The Knicks went to the wire with the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, ultimately coming out on top with a 130-125 win.
Here are the takeaways…
— Making his second consecutive start and third this season, Mohamed Diawara wasted no time to get in on the action, backing down his defender and dropping one in to score the game’s first points before draining a three-pointer to put the Knicks up 5-0 in the early going. The five early points already matched Diawara’s career-high, but the French native selected by New York in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft was far from done.
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— After the Pelicans went on a quick 9-0 run to take the lead, Jalen Brunson stopped the bleeding with a three-point play before hitting his first three-pointer of the night to tie the game. Diawara, who entered the contest with six made threes in 18 attempts this season, drilled his second of the game to re-take the lead. Nearly two minutes later he made another one from downtown to give him 11 points in six minutes.
— An 8-0 run by New Orleans, including threes from Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey, gave them a four-point advantage but there was Diawara once again, this time scoring on a running layup assisted by Brunson to pull the Knicks to within two.
— In nine minutes, Diawara led New York with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting (3-for-3 from deep). He also had a rebound and added two steals. However, he wasn’t the most impressive player on the court in the first quarter as Bey blitzed the Knicks with 23 points, going 8-for-11 from the field and 4-for-5 from three to help the Pelicans lead 41-37 after a whirlwind of an opening quarter.
— Tyler Kolek entered the game for the first time to start the second quarter and immediately made his presence felt, making one of two free throws and then hitting a three for the Knicks’ first four points of the quarter.
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— Despite help from OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns offensively, New York was unable to grab the lead in the early part of the quarter as Zion Williamson, making his first start following seven games of coming off the bench, took over for a stretch, scoring 10 points before getting subbed out. He had 18 points at the half.
— After nearly two scoreless minutes by both sides, the offense picked back up thanks to Brunson who subbed back in and scored eight straight points for the Knicks. But it was Anunoby who tied the game at 65 with a running layup before Poole’s three-pointer gave New Orleans the lead once again. Anunoby scored 16 in the quarter after getting blanked in the first.
— During the scoring barrage in the final two minutes of the half, Diawara hit another three-pointer, his fourth of the game in as many attempts, to give him 16 points but even that wasn’t enough as the Pelicans led 75-72 at halftime.
— Following the break, both offenses went right back to work, trading baskets left and right. Williamson kept his pace going for New Orleans and Trey Murphy III drilled two three-pointers, the second of which gave the Pelicans a 10-point lead.
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— As for the Knicks’ offense, it was a team effort as they got at least one basket from all the starters in the first six minutes, as well as a contribution from Kevin McCullar Jr. after his big night against the Atlanta Hawks. But after Anunoby hit a three with 5:48 remaining in the quarter, both offenses hit a three-minute dry spell. It wasn’t until Poole’s layup with 2:35 left to play that a ball went in the net.
— From there, more bench players for New York hit some shots, including threes by Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson and a floater from Trey Jemison III. Seven players came off the bench for the Knicks, including Miles McBride who returned to the lineup after missing the past nine games with an ankle injury. McBride finished with 14 points in 18 minutes.
— Nevertheless, when the quarter was over New Orleans extended its lead to 103-96.
— New York’s defense finally showed up in the fourth quarter as it held the Pelicans to just three points in the first five minutes. During that time, the Knicks tied the game on McBride’s three-pointer and took the lead on Towns’ triple 20 seconds later — their first lead since the final minute in the first quarter.
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— After KAT’s three-ball, New York went scoreless for two minutes which allowed New Orleans to re-take the lead. But in crunch time, Brunson came alive and knocked down two threes to tie or take the lead and to keep up with Murphy who stayed on fire from deep. Brunson got some help with McBride and Anunoby each hitting big shots to take the lead as the Pelicans would not go away.
— But it was Brunson’s floater and layup in the final 60 seconds that extended his team’s lead before McBride hit four key free throws at the end of the game to seal the game and give New York a wild 130-125 win.
Game MVP: OG Anunoby
Despite going 1-for-8 from deep, Anunoby finished with 23 points after going scoreless in the first quarter and hit big shot after big shot all game. He also had 11 rebounds, three steals and a block and was a game-high plus-16 on the night.
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Highlights
What’s next
The Knicks finish off their three-game road trip with a battle against the San Antonio Spurs on New Years Eve at 7 p.m. in what will be a rematch of the NBA Cup Finals.