Mikal Bridges leads the way for Knicks in 118-85 rout of shorthanded Pelicans

The Knicks opened December with a 118-85 rout of the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night.

Here are some takeaways…

– The Knicks got off to a slow start in both of the final two games of the roadtrip, dropping 15 points in each of them, but that wasn’t the case in this one. They came out flying against the shorthanded Pelicans, including a stretch of 16 consecutive points to open a double-digit advantage in the opening frame — and they never looked back from there.

– New York carried a 20+ point lead since there was 1:30 left in the first quarter and they held the Pelicans to a season-low 28 points in the first half. Tom Thibodeau emptied his bench with nine minutes remaining in the fourth as they led by as many as 41 points on the night.

– Mikal Bridges struggled a bit offensively during the road trip, so it was big to see him lead the way for the Knicks as they returned home. The small forward used a scorching hot start to help him tied his career-high with 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and 7-of-12 from three-point land.

– With Bridges carrying the load, Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t too active offensively during the first half, but he certainly did his part on the glass as he reeled in a whopping 17 rebounds. The All-Star big man sat the entire fourth quarter, so he finished with just 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field while grabbing 19 boards.

– Jalen Brunson was on pace to put together another double-double, if not for sitting the entire fourth quarter as well. The star point guard had 16 points of his own on 4-of-11 shooting from the field while hauling in a pair of rebounds and dishing nine assists.

– Miles McBride continues playing spectacular basketball since returning from a seven-game absence, as he knocked down his first four shots after entering early off the bench, and he went on to finish with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field.

– The rest of New York’s bench unit got a chance to shine as well with the blowout as Jericho Sims contributed 12 rebounds, Matt Ryan drilled a pair of threes against his former team, Tyler Kolek dished out a pair of assists, and Ariel Hukporti had a monster slam for the exclamation point.

– The lone negative on the night was that OG Anunoby‘s offensive struggles continued. The two-way small forward is 0-for-15 from three-point land and he hasn’t cracked double digits since putting together his 40-point outing a week ago against the Nuggets.