NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans have been a team in desperate search of a relief jumper in critical moments of a game, and on Monday night against the Sacramento Kings, forward Dante Cunningham, the unlikeliest of snipers, delivered his cleanest bullseye of the season.

Left wide open in the right corner by the Kings because of his inconsistent shooting range, Cunningham gathered in a beneath-the-basket feed from Norris Cole and buried the go-ahead 3-pointer to lift the Pelicans to a 115-112 comeback victory.

Cunningham had made just two 3-pointers in his seven-year NBA career before coach Alvin Gentry arrived last summer to have the Pelicans spread the floor, allowing Anthony Davis more room to roam on offense.

This season, though, Cunningham has made a conscious effort to extend his range. Cunningham has made 30 long-range jumpers this year because he has been left open in the corner so often, but this was by far his biggest make of the season.

"They all went to AD and Jrue (Holiday) over there and left me on an island," Cunningham said of his basket with 36 seconds left, which put New Orleans in front for good, 111-110. "All I remember is coach saying, 'Jump up and knock it down, jump up and shoot it if you're open.'"

A few minutes earlier, Cunningham had missed a wide-open 3-point attempt from the left baseline, directly in front of the Kings' bench. He heard some of the Kings' players say: "Let him shoot, let him shoot."

Gentry said he was most pleased with Cole's feed on Cunningham's big shot. Down by two points, Cole drove hard to the basket with the intention of either looking for layup or feeding Davis, who scored a team-high 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting, or forward Ryan Anderson.

But Cole saw Cunningham all by himself along the right baseline.

"(Cole's) a gritty guy' and I thought he made the right play," Gentry said. "He said, 'If I can turn the corner, I will, and Dante will be wide open in the corner.' He made the play. I never say, 'Oh, no, no, no' when a guy's shooting the ball. It was a good shot and the right play. He was supposed to shoot it."

In losing for the 14th time in 19 games, the Kings (25-37) blew a 17-point, second-half lead. Behind Davis' 17 third-quarter points, the Pelicans used a 17-9 run late in the quarter to cut their deficit to 89-83 and then came back from a 108-100 deficit inside the final four minutes.

Davis finished with 31 points and 10 rebounds, and Cole had 23 points and six assists despite playing with a sore lower back.

"For some reason, we just slowed down," said Sacramento coach George Karl. "It was like a flood coming our way. We were holding it off, but we were turning the ball over, we were playing against the shot clock and they were the running team. We were just giving up way too many layups."

After Cunningham gave New Orleans (24-38) a 111-110 lead and Holiday extended the lead to 113-110 with a 17-foot jumper, the Kings closed to 113-112 on Rudy Gay's layup with eight seconds left. Cole then made two free throws to give New Orleans a 115-112 lead with seven seconds remaining.

Then, without a timeout, the Kings inbounded the ball to reserve point guard Darren Collison. Holiday tried to foul Collison intentionally near half court and wound up picking Collison's pocket, sealing the victory and snapping Pelicans' four-game losing streak.

Kings center DeMarcus Cousins was nearly unstoppable, scoring a game-high 40 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. But down the stretch, reserve center Kendrick Perkins made two critical stops when Sacramento throw the ball into Perkins in the low post.

Cousins was most upset by his team's sloppy ball-handling. The Kings committed 24 turnovers, which led to 22 New Orleans points.

"It's been killing us all year," Perkins said. "It's going to continue to be a problem if we don't fix it."

NOTES: The injuries continue to pile up for the Pelicans. With G Eric Gordon fracturing his right ring finger for the second time in six weeks, he is likely to miss the rest of the season. Pelicans players have missed a total of 168 games due to injury. F Quincy Pondexter (left knee), SG Tyreke Evans (right knee) and rookie SG Bryce Dejean-Jones (fractured right wrist) have had season-ending surgeries. "I've never dealt with anything like this," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said. "You have a guy out or maybe two guys out, but I've never had a situation where it's pretty much hit all of the starters at one time or another." ... Although the Kings entered the game having lost 13 of their previous 18 games, they have gotten great performances off the bench from G Darren Collison, who has averaged 14.3 points and 3.3 assists in his last three games.