![](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P06-260328-303.jpg\")
<\/p>\nKon Knueppel on Thursday scored 26 points as the Charlotte Hornets maintained their late-season charge for a playoff berth with an emphatic 114-103 defeat of the high-flying New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
Charlotte forward Knueppel rattled in six three-pointers as part of an impressive all-round team shooting display to help the Hornets extend their winning streak to five games as they chase a post-season ticket.<\/p>\n
LaMelo Ball finished with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds, one of five Charlotte players to finish in double digits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The Hornets have now won 23 of their past 29 games since late January and are firmly in the thick of the Eastern Conference race for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
With sixth-placed Toronto occupying the last automatic playoff spot at 40-32, Charlotte are part of a cluster of teams jostling for position just below them.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia occupy seventh place on 40-33, while Charlotte, Orlando and Miami all have identical 39-34 records.<\/p>\n
Charlotte\u2019s blistering form is part of a remarkable turnaround this season for the franchise, who finished just one place off the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season with just 19 wins.<\/p>\n
Orlando kept pace with Charlotte on Thursday with a 121-117 defeat of the Sacramento Kings, thanks to 30 points from Paolo Banchero and 23 from Desmond Bane.<\/p>\n
In Thursday\u2019s other game, the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons bounced back from Wednesday\u2019s overtime defeat to Atlanta with a comfortable 129-108 defeat of the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n
With Cade Cunningham still absent as he recovers from a collapsed lung, Jalen Duren took on the offensive duties with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Huerter added 22 points, while Daniss Jenkins chipped in with 19.<\/p>\n
The Pistons improved to 53-20 and enjoy a comfortable four-and-a-half-game lead at the top of the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kon Knueppel on Thursday scored 26 points as the Charlotte Hornets maintained their late-season charge for a playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,3974,3973],"class_list":{"0":"post-682580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks","15":"tag-the-taipei-times","16":"tag-3973"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116302496559681110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}