The Knicks have been through the gauntlet of opposing point guards during their West Coast trip.
On Sunday night, they finally succumbed and let one take over the game in a performance that even withstood a late Knicks comeback.
Damian Lillard started 8-for-8 from the field and finished with 39 points to hand the Knicks their second straight loss, 116-113, to the Trail Blazers in Portland.
Lillard’s big night created a deficit that was too tall to overcome, despite the Knicks’ furious fourth-quarter push. After trailing by as many as 25 points in the third quarter, the Knicks cut the Trail Blazers’ lead to as few as four points thanks to yet another jolt from Immanuel Quickley. The rookie point guard scored a career-high 31 points, 21 of them coming in the fourth quarter to fuel the Knicks’ comeback that ultimately fell just short.
A Quickley 3 got the Knicks within 96-91 with 7:13 left in the fourth quarter and later, he drew a foul and hit three free throws to make it 112-109 with 16.6 seconds to go. But that was as close as the Knicks would get, done in by giving up 70 points in the first half with Lillard leading the way.
In their first two games of the trip, the Knicks (8-10) had allowed 30 points to Stephen Curry and 22 to De’Aaron Fox, but neither point guard had dominated the way Lillard did Sunday night. The Trail Blazers star didn’t miss a shot until 4:36 into the third quarter, ending the night 11-for-17 from the field, 6-for-10 from beyond the arc and 11-for-11 from the free-throw line to go with eight assists and five rebounds.
The Knicks had entered the game tied for the second-best defensive rating in the NBA, but Lillard and the Trail Blazers (9-6) showed little regard for it early. They had not played since last Monday, with a pair of games postponed in between due to the Grizzlies’ COVID-19 issues, but didn’t have to spend any time knocking off the rust.
The Trail Blazers came out firing, starting 12 of 14 from the field to take a 31-18 lead less than nine minutes into the game. Lillard finished the first quarter 4-for-4 from the field himself, scoring 15 points to go with four assists as Portland took a 37-24 lead after the first 12 minutes.
Though Lillard went to the bench to start the second quarter, his teammates stayed hot without him. Gary Trent Jr. and Anfernee Simons opened with back-to-back 3-pointers and by the time Trent hit his third 3 of the quarter — at which point Portland was shooting 10 of 17 from beyond the arc — the Trail Blazers had opened up their biggest lead of the first half, 57-35.
Quickley did his best to keep the Knicks in the game, delivering 10 points and three assists while playing the entire second quarter. But the Trail Blazers still went into the half with a 70-50 lead, thanks to their 25 of 43 shooting performance from the field.
Early in the third quarter, Lillard finally missed a shot on his ninth attempt of the night. But in a sign of how things went for the Knicks on Sunday, ex-Knick Enes Kanter grabbed the rebound and Lillard scored on the possession anyway.
The Trail Blazers stretched their lead to as many as 25 points in the third quarter, but the Knicks cut it to 12 points, 89-77, heading to the fourth. Alec Burks, in his first start of the season for the injured Reggie Bullock, scored 12 of his 18 points in the third quarter to help get the Knicks back in the game.
