Hornets Sweep Season Series Versus Washington, Snap Two-Game Losing Streak

“...And he (Kon Knueppel) is all ours for years to come– Oh, I'm smiling just thinking about it.”

Eric Collins was feeling the Knueppel fever right before the tip-off of a Hornets (27-31) win 129-112 versus Washington (16-40).

It was LaMelo Ball who drove the Hornets offense early and most often throughout the rest of the game. Knueppel didn’t get his game going until the second quarter, during LaMelo’s first stint on the bench for head coach Charles Lee.

For the first time that I can recollect, all season, LaMelo Ball played almost the entire first quarter.

Ball wasn’t subbed out until 2:14 remained in the first period, during the Wizards’ Bilal Coulibaly’s free throws.

Ball and Coulibaly went back and forth all first quarter trading buckets– LaMelo finished the first with 13 points on five of seven from the field, and Coulibaly had 15 points on six of eight shooting.

Coulibaly also scored the Wizards' first 11 and took all of the team’s first six shots, albeit effectively. Had it not been for the young Washington forward, Charlotte could've run away with this one earlier than they did.

Coulibaly, just like Ball, was out for a large portion of the second quarter after playing most of the first. At the halfway point of the second period, neither had returned to play yet. Ball came back in finally with 5:43 to play in the second.

The half-quarter of play in both their absences was the most defensive period of the entire first half. Knueppel carried Charlotte early on, with the help of C Ryan Kalkbrenner and Hornets two-way Forward PJ Hall in the pick and roll and on the glass.

Charlotte slowed the game down with the help of the free-throw line, just like they did in the first. Charlotte shot 12 first-quarter free throws. Washington shot just six.

The defense of this group in the first six of the second quarter, or perhaps the Wizards' lack of Bilal Coulibaly, or both, sure helped. By the nine-minute mark in the second, Washington had only scored two points, both off of free throws.

It wasn't until the second quarter was hovering above nine minutes that they finally got to the stripe to shoot them, too. With 2:15 to play before halftime, Charlotte had held the Wiz to only 13 points in the period, total.

LaMelo wasn’t on fire in the final minutes before halftime like he was in the first quarter, but he added another three-pointer and nailed a technical free throw less than a minute after he re-entered the game. He was already performing better offensively than he did in a loss against Cleveland on Friday.

Knueppel and the Hornets reserve unit helped hold the Wizards at bay, but without Ball, even the few smooth offensive possessions and good rolls to the rim weren’t enough to raise them back to the 12-point lead Charlotte held early in the first during LaMelo’s explosion.

Two free throws with 27 seconds remaining in the first half gave Ball 19 points halfway through. The Hornets would go into halftime with a five-point lead, scoring just 23 points in the second as compared to their 38 in the first.

Charlotte and Washington were also tied dead even on team three-point percentage going into the locker room: nine out of twenty-one for each side. The Hornets' seven-rebound advantage and 12 second-chance points were the differentiators once both teams’ star players cooled off.

Coulibaly didn't play at all for Washington in the second quarter after playing all of the first. He started the third for the Wizards, but his first three minutes were completely ineffective, like those in the first.

Charlotte opened the second on a quick 9-0 run, all on three pointers, before five quick Keyshawn George points on a three and a layup stopped the drought.

Knueppel then made his second-half announcement. Kon would respond to George’s quick five points with two three-pointers on back-to-back possessions for Charlotte. The Hornets' first 15-second-half points were all on made three-pointers.

LaMelo Ball, back on the floor in the third, combined with Knueppel and Miller joining the three-point barrage, gave the boys from Uptown 18 points in only five minutes of third-quarter play. They had 23 points in the entire second quarter. After Charlotte’s lead ballooned back to tie their largest lead of the game at 16, 79-63, Washington called another timeout.

It didn’t slow down, either. It wasn’t just the offense coming back to life. Head coach Charles Lee clearly repeated “defense” during the half. Coulibaly hadn't scored but one layup in the first six minutes of the third, and Charlotte got six points off Washington turnovers in that time. They only had nine points scored off turnovers in the entire first half.

This gave the Hornets 15 points off only nine Wizards’ mistakes. Charlotte had nine turnovers at this midway third-quarter point, too, but Washington had only managed five points off Hornets errors.

LaMelo Ball caught fire after the Hornets' lead got back to 16. After 19 in the first half, LaMelo had 12 in the third after only 7 minutes played. At 4:48 to play, Ball made it 15 in the third, six feet off the three-point line, to make it 34 points. The very next possession for the official heat check, still two feet off the three- point line, Ball hit another to make it 18 in the third.

This was one of, if not the best, quarters that Charlotte’s max player has played all season. He had 37 points by the start of the fourth quarter.

Instead of continuing to test his heat check, Ball made a few grown-up decisions after his unreal few back-to-back possessions. After his 18th third-quarter point, Ball got a hockey assist to Josh Green for a three in the corner. A stop defensively saw the Hornets with the basketball in transition once again, and Ball, with every Wizard eye on his movement, took it to the cup and collapsed the defense.

LaMelo kicked it out to Josh Green for his second three-pointer on two possessions in a row.

It was a party from beyond the arc all night. These two Green free throws showed a lot of LaMelo, keeping the defense on its heels and showing his unselfishness.

At the two-minute mark before winning time, the Hornets were up 21, and they would go into the fourth with that same distance between them and Washington, 105-84.

This third quarter, in which Charlotte scored 44 points and made 12 three-pointers, was the first time in Hornets' franchise history, dating back to 1988, that they hit that many from behind the arc in one quarter.

LaMelo Ball would exit the game after the third quarter, where he scored 18 and took his total to 37 points through three quarters.

Ball did his best Shai Gilgeous-Alexander impression tonight, and didn't return in the final 12 minutes.

This final stretch was good minutes for the likes of Tidjane Salaun, two-way player PJ Hall, and Tre Mann.

Mann had a particularly good finish at the rim through contact early in the fourth, and Salaun threw down a major dunk after avoiding a Wizards player mid-air along the way.

At 6:37 to play, Knueppel left the game for good, as well. He had a truly sneaky 28 points if that’s possible: Kon finished 10/19 from the field and five for nine from three, and had the second most points for Charlotte tonight behind Ball.

A pretty uneventful final six minutes of play saw some good runs from the youngsters, all but Kalkbrenner, who, most notably in the fourth quarter, may have “tweaked” his ankle, per Hornets beat writer Rod Boone.

After losing all four in the 2024-2025 season against Washington, Charlotte wins 129-112 to sweep the four-game regular season series between them this year in a much-needed win. The Hornets had lost two in a row, but with this Washington win, they finish 2-2, while Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate have been suspended for 4 games.

This is also the Hornets’ seventh road win in a row, tying a franchise record set in 1996-1997. Charlotte can break this franchise record with a win in their next game on Tuesday versus Chicago at The United Center. Tip-off is at 8:00 PM EST on Fanduel Southeast.

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