Kon Knueppel registered another 20-point outing and hit a clutch shot late in regulation, helping the Charlotte Hornets to an overtime win over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.
Knueppel produced 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals in the 118-111 victory at the Spectrum Center. He went 5-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, in 36 minutes as the Hornets won for the second straight game.
The fourth pick sent the game to overtime after draining a game-tying 3-pointer from the corner with 10.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter. From there, Miles Bridges tallied 10 of his 35 points in the overtime period to seal their first two-game winning streak of the season.
“I thought Miles set a really good screen,” coach Charles Lee said of the game-tying play in regulation. “(Kon) was open. He hesitated for a second, I think, just to freeze the defender to see what he was going to do, and the rest is history. I thought it was a big-time moment for him, especially (since) he maybe didn’t play as well as he wanted to throughout the whole game. I know that in the biggest moments, he has no fear, which was great.”
Knueppel is averaging 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and three assists while shooting 41.3% from 3-point range in 20 appearances with the Hornets. He leads the rookie class in scoring and is the only first-year player with multiple 30-point games this season.
The 20-year-old is tied for fifth in the league in total 3s (69), the most by any player through the first 20 games of a career. He is on pace to shatter the rookie record, set by Keegan Murray with the Sacramento Kings during the 2022-23 season (206).
Knueppel is off to a productive run with the team and has earned the trust of those around him. He was grateful to help the team to another crunch-time win after the group had largely struggled in that area in games before Saturday.
“It is definitely nice,” Knueppel said. “Having those first couple of games that we didn’t execute the way we wanted to do at the end of the game, and now these past two games, not really turning it over there in the clutch time and getting shots up and getting stops and rebounds has been fun.”