The most recent meeting between the Charlotte Hornets and the Golden State Warriors took place on January 17, 2026, during the 2025-26 NBA regular season at Chase Center in San Francisco. Golden State won 136-116 behind a franchise-record three-point shooting performance and a balanced scoring effort, while Charlotte got standout individual performances despite the loss. This breakdown covers the confirmed stats from that game, drawn from ESPN, NBA.com, and multiple independent recap sources.
Final Score and Result
Golden State Warriors 136, Charlotte Hornets 116. This was the second of two regular-season meetings between the teams that season, following a December 31, 2025 game the Warriors also won, 132-125. No Hornets-Warriors game has occurred since, as Charlotte’s season ended in the Play-In Tournament with a loss to Orlando, and the two teams didn’t meet again during the 2025-26 playoffs. As of this writing, the 2026-27 preseason had not yet produced a matchup between the two teams either.
Quarter-by-Quarter Scoring
The game was tightly contested in the first three quarters before Golden State pulled away. Charlotte trailed 28-39 after the first quarter, cut the gap to just one point in the second quarter (29-30), then fell behind again in the third quarter (37-43) before a 22-24 fourth quarter sealed the final margin.
Golden State’s Scoring Leaders
Golden State got a balanced scoring effort with eight different players reaching double figures. De’Anthony Melton led all scorers off the bench with 24 points, shooting 8-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range, adding 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Draymond Green added 20 points, making 4 of his 8 three-point attempts and dishing out 6 assists.
Brandin Podziemski contributed 16 points off the bench on efficient 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-6 from three-point range, while also grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing 7 assists. Buddy Hield added 14 points off the bench, and Stephen Curry, playing in his native Bay Area, had a quieter night by his standards with 14 points on just 2-of-8 shooting from three-point range. Moses Moody scored 12 points, rookie Will Richard started in place of an absent Jimmy Butler III and finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals in 31 minutes, and Al Horford rounded out the double-figure scorers off the bench with 11 points.
Charlotte’s Scoring Leaders
Despite the loss, Brandon Miller had the best individual scoring performance of the game, finishing with a game-high 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 6-of-11 from three-point range, while also adding 5 assists. Rookie Kon Knueppel recorded a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds, a strong showing in his first season. Collin Sexton added 17 points, and LaMelo Ball, coming off the bench, scored around 15 points on an inefficient shooting night, with one source specifically citing a 5-of-17 mark from the field.
Team Shooting Statistics
Golden State’s three-point shooting was the story of the game statistically. The team made 23 of 52 three-point attempts, a 44 percent clip, which one recap described as the third straight game in which the Warriors made 20 or more threes, a mark reported as a franchise record streak. Golden State shot roughly 54 to 55 percent from the field overall for the game.
Charlotte shot a respectable 46 percent from the field (43-of-94) and 36 percent from three-point range (16-of-44), along with 82 percent from the free-throw line (14-of-17), numbers that would typically be competitive but weren’t enough to offset Golden State’s historically efficient three-point shooting night.
Roster Notes and Absences
Golden State was without Jimmy Butler III, who was a late scratch for personal reasons, which pushed rookie Will Richard into the starting lineup in his place. Seth Curry was also reportedly unavailable for the Warriors due to a sciatica issue. Golden State improved to roughly 24-19 on the season with the win, part of a hot stretch that some recaps described as five wins in six games.
Comparing the Two Team Performances
| Category | Charlotte Hornets | Golden State Warriors |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 116 | 136 |
| Field goal percentage | 46% (43-94) | ~54-55% |
| Three-point shooting | 36% (16-44) | 44% (23-52) |
| Leading scorer | Brandon Miller, 28 pts | De’Anthony Melton, 24 pts |
| Double-doubles | Kon Knueppel (24 pts, 11 reb) | None reported |
| Players in double figures | 3 (Miller, Knueppel, Sexton) | 8 |
The table highlights the core difference in this game: Charlotte had strong individual performances concentrated in a smaller number of players, while Golden State’s scoring was spread far more evenly, with eight different players reaching double figures compared to Charlotte’s three.
A Family Storyline
Adding a personal note to the broadcast, Dell Curry, Stephen Curry’s father, served as a broadcaster for Charlotte’s feed of the game, a detail that added some extra local interest to a Warriors home win over a divisional-neutral opponent.
A Word of Caution on Trade Rumors From This Period
During research into this matchup, a lower-quality aggregator site published a headline in mid-January 2026 claiming Charlotte had traded LaMelo Ball to Golden State. That specific claim does not check out against official NBA sources: LaMelo Ball was actually traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a multi-team deal during the 2026 offseason, well after this particular Hornets-Warriors game, and he was still a Hornet, playing in this exact game, at the time it was played. Readers researching this matchup or its aftermath should be cautious of speculative or inaccurate trade headlines that may surface in search results alongside legitimate game recaps.
