{"id":101961,"date":"2026-01-09T06:14:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seminarsonly.com\/news\/?p=101961"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T00:50:47","slug":"why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is LaMelo Ball Not Starting or Playing Today against the Indiana Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 data-path-to-node=\"0\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em>For the game on <b data-path-to-node=\"0\" data-index-in-node=\"16\">Thursday, January 8, 2026<\/b> against the Indiana Pacers, LaMelo Ball did not start due to a <b data-path-to-node=\"0\" data-index-in-node=\"105\">coach&#8217;s decision<\/b> by head coach Charles Lee.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"1\">While Ball has been dealing with lingering <b data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"43\">ankle soreness<\/b> (and was listed on the injury report as probable), the move to the bench appears to be largely strategic rather than purely medical.<\/p>\n<h2 data-path-to-node=\"2\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Here are the key reasons for the change:<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul data-path-to-node=\"3\">\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3,0,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"3,0,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Performance Issues:<\/b> LaMelo has struggled with shooting efficiency recently (shooting roughly 40% from the field and 34% from deep over his last four games).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"3,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Accountability:<\/b> In the previous game against the Toronto Raptors (Jan 7), Coach Lee benched Ball during key moments in the fourth quarter in favor of other guards.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3,2,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"3,2,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Lineup Experimentation:<\/b> Colin Sexton started in his place for this matchup. This was the first time LaMelo has come off the bench since his rookie season in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Also Read : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seminarsonly.com\/news\/sling-com-samsung-install-sling-on-samsung\/\">sling.com\/Samsung | Install Sling on Samsung<\/a><\/h3>\n<h2 data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><b data-path-to-node=\"4\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Summary:<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span class=\"citation-67 citation-end-67\">He is healthy enough to play (listed as &#8220;Available&#8221;), but the team is trying a new rotation to address recent struggles and defensive consistency.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the game on Thursday, January 8, 2026 against the Indiana Pacers, LaMelo Ball did not start due to a coach&#8217;s decision by head coach Charles Lee. While Ball has&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6049],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why is LaMelo Ball Not Starting or Playing Today against the Indiana Pacers - Seminarsonly.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the game on Thursday, January 8, 2026 against the Indiana Pacers, LaMelo Ball did not start due to a coach&#039;s decision by head coach Charles Lee.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why is LaMelo Ball Not Starting or Playing Today against the Indiana Pacers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the game on Thursday, January 8, 2026 against the Indiana Pacers, LaMelo Ball did not start due to a coach&#039;s decision by head coach Charles Lee.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Seminarsonly.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/seminarsonly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-09T00:44:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-09T00:50:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Freddy John\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@seminarsonly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@seminarsonly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Freddy John\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Freddy John\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/75cf706896b7210fb0a84651adc258bd\"},\"headline\":\"Why is LaMelo Ball Not Starting or Playing Today against the Indiana Pacers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-09T00:44:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-09T00:50:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\"},\"wordCount\":188,\"commentCount\":1,\"articleSection\":[\"Games\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seminarsonly.com\/news\/why-is-lamelo-ball-not-starting-or-playing-today-against-the-indiana-pacers\/\",\"name\":\"Why is LaMelo Ball Not Starting or Playing Today against the Indiana Pacers - 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