3‑Point Contest thriller

Kon Knueppel beat LaMelo Ball by a single make in the 3-point contest, capping a Charlotte Hornets shooting surge that carried into the season’s final weekend. (sportscenter on x.com) Knueppel, a 20-year-old rookie drafted No. 4 in June 2025, finished the regular season with 270 made 3-pointers in 80 games. Ball finished with 267 in 71 games, the highest total of his six National Basketball Association seasons. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) That gave Charlotte two players above 260 threes in the same season, a combination the SportsCenter post said had not happened since Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson cleared 270 together for Golden State. StatMuse’s 2025-26 leaders page listed Knueppel first in the league in made threes and Ball second. (sportscenter on x.com) (statmuse.com) The timing mattered for Charlotte because the Hornets were still playing for position on Sunday, April 12. They beat the New York Knicks 110-96 to clinch the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference and a home game in the play-in tournament. (apnews.com) (nba.com) Knueppel added three more threes against New York in that finale, and the Associated Press described his year as a record-setting rookie season. ESPN’s season totals show he closed at 270 makes on 42.7 percent shooting from deep. (apnews.com) (espn.com) Ball’s season looked different but ended with the same theme: volume shooting. ESPN lists him at 267 made threes on 724 attempts, plus 20.1 points and 7.2 assists a game, after he hit 179 threes in 47 games in 2024-25. (espn.com) The All-Star contest result itself was a preview of that partnership. Coverage from February said Knueppel opened the event with 27 points in the first round, while National Basketball Association event coverage shows Damian Lillard won the official 2026 contest over Devin Booker, with Knueppel among the finalists. (clutchpoints.com) (nba.com) Charlotte’s bigger story is that the shooting now comes from two different places. Ball is the primary creator, and Knueppel arrived from Duke as an off-ball scorer who turned 632 attempts from three into 270 makes in his first National Basketball Association season. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) So the one-shot margin in the contest landed as more than a weekend novelty. It was the cleanest snapshot yet of a Hornets backcourt that finished the season bombing away and heads into the play-in still doing it. (sportscenter on x.com) (apnews.com)