Pelicans pull away in second half to beat injury-depleted Knicks 115-92

NEW YORK -- — Trey Murphy III scored 26 points, Brandon Ingram had 24 and the New Orleans Pelicans beat the New York Knicks 115-92 on Tuesday night.

Zion Williamson added 21 points for the Pelicans.

Donte DiVincenzo led the Knicks with 23 points and Bojan Bogdanovic added 20 off the bench.

Jalen Brunson (neck spasms) and Isaiah Hartenstein (Achilles tendinopathy) did not play for the Knicks, who are still without starters Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson.

The Pelicans only led 48-47 at halftime, but scored the first 10 points of the second half and increased their lead to 65-52 on Jonas Valanciunas’ dunk with 4:54 remaining in the third quarter.

“We got stops, that was the biggest thing,” Murphy said. “We got on a run. That’s our best offense, when we get stops and get out on transition. We’re a young team. We have a lot of guys who can finish in transition, so I think that was the biggest thing.”

The Knicks managed to get as close as seven points and trailed 74-67 at the end of the quarter.

New Orleans opened the fourth on a 6-0 run and again went up by 13.

The Knicks pulled within 83-75 on Precious Achiuwa’s free throws with 9:15 remaining, but the Pelicans scored the next seven points and held a double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s 3-pointer with 21 seconds left ended the scoring as the Pelicans took their biggest lead.

The Knicks scored the first five points of the game. They still led 10-8 when the Pelicans scored the next five points and never trailed again.

“We want to win. At the end of the day people remember winners,” Williamson said. “This was my first time playing at Madison Square Garden when there was no COVID restrictions. New York is the mecca of basketball. Playing here for the first time here was dope, even though I fouled out.”

The Pelicans opened up their biggest lead of the half at 35-25, but a 7-0 run brought the Knicks within three.

New York tied the game at 45 on Achiuwa’s free throws with 1:07 remaining, but Ingram knocked down a 3-pointer and the Pelicans led 48-47 at halftime.

Herb Jones added 15 points for the Pelicans, who shot 50.6% (39 of 77) from the field and 52.9% (18 of 34) from behind the arc.

Achiuwa and Josh Hart each scored 15 points and Miles McBride had 10 for the Knicks, who only made 37% of their shots and were just 14 of 46 (30%) from 3-point range.

“We knew we were going to have to have volume 3s and make them if we were going to have a chance,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “I like the shots that we got. We missed a lot of wide-open shots to start the third and that led to not making transition the way we needed to.”

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Pelicans: Visit Indiana on Wednesday

Knicks: Host Golden State on Thursday