-45 from three-point range and continued a stretch that has them 9-2 since mid-March.
Ball was the difference from deep. He hit 7 of 14 from beyond the arc, giving him a league-leading eighth game this season with at least seven made threes and his 20th game with five or more.
The win pushed Charlotte to within a half-game of sixth place in the Eastern Conference, an important spot because it would keep the Hornets out of the play-in round. For a team that has not reached the playoffs in 10 years, the timing matters.
Charlotte did the damage in the second half after trailing 60-55 at the break. Bones Hyland’s buzzer-beating three gave Minnesota that advantage, but Bridges and Ball helped flip the game in the third quarter, where the Hornets built a 10-point cushion and never looked back.
Minnesota’s recent slide continued. The Timberwolves have lost four of five since Jaden McDaniels went down with a left knee injury, and they were again without Anthony Edwards for the eighth time in their last 10 games because of lingering right knee pain.
Julius Randle led Minnesota with 26 points, but the Timberwolves could not match Charlotte’s shot-making or pace. Hyland provided a strong bench spark with 18 points, six rebounds and six assists, yet the Wolves were held to 46% shooting and just 14 made threes.
The loss dropped Minnesota to 46-32, leaving it in sixth place in the Western Conference and three games ahead of Phoenix in the race to stay above the play-in line. With four games left, every possession now carries added weight.
Charlotte’s recent surge has been built on balance and efficient perimeter scoring. Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel, and the rest of the rotation have given Ball and Bridges enough support for the Hornets to keep winning games that looked out of reach a few weeks ago.
Charlotte visits Boston on Tuesday, while Minnesota heads to Indiana the same night.
