NEW ORLEANS (AP) — CJ McCollum went 9 of 13 from 3-point range and tied his season high with 33 points, Zion Williamson had 17 points and a career-high 11 assists as the New Orleans Pelicans set a franchise record for points with a 153-124 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.
The Pelicans’ previous record for points in a game was 149 in a victory over the Sacramento Kings in October 2018.
The Pelicans put the ball in Williamson’s hands as a point forward from the outset, and he responded by willingly distributing the ball. New Orleans finished with 41 assists on 60 made field goals.
Herb Jones had 22 for the Pelicans, Brandon Ingram scored 18 and Jonas Valanciunas added 17.
McCollum went 11 of 17 from the floor, and the Pelicans shot 57.1% from the field (60 of 105).
Utah, which lost its third consecutive game, was led by Collin Sexton with 22 points and seven assists and Simone Fontecchio with 18 points.
Utah had a chance to cut the deficit to six points midway through the third quarter, but Jones blocked a layup and had a steal on consecutive possessions, leading to easy layups to widen the New Orleans lead to 12. New Orleans outscored Utah 24-8 over the final 6:32 of the quarter to pull away.
The Pelicans used a 43-29 second quarter to build a 77-59 halftime lead, their highest-scoring first half of the season.
With 19 assists in the first half — eight by Williamson — the Pelicans pushed the pace and shot 29 of 49 (59.2%), including 12 of 22 from long range. In a 123-109 loss to the Suns on Saturday night, the Pelicans made just 10 of 42 3-point attempts.
McCollum made all five of his 3-point attempts in his 17-point first half, and Jones was perfect on three long-range attempts from the right corner in his 15-point half.
Sexton kept the Jazz within range with 16 first-half points.
