The Charlotte Hornets saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end on Monday night in a heated affair against the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons. The Pistons were playing physical basketball against the Hornets all night long, which triggered an all-out brawl in the third quarter that saw the likes of Jalen Duren, Moussa Diabate, Isaiah Stewart, and Miles Bridges get ejected — facing the prospect of lengthy suspensions as well.

Amid all that mess, Kon Knueppel was simply trying his best, as he's done all season long, to try and shoot the Hornets to victory. He finished with 20 points on the night on 6-13 shooting from the field (5-11 from beyond the arc), and he continues to flourish as one of the best pure shooters in the NBA, even though he's just a rookie, a sign of how much more dangerous he'd be once he rounds out his game even further.

With the Hornets mounting a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, Knueppel hit some timely shots to cut the Pistons' lead. One such shot came with around 5:31 left in the final frame, as he nailed a three in semi-transition off a pass from Brandon Miller. In need of just 17 points on the night to cross the 1,000 mark for his career, this was the triple that saw the rookie hit a personal milestone, becoming the first in his draft class to hit that mark.

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Hornets have a budding young nucleus

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Knueppel has been so incredible already that it's hard to forget that he's only a rookie who's only going to get better. He's already averaging nearly 19 points a night on bonkers 48.6/42.8/89.7 shooting splits, emerging as a marksman who may approach Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson levels really soon.

The Hornets have something brewing, and they might be on track to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 if their recent level of play holds.