Well, this post is going to be kind of short because the Trail Blazers really just took care of business against a struggling and hugely underachieving New York Knicks team as they beat the Knicks 102-91 Monday night. New York has been plagued with injuries and a key one being center Tyson Chandler who is the anchor of what defense they do have. They were also without starting point guard Raymond Felton, which I bet Portland fans were disappointed that they couldn’t boo and welcome Raymond back. As you can see, this Knicks team was majorly undermanned and with no defense in sight, it was pretty easy for the Blazers to take him out at the opening tip. The key strategy against the Knicks is to basically just let Carmelo Anthony drop 35+ points on you and just defend everybody else. Anthony is their star and crutch at the same time. In 43 minutes of play, Carmelo Anthony registered only 3 assists while going 13-for-25 from the field. Black hole much? Not to mention that the reigning sixth man of the year J.R. Smith has been struggling ever since this year started and is even further adding to the black hole nature of New York’s offensive game.
The Blazers jumped out hard outscoring New York 34-18 in the first quarter and really set the tone for the rest of the game. New York was clawing back the rest of the way and it reminded me of Blazer games last season where they just couldn’t get over the hump. New York made it interesting towards the end as they cut it down to 7 late in the fourth quarter, but never got that close again. The Blazers seemed to be just a step ahead of the Knicks and whenever the Knicks would threaten to make it interesting, the Blazers were right there to answer back.
The one glaring hole in the Blazers rotation was Mo Williams as he was suspended for one game for participating in the altercation that happened in Golden State Saturday night. This allowed Earl Watson and Will Barton to get some run, which was nice to see. I would like to see Allen Crabbe get some run at some point. I think he would be a great asset, but we just don’t know what he can do. This wasn’t a hard game or anything, but it was nice to see the Blazers still able to pull out a victory when missing one of their key components of their offense and rotation. There were a few hiccups and turnovers as, at one point, a full bench squad was out on the floor and hadn’t played together at all this year. This was a nice night to get some experimentation in.
The MVPs of the night were Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Damian Lillard. This shouldn’t shock a lot of people, but here are the stats.
Nicolas Batum was the Blazers’ offense in the first quarter. Normally reserved for Wesley Matthews in the past few games, Matthews was struggling from the field so Batum decided to step in. He finished the night with his do-it-all stat line of 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting, 3-for-5 from three, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds. Batum was everywhere. He throwing lobs, he was running the fast break, he was drilling threes, he was playing excellent defense, and he was just the Blazer’s motor tonight. Again, another example of the Blazers’ many weapons stepping up and becoming a factor and New York had a hard time dealing with Batum (or anyone for that matter).
LaMarcus Aldridge is still struggling shooting the basketball, but his rebounding numbers make up for that. He finished the night with 18 points on 7-for-20 shooting and 14 rebounds. It is still a good sight to see that the Blazers can still pull out a victory without LA shooting lights out. LA shoots like this last year, the Blazers are in some deep trouble. You could see Batum and Lillard try to get Aldridge going, but his shot was not there. Luckily LA was able to charge to rim to get an easy bucket or go to the line. This was just another solid game from the all-star.
Lastly, Damian Lillard has been the great, steady hand the Blazers have needed over this streak and Lillard had a couple dagger buckets to halt New York’s runs and to ice the game for the Blazers at the end. He finished the night with 23 points on 9-for-20 shooting, 2-for-7 from three, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. Lillard is continuing to surprisingly fill the stat sheet. Again, I would like to see him shoot a better percentage overall. He also still needs to figure out how to finish around the rim a bit more consistently. I do not think we have seen the real Damian this year yet, but I know for a fact that before the season is over he will have his run.
One last glaring stat is that the Blazers went to the line tonight. They shot, as a team, 19-for-22 and comparing that to New York’s stat, which was 9-for-14, the Blazers have gotten to the line the past two games. This was something I was talking about in earlier games and it seems like Terry Stotts and his players are seeing the lack of free-throws and correcting it. Well done.
Again, this was going to be a short post as this game was pretty much won in the first quarter, hard to believe right? The Blazers get a day-off before they face, yet again, the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix on Wednesday at 6:00 PM PST. The Suns have fallen back to earth a bit as they are now .500 and no longer playing ridiculous basketball. For the Blazers to continue their streak, they will have to return to the place where they got beat the hardest this year. Should be a good game. Stay tuned!