The Knicks get back their Hart

From the scene of a 123 - 114 win over the Blazers

After the Knicks lost to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, they flew from Arizona to Oregon for their next game, a matchup with the surging Portland Trail Blazers, in the second game of their four-game road trip. And so did I.¹ Now that the Seattle Supersonics no longer exist, Portland is the furthest Northwest the Knicks will travel this year.

As any Geologist worth their basalt will tell you, Portland and the surrounding region were shaped by massive ice-age glaciers in Montana that broke apart and caused biblical flooding of the Columbia River basin some 17,000 years ago, with water levels cresting above some mountain peaks!² Some 16,975 years later, my friend Jim Holley ³ moved across the country from New Jersey to Oregon, first to Eugene and then to Portland. Around the same time, the New Jersey Nets moved to Brooklyn and became the Brooklyn Nets, effectively abandoning the local fanbase that had supported them since 1977.⁴ ⁵

There’s an unwritten rule of sports fandom: love and root for your home team above all else. But there’s a corollary to that rule, namely that if your home team moves away or your home changes, you get to choose a new team. Understandably, Jim became a Trail Blazers fan, and, as our text history can attest, we’ve been trading barbs over our respective teams ever since.

Jim and I had a few hours before the 3:00 PM tip-off, so Jim drove us out of the city limits to the Columbia River Gorge scenic area, where we got out and hiked 6 miles along countless switchbacks and past endless waterfalls in Multnomah County, marveling at Nature’s beauty.

Once on the trail, we encountered a scenario that no New Yorker has ever been trained for — greeting every stranger in their path. At first it took real effort for me to reply to the happy hikers, but after a while I was “Good Mornin’” it with the best of them. At one point, a beautiful young Labrador-looking Dog with a golden coat came running at us on the trail, jumping over the fallen tree logs in his path, tongue hanging out of his mouth in the widest grin possible. I felt like I had been transported into a real-life dog-food commercial.

Multnomah Falls itself is one of the tallest in the nation. After an elevation gain of about 800 feet, we descended back to the base three hours after we started our hike and began preparing for the game.

Arena Experience

It was Mascot night at MODA Center⁶. Mascots from the Philadelphia 76ers, Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, and Miami Heat were at the game interacting with the crowd. The Knicks and Heat are bitter rivals. At one point, the Heat mascot saw me in my Knicks gear and gave me the thumbs-down sign.⁷

Seating Chart

Jim went all out and landed us two seats in the lower bowl, section 110, row J, almost directly across the court from the Knicks bench. For the second game in a row, I found myself in the best seats I’ve ever had. We were so close to the action that during shootaround, several Knicks, including Landry Shamet and Josh Hart, could hear me encouraging them. At one point, the lovely and talented Knicks beat reporter Monica McNutt passed by our row, and we even exchanged pleasantries!⁸

Game Night

The Knicks came into this game losers of five of their last six, while Portland entered the game on a five-game winning streak. The Trail Blazers held a 70-55 all-time record against the Knicks prior to tip-off, but the Knicks had emerged victorious in the last five of those matchups.⁹

Game Notes

Josh Hart was reactivated before the game and returned to the starting lineup. He wasted no time making Knicks Coach Mike Brown confident in that decision as he sank two three pointers, one from the top of the arc, and one from the elbow, notching 8 points in the first four minutes of play.

The Knicks built a 28-21 lead on an alley oop from OG Anunoby to Mitchell Robinson with under 5 minutes to go in the first, but the Blazers roared back to take a 30-28 lead with a minute and change left in the quarter.

From then on, until just over two minutes remained in the half, the teams traded baskets and the lead fifteen times, and neither team held a lead larger than four points at any point during that stretch. The Knicks led the Blazers 65-60 at the half.

After a second period in which neither team could stop the other, with every basket for one team matched by the other on the very next possession, the third period was a period of streakiness. The Knicks started hot, taking a 10-point lead, 72-62. The Blazers responded by cutting the lead to three, closing to 77-74. The Knicks then went on an 11-4 run to go up by 10 again, 88-78, with 2 minutes left in the quarter. Portland closed the quarter with a 7-2 run of their own, and the Knicks' five-point lead at the half became their five-point lead after three, 90-85.

