{"id":587604,"date":"2026-04-16T11:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587604\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:19:10","slug":"lamelo-ball-learns-punishment-from-nba-after-tripping-bam-adebayo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/587604\/","title":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball learns punishment from NBA after tripping Bam Adebayo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hornets star LaMelo Ball was fined $35K for his Flagrant 2 foul on Bam Adebayo during Tuesday night\u2019s win over the Heat in the NBA play-in tournament. <\/p>\n<p>The incident happened in the second quarter when Ball fell to the floor after taking a shot and swiped at the leg of Adebayo, causing<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/14\/sports\/bam-adebayo-exits-play-in-game-with-back-injury-after-lamelo-ball-tie-up\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> the Heat big man to fall hard to the court<\/a> and leave the game with a lower back issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the moment, the play was not called a foul, but the league reviewed the play and assessed a Flagrant 2 foul for \u201cmaking unnecessary and reckless contact\u201d with Adebayo that \u201ccreated significant injury risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.57055215;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39092864\" width=\"927\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bam.jpg\" alt=\"A basketball player in a black and red uniform holding a basketball, jumping over another player in a white and green uniform who has fallen to the ground.\" class=\"wp-image-39092864\"  \/>The Heat\u2019s Bam Adebayo was injured in the team\u2019s play-in game against the Hornets. Screenshot<\/p>\n<p>Adebayo did not return to the game after the incident and the Heat lost the game in overtime 127-126.<\/p>\n<p>Ball was also hit with a $25,000 fine by the NBA for the use of profane language during a live interview on TV after the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Heat head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/15\/sports\/erik-spoelstra-goes-off-on-lamelo-ball-for-dangerous-bam-adebayo-play\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Erik Spoelstra was irate<\/a> after the game over the situation with his star.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t see it, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s cute,\u201d Spoelstra told reporters. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s funny. I think it\u2019s a stupid play. It\u2019s a dangerous play. Obviously, our best player was out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not making an excuse. The Hornets played great and they made those plays down the stretch. We had our opportunities to win. That\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ball also addressed the incident after the game, apologizing for the play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got hit in the head and didn\u2019t really know where I was, but I\u2019m going to check on [Adebayo] and see if he\u2019s OK,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39101698\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/lies-court-first-half-nba-125651864.jpg\" alt=\"Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) lies on the court, holding his face in pain.\" class=\"wp-image-39101698\"  \/>Bam Adebayo lies on the court and was forced to leave the game with a lower back issue during the first half of the Heat\u2019s loss to the Hornets in an NBA play-in tournament game on April 14, 2026 in Charlotte, N.C. AP<\/p>\n<p>Ball finished the game with 30 points and hit the game-winning layup for the Hornets in overtime with just seconds left on the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was also involved in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CamGaskinsTV\/status\/2044249953837388233\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a comical interaction after the game with the Hornets mascot Hugo<\/a>, who he playfully punched in the head because of the excitement of the victory and caught the character off guard.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hornets star LaMelo Ball was fined $35K for his Flagrant 2 foul on Bam Adebayo during Tuesday night\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[11949,25179,8173,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-587604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-charlotte-hornets","9":"tag-lamelo-ball","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}