S'aint Happening; New York Knicks Pecked By Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans
Part two of the New York Knicks' three-game tip-off road trip was anything but a Big Easy.
New York never recovered from a dreary opening period against the New Orleans Pelicans, who welcomed fans back to Smoothie King Center with a 96-87 victory on Saturday night. Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson led the way with 26 and 24 points respectively in New Orleans' first home game of the season and their first showing since a Wednesday win over Memphis.
Saturday was another struggle for the Knicks' headliners. Julius Randle was once again one category short of a triple-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) but did so on a 4-of-15 night from the field while losing eight turnovers, one short of his career-worst set with New York in December 2020. Jalen Brunson was no better, with his 14 points coming on 14 attempts, including 1-of-5 from three a night after he hit a personal-best eight from deep.
RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson were the offensive standouts: Barrett scored a team-best 18 in a futile attempt to counter his former Duke teammate Williamson while Robinson pulled in 10 second chances off the glass (part of a 15-rebound night overall).
Facing two tip-offs in less than 24 hours after successfully spoiling Atlanta's home opener on Friday, the Knicks' fatigue was painfully apparent at the start, as they never recovered from an opening period that saw them score an infantile season-low 12 points. The dreary dozen-point showing, which led to a 14-point deficit by the end of the first quarter was brought about by misfires on each of their first eight attempts from three-point range. New York (1-2) hit just seven triples on the night (on 37 attempts, creating an ugly final success rate of just under 19 percent) with no Knick hitting more than one.
A dominant performance for Zion Williamson (1) was too much for Jalen Brunson (11) and the Knicks to handle
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The Pelicans' early lead summitted at 19 over the first 24 minutes before the Knicks staged something of a comeback with a 31-22 advantage in a third quarter that saw them narrow the gap to as low as six. Once they finally seemed to generate some momentum, they fell victim to a whistle-induced change of pace that saw the teams unit for 39 fouls by the end of the night and offer their own brands of seething at the game's officials.
Back-to-back scoring possessions for Williamson more or less broke the Knicks will: New Orleans (2-0) won the fourth quarter 19-9 over the fight six-plus minutes and re-established its largest lead of the night before both sides emptied their benches, which allowed the Knicks' reserves to somewhat beautify the box score.
The closing 10-0 run was hardly enough to catch up to the antics of Williamson, who was playing in front of a Crescent City crowd for the first time since Dec. 30 after an injury ended his 2022-23 season prematurely and clipped the Pelicans' dreams of avoiding the Western Conference Play-In Tournament. Williamson helped the Pelicans establish their early lead by hitting six of his first eight before dousing the Knicks' hopes with a dozen points and four rebounds over an abbreviated second half effort.
A rematch is slated for late February at Madison Square Garden. In the meantime, the Knicks' early road trip closes on Tuesday night in Cleveland, which will host the first of a back-to-back between first-round opponents from last year's postseason (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG/TNT).
