Jalen Brunson's second-half surge steers Knicks past Pelicans

Jalen Brunson scored 29 of his season-high 39 points in the second half for the visiting New York Knicks, who overcame a 14-point third-quarter deficit to beat the upset-minded New Orleans Pelicans 104-93 on Saturday.

Brunson scored 20 points during a decisive 37-13 run bridging the third and fourth quarters for the Knicks, who mounted their biggest comeback of the season.

Karl-Anthony Towns (11 points, 10 rebounds) posted a double-double as the Knicks won their third straight and improved to 8-2 in their past 10 games. Mikal Bridges scored 18 points while OG Anunoby had 16 points and Josh Hart added 14 points.

Trey Murphy III scored 26 points for the Pelicans, who have lost six straight to fall to 2-21 since a 3-3 start. New Orleans fell by at least 10 points for the 17th time this season.

Dejounte Murray (14 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) flirted with a triple-double while CJ McCollum scored 13 points for the Pelicans.

The game was tied 28-28 at the end of the first before the Pelicans opened the second on a 17-4 run. The Knicks ended the half by scoring 13 of the final 17 points to get withing 49-45 at halftime.

New Orleans began the third with a 13-3 spurt and took a 62-48 lead on Murphy's dunk with 8:08 left in the period.

Hart's putback of an errant floater by Brunson began the comeback for the Knicks. After Anunoby's dunk, Brunson scored New York's next 13 points over a span of 2:05.

Consecutive 3-pointers by Towns and Brunson gave the Knicks the lead for good at 74-72 with 2:08 left in the third.

Javonte Green hit a 3-pointer with 41.7 seconds left in the period to pull the Pelicans within 78-75, but Bridges and Brunson combined to score the first seven points of the fourth quarter.

New York opened a quartet of 14-point leads and New Orleans got no closer than nine the rest of the way.

--Field Level Media