Game 13: New York Knicks v Portland Trailblazers

Game 13: New York Knicks v Portland Trailblazers 

Predicted Score: 98-86

Actual Score: 102-91

By: Malcolm Merritt

Email: mjmerritt23@gmail.com

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To Compare the Prediction to the Post-Game, Click Here.

Another loss, and now they seem to be piling up. The New York Knicks (3-10) have now lost 6 straight as the Portland Trailblazers (13-2) has won 11. It seems like the Knicks are tanking, as they lost yet another, this time by 12. The problem with that is, after their trade for Carmelo Anthony, they have no draft picks. New York is not at all in situation they want to be in right now. In the middle of a grueling road trip, the Knicks can’t look back to going home only because they haven’t been able win at home either going 1-6 so far and losing their last 5 in the Garden.

With the Knicks competing against a stacked Western Conference, things aren't looking too bright for them. 

As predicted, Damian Lillard had a great game. New York hasn’t been able to defend strong point guard play and this game wasn’t any different. After getting burned on Saturday by John Wall for 31 points, they let up 23 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds on 45% shooting to the second year guard out of Weber State. He only committed 1 turnover in 36 minutes of play. He’s also scored +19 points in his last 5 contests. LaMarcus Aldridge continued to make his presence known by recording his seventh double-double of the season, 18 points and 14 rebounds. Nick Batum led them with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

The Trailblazers led for basically the entire night, getting off to a 16-point lead in the first quarter. By the half it was 56-39. New York tried to make a second half run. With 10 minutes left, Andrea Bargnani hit a 3 pointer to bring the game to 7 points, but that is the closest they got as the ‘Blazers closed out the game on a strong note, with the final score being 102-91.

Each time the Knicks were on the floor in the first quarter, it seemed like they were out of energy. As the ball hit the rim and bounced into the defender’s hands, the Knicks would move sluggishly on defense as the Trailblazers took full advantage. New York was looking more and more like a team that was losing confidence and Carmelo Anthony looked like a player who was struggling to get his teammates to follow his lead. He led the team with 34 points and 15 rebounds on 52% shooting.

Anthony has tried to lead this so far this season but no one is following his lead.

Anthony talked to reporters post game, “When you're losing, it's not fun. Are we having fun on the basketball court? No. The game is not fun right now. When you start pressing, pressing, pressing, it makes everything that much worse. So no, we're not having fun playing basketball right now. We got to get back to that.” This attitude is one that needs to be contagious.  No one likes losing but the Knicks aren’t showing the strength to pull themselves out of this hole.

A bright spot in the game was Amar’e Stoudemire playing minutes. Substantial minutes. He played 25 minutes on Monday, scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds along with a block. His improvement is slowly and surely becoming evident as he tries to regain his from his All Star days.

On the opposite side of things, Iman Shumpert was completely lost. He finished with absolutely nothing besides 1 steal, 3 fouls, and 2 turnovers in 23 minutes. He may be affected by the trade rumors, but his trade value is declining rapidly from game to game as his performance and playing time are both slipping.

 

With Shumpert struggling, things are difficult on the court and off the court for the Knicks.

With Brooklyn (4-10) defeated the Toronto Raptors (6-8) which moves the Knicks to 5^th place in the Atlantic Division and 14^th in the Eastern Conference, only ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks (2-11), who happen to be one of New York’s three wins this season. At this point last season, they were leading the East and the Atlantic Division.

It doesn’t look like the turn around that the Knicks are looking for will appear on this road trip, and the road looks rocky ahead. They went winless at home for the month of November and this was supposed to be one of the lighter parts of their schedule.  They play the Clippers (10-5) in LA on Wednesday night at 10:30 PM ET on MSG Network. Make sure you tune in to see if the Knicks can pull off the upset.