Kristian Winfield: Knicks win 7th straight in victory over Pelicans
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Not all games against losing teams are created equal. Because some losing teams are better than the sum of their win-loss records, some losing teams are a turn of events away from competing for a playoff spot, if not something greater.
There may not be a team embodying the discrepancy between record and reality more than the New Orleans Pelicans, home base for the ever-so polarizing talent that is Zion Williamson, plus a hodgepodge of rangy, versatile athletes at all five positions.
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A group that walked into Madison Square Garden with a 25-47 record, good for 11th in the Western Conference, well out of reach of the West’s 10th and final play-in tournament spot, but a team that, on the right night, can look like next year’s next best thing.
A team that, on the right night, can beat the New York Knicks. Tuesday night at MSG was nearly the right night–before the Knicks ran away with a 121-116 victory.
The Knicks have now won seven games in a row, and with a Boston Celtics loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, they will have sole ownership of the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed.
“Just focus on playing as best we can, control what we can control,” team captain Jalen Brunson said in his walk-off interview on Tuesday. “That’s what’s most important to us right now.”
For all intents and purposes, the NBA season in New Orleans is over, and there is more incentive for the Pelicans to lose games (even though Atlanta Hawks own swap rights on their 2026 first-round pick via the Dejounte Murray trade) than to win, but the players suiting up in the Pelicans red and blue still have pride —and still have a lot to show their front offices and rival organizations with a season teetering on completion with 10 games remaining on the schedule.
This is why you can’t judge a team by the number of wins and losses they have on their record — even more so when they take the floors of the World’s Most Famous Arena for their only New York trip of the season.
“[The Pelicans are] athletic ... Zion is on another level, in terms of his drives to the rim. Physically, athletically, extremely powerful. It takes all five guys being in the right position to try and make it tough on him. And they might not even be able to make it tough on him, he’s that powerful, athletic, strong,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said ahead of tipoff on Tuesday. “They’ve been playing fast, you know, as of late. Getting out in transition and been doing a good job overall, defensively. And even offensively since the All-Star Break, Dejounte Murray just takes them to another level, with his ability to run their team and to score. Think since the All-Star Break, they’re like 10-5. So they’ve been playing some really good basketball.”
The Knicks have now won seven in a row, all seven in games they entered as heavy favorites, including six against teams with significant records and one against a Golden State Warriors team with no recognizable starters in their rotation. They beat the Utah Jazz by 17, the Indiana Pacers by eight, the Warriors by 3, the Pacers again by 26, the Brooklyn Nets by one, the Washington Wizards by 32, and then the Pelicans by TK on Tuesday.
Seven of New York’s final nine regular-season opponents are teams either competing for Play-In Tournament positioning (Charlotte Hornets twice, Hawks) or playoff seeding (Thunder, Houston Rockets, Celtics, Toronto Raptors).
The Knicks led the Pelicans, 42-28, at the end of the first quarter but lost the second and third periods, 64-51, and cut New York’s lead to three with 7:25 left in the fourth and final frame.
Mitchell Robinson played 21 minutes and finished with 11 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal before the home crowd serenaded him with a rousing ovation on his way to then bench midway through the fourth quarter. Brown then turned to OG Anunoby as the small-ball center with Brunson, Hart, Mikal Bridges and Jordan Clarkson on the floor.
And the Pelicans tucked themselves to sleep, fouling Brunson on a drive to the rim with just over a minute left in regulation, then conceding a technical foul, a sequence that put the Knicks up 118-111 in the waning moments of regulation.
Brunson finished with 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field to go with seven assists. Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points apiece, and Bridges scored 14 points for the second game in a row, breaking free from a streak of 11 or fewer points from March 4 up until Sunday’s victory over the Washington Wizards.
Brunson scored 15 points in the fourth quarter alone.
“Just trying to be myself. I stick to my habits, focus on my work ethic and what got me here, and keep it that way,” he said.
Zion Williamson scored 22 points and former Villanova Wildcat Saddiq Bey added 18 points. Trey Murphy III hit a three to make it a three-point game with 15.6 seconds left on the clock.
Next up, the Knicks will pick on opponents their own size, beginning with the red-hot Hornets, who’ve won 12 of their last 15 games.
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