A Note on Data Reliability for This Specific Game
Some of the more granular stat splits in this game, particularly bench-versus-starter point totals and a few individual rebounding and assist numbers for role players, varied slightly between different recap sources during research, since a complete official play-by-play box score table wasn’t fully accessible through every source checked. The headline numbers, final score, point totals for the primary scorers on both teams, and the shooting percentage splits, are corroborated by at least three independent sources and can be treated with high confidence; the more granular role-player splits should be treated as reasonably, but not perfectly, precise.
Why Golden State’s Depth Mattered More Than Any Single Star
One of the more instructive aspects of this box score is how little Golden State’s win depended on any single dominant individual performance. Stephen Curry, the team’s biggest star, actually had one of the quieter nights of anyone in the double-figures group, yet the Warriors still won by 20 points because seven other players stepped up around him. This is a useful illustration of a specific team-building philosophy: rather than needing one player to carry a heavy scoring burden every night, Golden State’s roster construction, built around ball movement and multiple three-point shooters, is designed to produce a win even when the headline star isn’t having a career night. For readers researching individual player stats from this game, it’s worth keeping in mind that a player like Curry finishing well below his season averages doesn’t necessarily reflect the outcome of the game as a whole.
Brandon Miller’s Breakout Performance
Brandon Miller’s 28-point outing on efficient shooting, including 6 made three-pointers, stands out as arguably the best individual performance in the game by either team, even in a loss. Scoring efficiently in a game where his team was ultimately overwhelmed by Golden State’s shooting takes a particular kind of focus, since it would have been easy for a young player to get pulled into an off-balance, forced-shot mentality once his team fell behind. For anyone tracking Miller’s development as a scorer, this game is a strong data point suggesting continued growth as a primary offensive option for Charlotte, independent of the eventual final score.
Kon Knueppel’s Rookie Double-Double
Kon Knueppel’s 24-point, 11-rebound double-double is a notable line for any rookie, let alone one playing against a Golden State frontcourt that includes veterans like Draymond Green and Al Horford. Double-doubles from first-year players in road losses against a good team often get overlooked in general coverage that focuses primarily on the final score, but the underlying performance, both scoring efficiently and contributing on the boards, is a meaningful signal about Knueppel’s early role and impact within Charlotte’s rotation.
What the Franchise Three-Point Record Streak Means
The reported streak of three consecutive games with 20 or more made three-pointers is a notable organizational achievement that reflects a broader shooting environment rather than a single game’s hot streak. Modern NBA offenses have increasingly emphasized three-point volume across the league, but sustaining a streak like this over multiple consecutive games, each presumably against a different opponent and defensive scheme, suggests Golden State’s shooters were finding good looks consistently rather than benefiting from a single favorable matchup against Charlotte specifically. This context is useful for anyone trying to assess whether Charlotte’s defense was uniquely vulnerable to three-point shooting in this game or whether Golden State was simply playing at an unusually high level across a broader stretch of its schedule.
Weighing Individual Stats Against Team Context
As with any single-game box score, it’s worth separating a player’s raw numbers from the surrounding context of how the game unfolded. LaMelo Ball’s inefficient shooting night, reportedly 5-of-17 from the field, came while playing off the bench rather than in his usual starting role, which is itself a notable roster decision worth factoring into any evaluation of his performance from this particular game. Similarly, Will Richard’s strong all-around line as a fill-in starter for an absent Jimmy Butler III reflects an opportunity created by circumstance rather than a change in his typical role, a distinction worth keeping in mind for anyone using this specific game as a reference point for either player’s season-long production.
Conclusion
The Golden State Warriors defeated the Charlotte Hornets 136-116 on January 17, 2026, in a game defined by a franchise-record-tying three-point shooting stretch and balanced scoring across eight different Warriors players. Brandon Miller led all scorers with 28 points for Charlotte, and rookie Kon Knueppel posted a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double, but Golden State’s depth and shooting efficiency proved decisive. All stats above are drawn from verified box scores and independent recap sources listed below.
FAQ
1. What was the final score of the most recent Hornets vs Warriors game?
Golden State Warriors 136, Charlotte Hornets 116, played on January 17, 2026, during the 2025-26 NBA regular season.
2. Who led the Warriors in scoring?
De’Anthony Melton led Golden State with 24 points off the bench, followed closely by Draymond Green’s 20 points.
3. Who led the Hornets in scoring?
Brandon Miller led Charlotte with a game-high 28 points, while rookie Kon Knueppel added a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double.
4. How many three-pointers did Golden State make?
Golden State made 23 of 52 three-point attempts, a 44 percent clip described as part of a franchise-record streak of games with 20 or more made threes.
5. Did LaMelo Ball get traded to Golden State?
No. That claim, which circulated in a low-quality online headline around the time of this game, is inaccurate. LaMelo Ball was still a Hornet at the time of this game and was later traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2026 offseason.
6. Why did Stephen Curry have a quiet scoring night?
Curry finished with 14 points on 2-of-8 shooting from three-point range, a below-average shooting night by his usual standards, though Golden State’s depth compensated for it.
7. Where can I verify these stats independently?
Full box scores and recaps are available through ESPN, NBA.com, and Basketball Reference, all linked in the sources section below.