A Robert Williams dunk tied the game at 92 for the Blazers, and the crowd grew loud, chanting ‘DEFENSE’ at the top of their lungs. That’s when I got a text from my friend Adam, watching the game back east, telling me that the Knicks announcers, Steve Novak and Mike Breen, were commenting on how loud the crowd was. Deuce McBride missed a three-point shot for the Knicks, and on the ensuing Blazers possession, Deni Advidja gave Portland the lead for the first time since the first half, 95-92, with a driving shot where he was fouled by Hart and made the free throw. At this point, Mike Brown substituted a frustrated Karl Anthony-Towns out, and he sat on the bench for the last 9:24 of the game.

The Knicks would retake the lead, 99-97, and hold it until Shaeden Sharpe gave the Blazers a 104-103 lead with 5:24 left in the game. Less than a minute later, after an exchange of missed shots and turnovers for each team, OG made a three-pointer for the Knicks. OG then stole a pass from Deni Avdija and passed it to McBride, who was running to the right elbow and sank the three-pointer. Just like that, in the span of 25 seconds, the Knicks went from down by one point to up by five. That would prove to be the momentum shift that defined the outcome of the contest. On the Blazers’ next possession, Toumani Camara drove to the basket for a layup, but Mitchell Robinson lay in wait, swatting the shot, leading to another three-pointer from OG Anunoby to put the Knicks up by eight points, a lead that would swell to nine before the game was done. The Blazers’ Deni Avdija walked off the court with just under two minutes to play, apparently due to a back issue.

The Knicks won the game, 123-114, but the final score wasn’t indicative of how close this game was. The two teams traded the lead nineteen times, but Mitchell Robinson’s defense in the fourth quarter was arguably the difference in this game. Coincidentally, Karl-Anthony Towns was pulled from the fourth quarter for Mitchell Robinson and never checked back in.

There was no injury to Towns preventing him from checking back in; Mike Brown simply couldn’t afford to take Robinson and his defensive presence out of the game. Maybe it’s because the Knicks had allowed 110+ points in their last 15 games, and Brown concluded he needed a stronger deterrent on the floor. Or maybe it’s because despite scoring 20 points and hauling down 11 rebounds in just 28 minutes, Towns was the only starter with a negative plus/minus, and Brown had seen enough. Whatever prompted the change, it bears watching if Brown will continue to close games with Robinson on the floor.

Road Warriors

Mikal Bridges - With the Knicks down 104-103 and 4:27 remaining in the game, Mikal sparked the comeback. He stole the ball from Caleb Love, leading to an OG three-point shot that would give the Knicks the lead for good. Bridges finished the game tied for the highest +/- on the team with Jalen Brunson and boasted an impressive stat line with 18 points, 6 rebounds (3 offensive), 6 assists, 3 steals, and one block.

Jalen Brunson - There won’t be many nights where Jalen Brunson isn’t at the top of this list, and it can get easy to become accustomed to Jalen putting up gaudy numbers. In this game, he put up 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists, but he struggled from the perimeter, making just 3 of 9 three-pointers.

OG Anunoby - OG scored 10 points of his 24 points during the decisive run that began in the last five minutes of the game, including the three-point shot that gave them the lead for good. OG finished with 24 points and 7 rebounds.

Road Kill

Jordan Clarkson had a bad night; it happens, but he was the rare knick without the knack on the court last night. Clarkson was 1-6 from the field in 13 minutes, notching just three points and sporting the worst plus/minus on the team.

Next up

The Knicks fly to Sacramento to take on the Sacramento Kings at 10:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, followed by a short bus ride to San Francisco to play the Golden State Warriors the following night. I feel for Jim but it feels good to get a win on the road. I still have one more day in Portland to see sunsets like this one over Mt. Hood before hitting the road again.

1. The Knicks flew direct in a private jet — and I flew economy, with a layover in Seattle.

2. Check out the Missoula floods. Google it!

3. An original New Jersey Nets fan, if you can believe it!

4. That is also the year the Trail Blazers won their last and only NBA Championship.

5. Also, the year we were both born.

6. Formerly known as “The Rose Garden”, and still referred to by that name by some Portlanders.

7. Now it’s personal.

8. Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration. McNutt walked by, and I yelled out “MONICA!” at the top of my voice. She waved back. I gotta do better next time.

9. Six in a row, now, Jim.