NEW ORLEANS – After goalkeeper Immanuel Quickley buried a 3-point pointer to give the Knicks a 10-point lead in the second quarter on Wednesday, a visiting base bluesman applauded loudly on Wednesday night’s Big Easy.
James Dolan, the owner of Knicks, made the first appearance of the pandemic in the road game as one of the 3,700 spectators at the Smoothie King Center. Dolan sat between the president of his chosen team, Leon Rose, and senior vice president William Wesley, while he could cheer up a winning team.
Julius Randle accumulated 32 points, and the Knicks prevented Zion Williamson late, so Dolan had to watch his team post its first four-game win of the season as it defeated the Pelicans 116-106 .
Williamson, the new NBA superstar, who collapsed to the board with devastating power, finished with 25 points, but has only scored four lately. He shot 10-for-19, but did not hit a 3-pointer.
Alec Burks caught fire for the Knicks in the fourth quarter and finished with 21 points, drilling 4 of 7 triples.
Randle won his game with Williamson, going 5-for-8 from 3 points, while adding eight rebounds and five assists. RJ Barrett, Williamson’s friend Duke, had the second straight night and finished with just six points.
After being left out of the playoffs for seven consecutive years, the Dolan’s Knicks improved to 29-27 and are tied with the Heat for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Next month, Dolan – who was coach Tom Thibodeau and a few players who came off the field after the victory – will likely be in his Garden suite, watching Knicks’ first postseason game of 2013.
“It was great,” Thibodeau said of Dolan, who participated in the game. “It’s always great to have him around, I think the players appreciate him. I had Dr. (Lisa) Callahan here too, so excited to have her. So maybe it’s our good luck charms. They also had Leon and Wes, they had a full house. “
In his first career game against the Knicks, Williamson seemed to be amplified, especially in front of his fellow duke Barrett.
In the first half, Randle, the former Pelican, hit the first three triples against Williamson, but then stayed cold and finished the half 4-for-15.
Knicks’ 11-point lead disintegrated to 53-52 at the break. Barrett fought, going 1 to 5 for just three points in the half.
Randle and Derrick Rose warmed up in a 40-point third quarter, and the Knicks took a 93-89 lead in the fourth quarter.
Burks drilled a 3 with 10:25 left to push the lead to 99-90 and hit another 3 with 8:10 left, while the Knicks jumped 104-93. Burks’ final dagger came with 1:20 left when his 3-pointer hit the lead at eight points.
Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy said before the game that the Knicks “played as well as any team in the East” and called them “a return to the Knicks with the low score of the ’90s that his brother, Jeff, he trained her.
Nerlens Noel was announced as Knicks’ starting point 30 minutes before the game, but was scratched a few moments before disconnecting with a painful ankle. This left Taj Gibson as the starting point, and the Knicks used 10-day contract signer Norvel Pelle as a backup.
Pelle had a decent eight-minute stretch, scoring his first two buckets like Knick, an alley-oop block and a comeback and blocking a Williamson drive, but the goalkeeper also committed Williams. Pelle finished a 19-plus in 12:43.