{"id":371439,"date":"2025-12-27T05:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371439\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T05:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:15:27","slug":"charlotte-hornets-beat-orlando-magic-after-rookie-kon-knueppel-injures-ankle-in-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371439\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Hornets beat Orlando Magic after rookie Kon Knueppel injures ankle in first half"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 LaMelo Ball<\/a> had 22 points and seven rebounds, and the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> beat the Orlando Magic<\/a> 120-105 on Friday night after losing rookie forward Kon Knueppel<\/a> to a right ankle injury in the first half.<\/p>\n

Miles Bridges<\/a> had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Hornets and Moussa Diabate<\/a> added 10 points and 13 rebounds. Charlotte shot 19 for 39 (48.7%) from 3-point range and led by 24 points in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Anthony Black<\/a> led Orlando with 24 points. Desmond Bane<\/a> added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> had 16 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n

The Hornets had a 57-48 lead in the final seconds of the first half when Knueppel, who ranks second among NBA rookies in scoring and 3-point shooting, went down with the injury. He had scored 16 points, all in the first quarter, while making all four of his 3-point shots. Hornets coach Charles Lee said X-rays on Knueppel\u2019s ankle were negative and he would be evaluated again when the team returns to Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Three 3-pointers by Collin Sexton<\/a> late in the third quarter helped the Hornets stretch a 16-point lead to 24.<\/p>\n

Led by Diabate, Bridges and Tidjane Salaun<\/a>, the Hornets had a 53-42 rebound edge in winning for the fourth time in six games.<\/p>\n

The Magic, who have lost four of six after winning in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, played without injured starters Franz Wagner<\/a> and Jalen Suggs<\/a>, <\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Hornets: Play at Milwaukee on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Magic: Play at home against Denver on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n

Dick Scanlon, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 LaMelo Ball had 22 points and seven rebounds, and the Charlotte Hornets beat the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-371439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}