Hornets coach Lee sorry for 'foolish' LaMelo Ball collision - ESPN

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hornets coach Charles Lee sheepishly walked into the press room after his team's 102-95 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans and immediately threw himself under the proverbial bus.

«Stupid… coach,» an embarrassed Lee said, shaking his head before sitting down to take questions from reporters.

Lee and LaMelo Ball were involved in a head-to-head collision in the first quarter near the Charlotte bench, briefly sending the star point guard to the locker room to be checked out by trainers. Ball returned after having a 1-inch laceration above his eye glued shut by trainers. He scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Charlotte to its seventh straight win.

The bizarre incident occurred when Ball was attempting to save an errant pass from Miles Bridges near the Hornets' bench. Lee, who was pacing the sideline at the time, never saw Ball coming and instinctively bent over to retrieve the ball.

As Lee lowered his head to retrieve the ball, the Hornets' star guard came racing into him, sending the second-year coach into the scorer's table.

Ball wound up on the floor for several minutes, and both men grabbed their heads. When Ball got up, he grabbed a towel and put it over his right eye as he was escorted to the locker room.

He returned to the bench a few minutes later.

«I took a play off, and you're not supposed to take any plays off,» Lee said, taking full blame for the collision. «I thought the ball was going out of bounds and I was going to save it from going into the stands, and he was going to save the ball. We went head to head. Credit to him he didn't yell at me too bad.»

Ball laughed off the collision while speaking to The Associated Press in the locker room after the game.

«He went for the