Jalen Brunson’s second-half surge leads Knicks past Pelicans

Jaylen 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 New Orleans Pelicans 104-93 on Saturday.

Brunson scored 20 points in a decisive 37-13 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters for the Knicks, who staged their biggest comeback of the season.

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

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

Dejud 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 finished the half scoring 13 of the last 17 points to pull within 49-45 at halftime.

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

Hart’s miss on an errant floater by Brunson started the comeback for the Knicks. After Anunoby’s dunk, Brunson scored New York’s next 13 points in a 2:05 span.

Back-to-back 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 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 four with a 14-point lead and New Orleans didn’t get closer than nine the rest of the way.

–Within field level