The Portland Trail Blazers and the New York Knicks fought a dogfight of epic proportions Friday night…if a fight between a Chihuahua and a clumsy Labradoodle could be called epic. To quote a veteran of the assembled franchises, both teams played hard. But “hard” doesn’t mean “good”. Like a turkey that didn’t have to be thawed until Wednesday, no matter how much the heat was turned up in this game, there was never any certainty of how it would turn out.
Despite the fumbling and bumbling, weaknesses and… uhhhh… well, despite the occasional pain from watching, the score ended close as the clock ticked down. The conclusion was exciting, even if there was no game. An amazing series of fouls provided the basic offense, while spectacular plays from Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons and Jalen Brunson added spice.
In the end, four thirds wasn’t enough to decide the fate of the game. The Blazers came alive in overtime as Simons dissected the Knicks with passes and shots. New York didn’t have the firepower to keep up, and the Blazers ended in a 132-129 win.
Grant led all goalscorers with 44, hitting 21 of 28 free-throw attempts. Simons added more than a healthy 38 despite shooting 4 of 13 from the bow. Brunson countered with 32 for the Knicks.
first quarter
The game started sloppy, with both teams making turnovers and throwing up stones. The Knicks were successful in taking down Portland, but not so much on the half-court offense, particularly with their jump shots. The Blazers let Jusuf Nurkic build up a lot of plays and let Anfernee Simons off the ball. When the Knicks slumped to the ball. Ant crushed her. A hail of missed J’s for New York gave Portland an early 10-0 run that put the Blazers up by five after five minutes.
After a “What are we doing???” timeout, the Knicks got smart, going to Julius Randle and Co. and capitalizing on their difference in height and weight. They quickly leveled the score, drawing fouls in the process.
The Knicks spent the last few minutes of the initial pressure on Jerami Grant in vain. Grant either walked out of doubles teams or cruised slightly past the pressure for candid looks. It was at this point, however, that Portland’s three-point defense began to falter. They went under screens or begged for Knicks triples. New York canned a throng of them, suddenly hot where before they were freezing. New York led 31-25 after one.
second quarter
The second period started like the first: kind of jerky. Stop and start offense was punctuated by a couple of run outs and lots of whistles. The Blazers countered New York’s big man strategy by running the ball through Nurkic, putting it up and letting it back in, and drawing fouls on opponents. Portland did a better job of pushing the Knicks outward at the other end and then kept a hand in front of the shooter. As jumpers clinked, the Knicks’ lead shrank.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, New York couldn’t miss ALL. A link or two was enough to repel Portland’s own attack, which was still coming laboriously and slowly. Portland’s second unit defense was actually better, but the results were slightly worse, made worse by the complete lack of attacking. New York went on an early 10-1 run, which made the job all the more difficult.
At this point, Simons should catch fire and save his team. He did, a little. Jalen Brunson went all out on the campfire. As his mid-rangers began to connect, the Knicks’ lead jumped past double figures.
And then it got even worse. The league’s 29th best three-point shooting team caught fire AGAIN. With Portland buckets requiring about the same amount of effort as building the Empire State Building, a kink makes three balanced 3-4 trips down the ground for the Blazers.
Finally, Portland accelerated and rolled in the final minutes of the third. Threes from Nurkic and Grant and a breakaway dunk from Simons made up for the Knicks’ earlier goal. A faster offense and a couple of wheelbarrow-full free-throws healed what Portland had been battered. The Blazers led 62-61 at halftime, 14 behind.
Third quarter
The third period began in back and forth mode. Knicks get a three, Blazers get a three. Knicks get a layup, Blazers get a dunk. The Blazers missed a slew of threes, any of which could have helped their momentum. Their zone defense also couldn’t stop New York from scoring on the edge, which is a little suspicious since that’s what a zone is supposed to do.
The back-and-forth continued as Knicks center Mitchell Robinson caught his third foul midway through the third, followed by Nurkic’s fourth a minute later. Portland made even more offense with rebounds of their own and then returned it at the break.
The game became one of those made-to-order Christmas gifts that arose largely out of thrift. You appreciate it for the people involved, but don’t judge it on the overall quality because it doesn’t compare to the Tiffany showroom.
