Blazers Duo Too Much To Overcome
Which players are going to step and take advantage of the moments and opportunities to help the Knicks win games is the question David Fizdale had for his young group as they returned back home not remembering what victory looked like.
They still don’t.
The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the New York Knicks 118-114 on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden to extend the Knicks losing streak to six games.
The backcourt scoring duo of C.J. McCollum (31 points, four rebound, two assists) and Damian Lillard (29 points, eight assists, six rebounds) led the way late as New York were once again unable to finish.
The New York Knicks (4-14) led for much of the game and held a 10-point third quarter lead over the Portland Trail Blazers, who are off to a stellar start to beginning of the season.
They would be unable to hold that lead as the Blazers used a strong third quarter push to take a 89-85 lead into the fourth. While the Knicks kept it close by doing an effective job of defending the Blazers perimeter players as well as they could.
Still, there were missed opportunities for New York, who were particularly sloppy with the basketball with 15 turnovers on Tuesday night.
Noah Vonleh will certainly have a tough night sleeping as he had a tough night shooting free throws. His four consecutive misses in his two trips to the line kept New York from closing the gap completely on Portland as the Knicks faithful moaned after each miss at the line.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored a game-high 32 points while collecting five rebounds and four assists. It’s his third straight 30-point game and his sixth of the season to this point.
Trey Burke was also strong off the bench for New York with 19 points, continuing his streak of strong games as he’s averaging 24.7 PPG over New York’s last three games.
David Fizdale went with a four guard lineup over the final minutes and that would prove costly on one of the biggest plays of the game.
Following a miss from Damian Lillard with New York trailing 116-114, Jusuf Nurkic would tip the ball in the air over Noah Vonleh and Evan Turner would score on the follow on the other side of the paint uncontested to put Portland up by four with 9.5 seconds to go.
Fizdale’s starting lineup carousel continued tonight, and it may be the Knicks best lineup yet, one that gave the Trail Blazers all they could handle at the Garden.
The bench saw a spark of energy out of Mitchell Robinson with six points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 18 minutes, the kind of effort and production New York needs out of him now that he’s back to the reserves.
As agonizing as each loss becomes, New York played a fine game, all things considered, something that can be used as a boost moving forward.
The New York Knicks will have a quick turnaround as they visit the struggling Boston Celtics on Wednesday night at the TD Garden Arena.
What are your thoughts on the Knicks new starting lineup? Leave your comments below!
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