Due to injuries and league health and safety standards, the Charlotte Hornets are currently shorthanded. They are without LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, and a handful of other players. Despite this, Charlotte defended its home court against the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, 124-123, despite a long trek to get there.
With the shot clock switched off and the game deadlocked at 123, the Hornets had the ball. With 5.5 seconds left, it appeared that Cody Martin would walk to the charity stripe to seal it thanks to a layup and a foul, but a review revealed that Martin’s foot impacted the ground before he attempted the layup. He went to the free throw line for a pair of shots and hit one because the foul occurred before that.
Moments later, Martin appeared to be the scapegoat when he appeared to lose track of whether the Hornets had a foul to give and fouled De’Aaron Fox. However, he was bailed out four times: Fox, who is shooting a career-high 74.1 percent on free throws this season, went 0-for-2, and the Kings missed both of their tip-in attempts to steal a win in the ensuing scrum.
