Head-to-Head game log: https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/lamelo_ball_vs_jrue_holiday.htm

LaMelo’s rookie season coincided with Jrue Holiday’s first season with the Bucks in 2020-21, and Ball has always seemed to take that matchup seriously, from their very first matchup, in which LaMelo dropped (at the time) a career high 27 on 8-10 shooting.

It was after that game that LaMelo claimed his starting job, and he always seems to have it out for the All-Defensive guard in every meeting since, and more than just dropping Jrue on a couple different occasions. LaMelo has never scored less than 24 points in any of their meetings. Last night vs the Celtics was the second time LaMelo has dropped 36 on Jrue, two off of his career-high.

While I don’t have the means to confirm this, it’s really unlikely that there is another player in the NBA LaMelo has averaged more points against in his career, as he had just 20 career games scoring at least 29 points prior to this season. He has, however, done that 6 times in his last 8 games.

The Hornets are 3-3 in these games, a better mark than you may expect against perennial contenders Holiday has been on since 2020. Holiday in these six games, has averaged 15.2/6/5.3 and 1.3stl on 40.9/48.5/63.6 shooting (51.8 TS%).