Knueppel edges LaMelo

Kon Knueppel finished the regular season with 273 made three-pointers, one more than Charlotte teammate LaMelo Ball’s 272 after the Hornets’ 110-96 win over the New York Knicks on April 12. (landofbasketball.com) Knueppel hit three threes in the finale at Madison Square Garden, while LaMelo Ball scored 19 points in the clinching win that locked Charlotte into the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. (apnews.com) The race ended with Charlotte holding the top two spots in the National Basketball Association in total threes made this season. Knueppel led the league; Ball finished second. (landofbasketball.com) Both players cleared 270 made threes, making them the first teammate pair to reach that mark in the same season since Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson did it for Golden State in 2022-23. Curry and Thompson also did it in 2015-16. (sports.yahoo.com) That put a rookie and a 24-year-old lead guard into a club that had previously belonged only to the Warriors’ “Splash Brothers.” ESPN Insights identified Knueppel and Ball as the only other teammates to each make 270 threes in a season. (sports.yahoo.com) Knueppel’s total also set a rookie benchmark. Reporting on the season finale said he became the first rookie to lead the league in made three-pointers, and separate coverage said he broke the previous rookie record. (nationaltoday.com) The numbers came in a season when Knueppel was already on the league’s radar as an elite shooter. Before the All-Star break, Sporting News noted he was shooting 43.1% from three and had posted 27 points in the first round of the three-point contest. (sportingnews.com) Charlotte’s shooting surge now carries into the postseason. The Hornets’ win over New York secured a home play-in game, with Knueppel’s last three makes leaving him one shot ahead of Ball in the season-long race. (apnews.com)