New Orleans (14-24) started off its five-game swing with a 117-108 loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday in which Anthony Davis had another dominant performance with 36 points and 15 rebounds.
That marked the eighth time this season he has scored at least 35-plus points with 15-plus rebounds. However, the Pelicans have won just three of those games and are in 10th place in the Western Conference.
The Knicks (17-20) have lost seven of their last eight games after dropping a 123-109 decision to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
New Orleans is 21st in the league in scoring average (102.2 ppg) and 19 in opponents scoring (105.6).
“We don’t have time to play at the level we’re playing,” said Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry. “For us, everything is a crisis situation. We’ve got to be able to correct the errors right away.”
Davis is second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg), behind Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, and sixth in rebounding (12.11 rpg).
The Pelicans received a boost to their frontcourt from power forward Donatas Motiejunas, who debuted against the Celtics.
The 7-foot Motiejunas signed as a free agent on Jan. 3d. He registered 11 points, five rebounds and four assists in 20 minutes on Saturday.
Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks top scorer, has been bothered by a lingering sore right shoulder. He’s playing through the discomfort, but it’s affecting his shooting and scoring ability.
Anthony’s .420 field goal percentage is way off his .452 career average. He’s never finished below .426 in his 15-season career. He’s recorded just three double-doubles this season. He posted 22 last season.
“The guy (Anthony) has scored 30 and 28 (points), making big shots for us,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek told the New York Post. “If he comes to me and says, ‘I can’t do it,’ I’ll take a look at it.
“He’s a veteran guy who plays with bumps and bruises. His shoulder has been shore, but the last two games almost getting triple-doubles? Veteran guys tend to know what to do and still play and contribute.”
The Knicks trailed by as many as 26 points to the Pacers before staging a fourth-quarter comeback.
“They (Indiana) just played with more energy than we did,” Hornacek said. “It looked like there were a lot of rebounds we were going to get, but they were just quicker. We had a lack of energy.
“We made a fourth-quarter comeback, but trying to come back from that far down is hard. When we came in at the half, they had 12 more shots than we did, and that makes a big difference in a game like this.”
New York have lost 11 games by 11 points or more and are ranked 26th in the league with a defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) of 110.9.
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