NEW
YORK -- The struggling New York Knicks were hoping to get back on track by catching
the cooled-down Portland Trailblazers at just the right time on Wednesday night.
Instead, it was the perfect time for Portland to return to its winning ways on
the road with a 94-90 victory at Madison Square Garden.
At
31-9, the overachieving Trailblazers (35-14) were the talk of
the NBA, until
they subsequently lost five of eight games, including their four straight on
the road. So the best cure for their own issues was finding the proper moment to
face the wildly inconsistent and streaky Knicks (19-30), who lost their third consecutive
contest, right after they had won four straight, lost five in a row beforehand and
won five in succession prior to that.
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| New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) wins the opening tip over Portland Trailblazers center Robin Lopez (42) at Madison Square Garden, in New York, NY. (Photo: Jon Wagner / February 5, 2014) |
Four
Portland starters scored in double figures, led by 20 points (on 9-of-14
shooting) from forward Nicolas Batum, who also had 10 rebounds. Guard Wesley
Matthews had 18 points and seven rebounds; forward LaMarcus Aldridge missed
nine of his first 10 shots, but finished 4-for-7, while scoring 15 points, grabbing
a game-high 12 rebounds and dishing out a team-best five assists; and point guard
Damian Lillard added 12 points.
Center
Robin Lopez missed four of his five field goal attempts but made seven of eight
foul shots to score nine points and nearly give the Trailblazers a clean sweep
of starters to score in double digits.
In
sharp contrast, other than forward Carmelo Anthony’s 26 points, four other New
York starters totaled just 14 points, as starting forward Iman Shumpert went
scoreless for the sixth time this season, including the second time in as many
games against Portland. Shumpert missed all five of his shots in 24 minutes
after the Trailblazers held him scoreless on three shots in 23 minutes, during
a home win over the Knicks on November 25.
“It’s
something that I think he has to figure out,” Anthony said of Shumpert’s
inability to get heavily involved in his team’s offense. “We’ve got to help him
figure it out too. If we’ve got to do a better job of getting him the ball in
his spots, then we’ve got to do that. I don’t think it’s just on him not
scoring the basketball. Do we have to be more aggressive? I think so. But for
the most part, we’ve got to help him out in that category.”
Although
New York held advantages of 30-20 in the paint, 18-10 in second-chance points
and 50-20 off the bench, the Knicks made only half as many (8-4) 3-pointers in
the same amount of attempts (21) as Portland, while starting just 2-of-18 from
behind the arc.
Much
of that culpability went to Anthony, reserve guard J.R. Smith (18 points) and rookie
reserve guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. (12 points).
Anthony,
who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week earlier in the day, was 10-for-22
from 2-point range, but only 1-of-6 on 3-point tries. Similarly, Smith went
6-for-10 from inside the arc, but just 1-for-4 behind it. And Hardaway, who
made 4-of-6 on 2-pointers, missed six of seven 3-point shots.
“It
wasn’t like we didn’t get good looks,” head coach Mike Woodson said. “We had a
lot of good looks from the 3-point line. Normally Timmy, J.R and Melo… are
making them. Tonight, we struggled from the 3-point line.”
New
York got a solid contribution from reserve forward Amar’e Stoudemire (15 points,
on 6-of-10 shooting, and seven rebounds, in 22 minutes), but although the
Knicks held the league’s highest-scoring team 14 points below its season
average, and was more in need of additional scoring than defensive help,
Woodson chose center Tyson Chandler (two points, nine rebounds) over Stoudemire
over the final 5:51.
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| New York Knicks forward Amar'e Stoudemire dunks against the Portland Trailblazers at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo: Jon Wagner / February 5, 2014) |
Yet
Stoudemire, a one-time perennial All-Star with Phoenix, who was on a minutes
restriction at the start of the year (following the latest of a few offseason
knee surgeries), seemed disappointed with not being called upon late.
“I
could play 30 minutes a night, easy,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens. I
have a lot of talent left in this body. I’ve got room to improve as a player
and become my dominant self again, which I feel I’m that now. So when opportunities
presents itself, then I’ll show you guys what I can do. But until then, I’ll
continue to work and stay optimistic about things.”
After
the Trailblazers jumped out to a 10-4 lead, and the Knicks scored the next four
points, Batum scored five consecutive points on a driving dunk and a banked, 3-pointer
to give Portland a 23-16 advantage. Forward Dorell Wright (six points) added a
trey to push the lead to 26-18, before Anthony scored the last five points of
the quarter, while ending the period with a buzzer-beating pull-up jumper from
the right wing, to get New York to within 26-23.
A
Hardaway jumper almost five minutes into the second period capped a 10-1 run that
put the Knicks ahead, 35-32, but nine straight points from Portland had the
Trailblazers back on top, 45-36.
Answering
with the next seven points, New York regained the lead, 46-45, but a step-back,
22-foot jumper by Lillard, with 6.7 seconds left in the half, gave Portland a
47-46 edge at the break.
That
basket, coupled with the Trailblazers’ eventual win, dropped the Knicks to just
1-24 when trailing at halftime this season.
Stoudemire
kept New York within 63-61, on a 16-foot jumper, until Aldridge scored half of
Portland’s points during a 14-5 spurt that extended the Trailblazers’ lead to
77-66, just before an Anthony jumper cut the Knicks’ deficit to 77-68 entering
the final quarter.
Guard
Pablo Prigioni scored all five of his points as New York started the fourth
period with eight straight points, to climb within 77-76. But the Trailblazers
scored the next six points and an Aldridge free throw 3:46 later gave Portland
an 89-81 lead, with 1:11 remaining.
Refusing
to go away quietly, the Knicks got back-to-back 3s from Smith and Hardaway,
with a Prigioni steal in between, to slice their deficit to just 89-87 with 50
seconds left, as the sellout Garden crowd roared.
However,
an Aldridge fadeaway jumper over tight defense from Chandler doubled the lead
to 91-87 before Anthony missed a layup with 26 seconds left, during a play on
which he and Woodson each thought Anthony was fouled.
“We
failed to get to the free throw line,” Woodson said while pointing to a
significant free throw disparity between the teams (26-for-33 for Portland and
14-for-20 for New York). “I thought times where… I thought we got hit and there
was no call. We put Melo in a great position, down four with 35 seconds on the
clock… and I go back in and look at the tape and I thought it was clearly a
foul.”
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New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony guards Portland
Trailblazers center Robin Lopez, at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo: Jon Wagner / February 5, 2014) |
Three
free throws by Smith (his only foul shots of the game, after he was hacked on a
3-point attempt) brought New York to within 93-90, with 8.5 seconds to go, but after
Lillard made a free throw, Prigioni missed a long 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds
left.
Jonathan Wagner covers the New York Knicks, New York Giants and New
York Mets as a contributor for Yahoo Sports, where he was named one of Yahoo’s
Top 100 Contributors for 2013. Jonathan also covers the Knicks, Hofstra
University men's basketball and the 2013 NASL champion New York Cosmos as a credentialed writer for New
York Sports Day.
Follow him on Twitter, @JonathanJWagner.
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