LaMelo Ball has returned. The Charlotte Hornets defense hasn’t

LaMelo Ball is finally back, but his presence alone is not enough for these ragged Charlotte Hornets.

That was evident in Wednesday’s 141-134 overtime loss to Detroit, where Ball and the rest of his teammates found the basket constantly on offense but then allowed the Pistons to dunk on them or shoot wide-open 3-pointers on practically every possession.

“We are playing no defense,” Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford fumed in his postgame press conference, in which he delivered a 101-second monologue that was almost poetic in its angry intensity and took no questions. “Not one guy. There’s not a bright spot. … All we care about is scoring. That’s it.”

So the Hornets are readful, istressing and isagreeable right now. If you think I just misspelled three words, you’re right: In this paragraph, I’m exactly like the Hornets. I’ve got no “D” when I need one.

This is not a LaMelo problem exactly, although he certainly owns part of it. When asked Wednesday night what the team needed to improve defensively, Ball said: “Maybe the whole thing, for real.”

Team defense is a Hornets problem. It was Charlotte’s problem last season, too. Besides injuries, it’s the primary reason why the Hornets’ 7-21 record now stands as the very worst in the NBA. (Which, if you want to put it in happier terms, puts them in the early lead for the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes).

The nasty part is that the Hornets are “back at ground zero,” as Clifford put it, in their continuing uphill fight to play NBA-worthy defense.

But Ball also provided one of those moments of magic Wednesday night, on a rainy evening in a far-from-full building against one of the NBA’s other worst teams.

While dribbling on the right side, Melo flicked an underhand, no-look, lefty skip pass over four people in the lane. The ball landed gently in the hands of an open Kelly Oubre Jr., who gladly made the open 3-pointer.

It was gorgeous — the type of play that landed on every highlight reel and made me lean over to the guy next to me and say, “How many NBA players could throw that pass?”

So that’s the upside. Ball — who has played in only four of Charlotte’s 28 games due to a recurring ankle injury — at least makes the Hornets more watchable again. He had 23 points and 11 assists Wednesday and a plus-minus of +16, which is all quite a feat when you haven’t played a game in almost a month.

But there’s no way around it. On defense, Ball looked like he was going through the motions most of the time. All of the Hornets did.

Staying in front of the guy with the ball — one of the most basic defensive principles — seemed foreign to Charlotte. Running back on defense to prevent the easy layup? Another concept that seemingly hadn’t been introduced.

Said Clifford: “All we want to be is, ‘Let’s try to outscore the other team.’ That doesn’t work in the NBA. Never works.”

Ball eventually got engaged on defense in the fourth quarter, but then it seemed like his problematic ankle was bothering him. He committed his fifth and sixth fouls on back-to-back possessions late in the fourth quarter and didn’t look as quick as he usually is. So Ball fouled out and wasn’t available for overtime. He admitted later that he was playing in some pain, but that it was bearable.

“I was definitely a little slower on the (defensive) slides and stuff,” Ball said, “but not so bad to where you can’t do it.”

The Hornets nearly won the game in regulation, but Terry Rozier’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rattled in and out as the horn sounded. Then, in overtime, without Ball, the shots didn’t fall, Charlotte got outscored 14-7 and that was that. The Hornets, who started 3-3, lost for the 18th time in their past 22 games.

Charlotte gets another chance Friday at home vs. Atlanta, but then comes a rough six-game road trip out West.

And even if Ball stays healthy through all of that, none of it is going to get better until the Hornets commit to playing better defense.