Kon Knuepel reached a personal milestone amid the chaos against the Pistons

ByNBAUSA


The Charlotte Hornets snapped their nine-game winning streak Monday night in a hard-fought affair against the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons. The The Pistons played physical basketball against the Hornets all night, which caused an all-out brawl in the third quarter in which they Jalen Duren, Moussa Diabate, Isaiah Stewart and Miles Bridges were ejected — also face the prospect of long suspensions.

In the middle of that mess, Knuppel could was simply doing his best, as he has done all season, to try and push the Hornets to victory. He finished with 20 points on the night on 6-13 shooting from the field (5-11 from beyond the arc), and continues to blossom as one of the best pure shooters in the NBA despite being a rookie, a sign of how much more dangerous he would be if he rounded out his game even more.

As the Hornets began a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, Knuepel hit some timely shots to cut into the Pistons’ lead. One such shot came with about 5:31 left in the final frame, as he nailed a 3-pointer in transition off a pass from Brandon Miller. He needed just 17 points that night to pass the 1,000 career mark, a three-pointer that the rookie hit a personal milestonebecoming the first in his draft class to achieve that mark.

Hornets have a young budding kernel

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Knuppel has already been so amazing that it’s hard to forget that he’s just a rookie who’s only going to get better. He’s already averaging nearly 19 points a night on the Madmen 48.6/42.8/89.7 shooting splitwho emerges as a marksman who can approach Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson levels soon.

The Hornets have something coming up and may be on their way to making the playoffs for the first time since 2016 if their recent level of play continues.





2026-02-10 04:56:00

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