Nothing describes the action like Portland grinds for almost three minutes from 6:00 a.m. to 3:30 a.m.: Offensive rebounding, passing, getting to loose balls first, driving the lane, desperately trying to pull away. They succeeded in almost everything except for the last part. At the end of the stretch, a lone three from Randle tied the score back. 30 seconds later, another Randle three would put New York back in front.
Hart and Simons came to the rescue late in the third. Hart hit a layup while Simons pulled in a three and then deflected the defense to allow for an easy layup from Trendon Watford. In this game, that qualified as a scoring streak. When Hart hit a twisted offensive rebound putback in the goal, the Blazers led 92-86 for fourth.
fourth quarter
Mitchell Robinson erased Portland’s lead early in the fourth game, hitting inside with ease. Grant tried to direct the offense but got stuck and could only pull free throws. Meanwhile, the Knicks got the bit in their mouths and started running, pounding the ball inside against a defense that suddenly seemed small and rudderless.
Simons tried to keep Portland’s points going. He intercepted a pass from Nurkic for a layup but otherwise couldn’t reignite the spark. As a result, other Blazers attempted to make up the difference, primarily by driving, and often had their shot attempts bounced back squarely in the face.
The only thing that got in the Blazers’ way at this point was officiating. The umpires whistled every time the Knicks sneezed in Portland’s general direction. That slowed New York’s momentum and kept the game tight, though the Blazers were outplayed.
Grant began to come alive in the middle of the period. forcing the ball in and taking free throws, also hitting a three. The steady stream of fouls for Jerami was enough to tie the score at 2:30, despite defensive problems against New York’s big players. This one went to the wire.
Simons found Nurkic for a layup with 1:55 minutes remaining and gave Portland a 112-111 lead. A misguided New York threesome opened the door for Portland. Grant worked his way through and scored his 40th point on a looping flip, giving the Blazers a three-point advantage with a 1:15 lead.
RJ Barrett was fouled on a desperate layup on next possession, but the young guard hit just one of the poor shots to leave Portland 104-102 ahead as the clock ticked past 1:00.
Grant controlled the ball on the next possession, but his foray into traffic had him picked up, leading to a breakaway layup by Barrett. Tie at 114.
Simons missed a three at the other end, then Brunson pinned Justise Winslow for a lay-in in the washing machine in the suit. After controlling the game with 60 seconds remaining, the Blazers were two points down, 114-116, with 14 ticks remaining.
With the game on the line, Portland went back to Simons. He swept down the track, spun, and fired an awkward eight-foot shot. He was fouled during play and sunk both foul shots. That tied the game at 116 with ten seconds remaining. With no timeouts, the Knicks put the ball in Brunson’s hands. His swimmer bounced off the rim and the game went into overtime.
Over time
Whatever struggles weighed on Anfernee Simons during regulation vanished as he struck a three to open overtime. Julius Randle countered with a three of his own. Grant missed a layup on the next possession, which seemed to signal Portland’s intentions: drive their two goalscorers to victory.
Just as they were getting the Knicks to think so, Simons threw the ball to Nurkic at the post. Nurk converted one and ones against Jericho Sims and took Portland to three the hard way.
On the next possession, Portland’s fortunes took a hit when Josh Hart caught his sixth foul. After that, the defense had to work harder.
On the next possession, Simons implemented the offensive brilliantly with the ball in his hands. Portland’s strategy was simple: set up screens until a New York big switched to Ant, and then let Ant take over. He didn’t even do it over the shot. Instead, he found Nurkic, now with a smaller player on him, for another layup. That put Portland at 124-119 at the half of OT.
The umpires helped Portland again, calling a carry on Barrett down the baseline. Then Simons stuck in the dagger. Simons hit a three and gave Portland an 8 lead, and that was all she wrote. New York committed too many turnovers from that point on, Portland also committed turnovers and missed foul shots, which put the end margin closer than needed, but thanks to Grant’s total number of foul shots, the Blazers still had enough to hold on to victory.
Next
Stay tuned for our in-depth recap with analysis points from this slightly odd game.
box score
The Blazers get a return game with Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets at 12 p.m. Sunday afternoon in the Pacific Rim.