Kon Knueppel had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists on Thursday to help the Charlotte Hornets earn a 114-103 victory over the visiting New York Knicks.
LaMelo Ball added 22 points and Brandon Miller scored 21 for Charlotte, which won its fifth straight game. Coby White and Miles Bridges chipped in 17 points each for the Hornets, who sit in a three-way tie with the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Jalen Brunson led New York with 26 points and 13 assists, followed by OG Anunoby’s 17 points and Josh Hart’s 16. Mikal Bridges scored 14 points and Karl-Anthony Towns tallied 13 for the Knicks, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped.
The Hornets’ 10-point halftime lead grew to 77-62 on Ball and Knueppel’s back-to-back 3-pointers. New York narrowed the deficit to 11, but Grant Williams’ triple stamped a 7-0 run to close the third and give the Hornets a 94-76 lead entering the final quarter. The Knicks got no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Pistons 129, Pelicans 108
Jalen Duren dominated inside with 30 points and 10 rebounds and added seven assists, two blocks and two steals as Detroit won for the fifth time in six games by thumping New Orleans.
Kevin Huerter fired in 22 points, while Daniss Jenkins supplied 19 points and nine assists. Tobias Harris had 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, with Ausar Thompson chipping in 11 points with three steals.
Zion Williamson topped the Pelicans, who have lost three straight, with 21 points. Saddiq Bey had 17 points, while Jeremiah Fears added 13 points with six assists. Dejounte Murray finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Magic 121, Kings 117
Paolo Banchero had a team-high 30 points and combined with Desmond Bane for eight in a late 12-0 flurry that led Orlando to a victory over visiting Sacramento.
Bane finished with 23 points and Tristan da Silva 18 for Orlando, which snapped a six-game losing streak and moved into a three-way tie with Miami and Charlotte for eighth in the Eastern Conference play-in seeding race.
DeMar DeRozan paced the Kings with 33 points and recorded a double-double, just his second of the season, with a season-high-tying 11 assists to complement the 216th 30-point game of his career.
