Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee reacts to a call against the team during action against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday, November 10, 2025 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC. The Lakers defeated the Hornets 121-111. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Key players in street clothes was a theme for the Charlotte Hornets again on Sunday night.
Situated on the tail end of a back-to-back, the recently-imposed minutes’ restriction and maintenance program for LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller kept the duo out of the Hornets’ 113-110 loss at State Farm Arena.
With Ball (right ankle injury management), Miller (left shoulder injury management) and rookie center Ryan Kalkbrenner (left ankle sprain) all sitting out, the Hornets were minus three members of their starting unit. Coach Charles Lee instead trotted out a lineup featuring Collin Sexton, Sion James, Kon Knueppel and Mason Plumlee to go with mainstay Miles Bridges, and the Hornets were in it until the end, falling short due to an inability to close it out.
“Man, we just want to get into the win column,” Knueppel said. “We are playing hard. We’ve just got to play with our minds a little bit better, get the matchups that we want, think about what we are doing in execution offensively and know our personnel defensively, take care of stuff on that end.”
Knueppel once more showed he can get it done against whomever the opposition throws at him. The Hawks had Dyson Daniels, who finished second in the NBA’s defensive player of the year voting last season behind Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, guarding Knueppel on more than one occasion and the Hornets’ rookie held his own.
Knueppel’s 28 points were tops on the Hornets, keeping a familiar pattern going. That’s four straight games he’s led them in scoring and already the sixth time he’s done it overall. His seven made 3-pointers tied the franchise rookie record for shots hit beyond the arc in a single game.
Still, he’ll probably be ticked about a couple of failed opportunities down the stretch. Knueppel missed a driving layup that could have put the Hornets (4-13) ahead by a point with 32 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. With the Hornets trailing by two points in the waning moments, Lee drew up a play for Knueppel during a timeout with 11.3 seconds left.
Knueppel drove into the lane, but he got stripped of the ball by Nickeil Alexander-Walker and although Alexander-Walker kept the door slightly ajar for the Hornets after making only one of two free throws, Bridges’ off-balance hoist from 26 feet drew air, sending Charlotte to its sixth straight defeat.
“Shot feels good right now,” Kueppel said. “Second-to-last play, I came off clean. Probably should have took it instead of getting into the lane with the spin move. Kind of a clunky spin move Probably should have shot a 3 on the inbound there. So, that’s disappointing.”
One small bright spot among the Hornets’ injury woes: Tre Mann returned to action.
Mann missed the Hornets’ previous two games with left ankle soreness, a result of him slipping awkwardly in the first half of Monday’s loss in Toronto. As usual, he was one of the first players summoned off the bench by Lee and logged nearly seven of his 17 minutes in the first quarter. He only made 1 of 6 attempts, though, finishing with three points.
For the Hornets as a whole, it’s time to regroup.
“You also just want to tighten up your identity,” Lee said. “What you do defensively, what you do offensively. And I look forward to us just being able to touch all the parts of our game and continue to get better.”
Up next
Following outings on consecutive nights, the Hornets get a two-day break before matching up with the New York Knicks on Wednesday. It will be Charlotte’s first home matchup in the Emirates NBA Cup this season and tips off a stretch of three games in four days at Spectrum Center wrapped around Thanksgiving.