NBA: Portland Trailblazers beat the New York Knicks at home
Portland Trailblazers handed the New York Knicks their sixth straight loss beating them 102-91 Monday night at the Moda center. Their winning streak now stands at 11 which is tied fourth in franchise history trailing only to 16 in 1991, 13 in 2007 and 12 in 2002.
LaMarcus Aldridge delivered his usual performance of a double double with his 7th this season scoring 18 points and recording 14 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony was huge for the Knicks with 34 points and 15 rebounds joining Aldridge at 7 double doubles for the season.
Let’s break this one down with 5 talking points of this contest:
Iman Shumpert played the worst game of his career:
Iman Shumpert
It is possible that he may record worse than -22 in his career ahead but so far it’s the worst plus-minus ever recorded by him.
The only categories his performance did not recorded a zero were absolutely no help to his team. One steal, 3 fouls and 2 turnovers were all he recorded on the stat sheet this game and we all know helpful a turnover and committing fouls are to the team. No wonder he was a minus 22.
It would be a possibility that the trade rumors are bothering him, well if the Knicks are going ahead with the trade knowing his value in the market they would hope any teams looking to land him did not watch this game because to his performance even words terrible and pathetic would be understatement.
Knicks did not help on defense:
Tyson Chandler s injury has left a huge hole in the Knicks defense
For a team in the midst of a 5 game losing streak, effort is the last thing as a head coach you would want to see lacking in your team on defense. But the Knicks defense in the first half was disappointing. Their D did improve in the second half but the absence of Tyson Chandler is certainly not helping their cause on defense.
Damian Lillard had a few easy uncontested slams and open layups in the first half and Aldridge had no difficulty throwing it out to open teammates when doubled in the post. Their double teams had no effect as all it did was give a good outside team such as Trailblazers an opportunity to kill them from long range.
Attitude of the Knicks needs to change:
There needs to be an attitude change made by the coaching staff led by Mike Woodson in the locker room.
You want the players to have the right attitude going to each game, very clearly J.R. Smith doesn’t agree. He crossed a line in a post-game interview “When you lose six in a row, you keep talking about effort. You can’t coach effort, you can’t teach effort — that’s just the game. If we don’t come out and play hard, we’re going to keep losing. If we keep losing, you know, make moves.”
The focus of the players needs to stay on the court rather than give hints to the front office in post-game interview. Their six game losing streak has been enough for the New York tabloids to talk about, you do not want the tabloids to have any hint of the players being unhappy, if they actually aren’t that is or a possible rift between the management and the players.
Great All-Round performance by Nicolas Batum:
Nicolas Batum
Nicolas Batum did nothing wrong Monday night against the Knicks. Coach would be more than satisfied with Batum’s contribution. On an efficient night of 8-12 shooting from the field and 3-5 from distance, he filled his stat sheet with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists along with a block shot and a lone turnover.
He got to the free throw line 5 times and shot 80% from the charity stripe. He passed the orange well to cutting teammates to help the Blazers in an offensive outburst in the first quarter where they outscored the Knicks 34-18.
His performance alongside the duo of Aldridge and Lillard has been a huge factor in the Blazers winning streak. Along the course of the streak he even registered his first career triple double of the season against the San Antonio Spurs on a last shot attempt.
Outstanding ball movement and defense by the Trailblazers:
Portland Trailblazers
“One of the things I’ve been concerned about was how we started games, especially defensively. I was really pleased with the way we set the tone in the first quarter, particularly at the defensive end, and maintained that throughout the first half.” - Portland Trailblazers head coach Terry Stotts
During their ten game winning streak, the Trailblazers often played from behind during the start of the game and fought back to win the contest. But Monday night the Blazers came out a different team on defense to the pleasure of their coach. In this contest they never let their opponent lead and played from the front dominantly throughout.
They are a terrific outside shooting team and at the same time are a threat in the paint with Aldridge. Through good passing, backdoor cuts and a team friendly approach the Blazers were able to find a man open underneath in the basket particularly early in the game. The New York Knicks defense had no answer to their offense.
They also have excellent three point shooters in Wesley Mathews and Nicolas Batum, Lillard is not a poor shooter either. They utilize their good shooting skills by doing an excellent job of rotating the ball on the perimeter to find these players open beyond the arc.