Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg dueled all night, and ultimately Knueppel’s Charlotte Hornets were able to narrowly escape with a last second win.
The Hornets got out to an early lead thanks to a barrage of threes, several of which game from Kon Knueppel. Meanwhile, PJ Washington sought revenge against his former team and fired up his own barrage of shot attempts, but he missed almost all of them. Knueppel’s four first quarter threes helped his team to a 13 point lead after one. Then his former college roommate took his turn. He relentlessly attacked the rim and at one point scored 10 straight points for his team. His hot scoring seemed to be contagious, as the Mavericks as a team started getting buckets to go down alongside their rookie. By halftime, the Hornets’ lead had been cut to one.
After an incredibly long halftime for a jersey retirement, LaMelo Ball ignited the offense with a couple of threes. Knueppel followed with three of his own before LaMelo hit an another pair. The Mavericks were able to hang around with more heroics from Flagg. The rookie hit a bunch of tough floaters in rapid succession to aid in the comeback before a Caleb Martin rattled in and out and back in to tie the game with a few seconds left in the third.
Klay Thompson had a couple throwback moments to give the Mavericks their first lead of the game. The teams traded back and forth throughout much of the fourth quarter. The rookies returned for the final few minutes and both immediately picked up where they left off. LaMelo made a late three to put the Hornets up three, but it was answered by Max Christie. The Hornets answered the answer with Moussa finding Miller out of the short roll in the corner for a three. The Mavericks answered the answer to the answer by having Cooper Flagg make a pull-up three right in Moussa’s face.
After a timeout, Miles Bridges tried to score out of an isolation possession but missed a floater. The Mavericks had a chance to win it. The Hornets threw a double team at Flagg, who tried to pass it out, but Knueppel got a finger on it. Sion James saved the ball from going out of bounds and it was recovered by Knueppel. He was fouled in the back by Flagg on his layup attempt. He calmly knocked down both free throws. Bridges and Miller funneled Flagg into a tough shot to tie the game, and it drew back iron.
That’s five wins in a row, the first time they’ve done that since February 2023. They finished the month of January with the [best point differential in the history of the NBA](https://x.com/HornetsPR/status/2017101948755837082?s=20) for a single month. They’re hotter than a pepper sprout. And now they find themselves just 2.5 games out of the play-in and 4.5 out of the nine seed. If we want to be really ambitious, they’re six games out of sixth and a path straight into the playoffs.
The headline for this game was always going to be between the two favorites for Rookie of the Year. Both of them showed out with career highs in points, but this is a Hornets blog, so we’re only going to talk about the Hornets. Knueppel was unconscious from three en route to 34 points on 16 shots. But biggest of all was his play in the game’s final seconds. He deflected the pass that led to a steal on what could have been a game winning possession for the Mavericks. He drew a foul and knocked down two free throws that proved to be the game winning points for Charlotte.
The rest of the Hornets starters did their usual. Brandon Miller’s minutes were limited by foul trouble, but he still scored like he was playing horse in the backyard while he was in the game. LaMelo Ball nearly had a 20-10 double double, and Miles Bridges was just two rebounds and two assists shy of a triple double. The group continues to play phenomenal basketball together.
I thought the Hornets defense was better than the 121 points allowed would suggest. They blocked nine shots and forced the Mavericks to live off of tweener floaters. Flagg in particular made a ton of them, and the rest of the Mavericks had their fair share fall too. 41% of their shots came from the midrange, [which ranks in the 89th percentile](https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/game_detail?game=248466892) for all games played this season. It also felt like the Mavericks had an inordinate number of shots fall in after rattling around the rim. Sometimes NBA teams simply score against good defense, and that’s what happened last night.
The bench was pretty nonexistent, which is disappointing in a game in which the Hornets should have had a significant depth advantage. Collin Sexton struggled with his shot and no one else did much of anything. The Mavericks bench doubled up the Hornets in terms of scoring.
It worked out for me personally because it gave me time to get home to watch the second half, but halftime was over 40 minutes long because apparently Mark Aguirre was allowed to ramble for like 30 minutes during his jersey retirement? Like super happy for you that you have this moment but there is a game that needs to be played.
The Hornets return home to Charlotte to prepare for a Saturday afternoon Prime time game against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.
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