Hornets hold off Kings’ comeback to win NBA Summer League championship
The Charlotte Hornets held off a big comeback by the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League championship game.
Kon Knueppel, who came out of Duke as the No. 4 pick in June’s NBA draft, was named championship game MVP after scoring 21 points to lead the Hornets to an 83-78 victory Sunday at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Hornets (6-0), who won their first Summer League title. K.J. Simpson added 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Isaac Jones had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings (5-1), who were trying to become the first team to win three Summer League championships.
Devin Carter had 13 points and seven assists. Rookie first-round draft pick Nique Clifford had 10 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Maxime Raynaud added nine points and seven rebounds.
The Kings shot 35.6% from the field while going 7 of 34 (.206) from 3-point range. They came back from an 18-point deficit to get within one in the final minute, but they couldn’t complete the comeback with team owner Vivek Ranadive, general manager Scott Perry and head coach Doug Christie sitting courtside.
Charlotte led 19-11 after going 7 of 8 from the field and 2 of 3 from 3-point range to start the game. The Hornets led 34-16 at the end of the first quarter.
Charlotte shot 70.6% in the opening period. Sacramento shot 38.9% while going 2 of 9 from beyond the arc.
The Hornets led by as many as 18 before a soaring putback dunk by Daeqwon Plowden gave Sacramento a spark early in the second quarter. The Kings dialed up their defensive intensity, forcing a series of turnovers that fueled a 9-0 run as they rallied to cut the deficit to seven.
Charlotte carried a 46-39 advantage into the halftime break. The Hornets outrebounded the Kings 19-12 while Kalkbrenner, a 7-foot-1, 270-pound center, dominated inside with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting.
The Hornets pushed their lead back to 11 early in the second half. There was a scary moment later in the third quarter when Charlotte’s James Banks III hit Sacramento’s Dylan Cardwell with a vicious elbow to the face.
The foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul penalty 2, resulting in an automatic ejection for Banks. Officials said video review showed “windup, impact and follow through to the face of the defender.”
The Hornets led 67-56 at the end of the third quarter. The Kings came back to cut the deficit to three following 3-pointers by Clifford and Plowden midway through the fourth.
Sacramento got within one on a basket by Jones with 1:16 remaining. Knueppel hit a 3-pointer to put Charlotte up by four, but Jones answered with a 3-pointer of his own to cut the deficit to one with 20.2 seconds to go.
Knueppel missed the second of two free throws with 11.4 seconds remaining, but the Kings failed to secure the rebound. A pair of free throws by Jaylen Sims put Charlotte up 81-77, essentially ending Sacramento’s comeback bid.
This story was originally published July 20, 2025 at 9:24 PM.
