Game Thread Game #57 - BLAZERS VS KNICKS - FEBRUARY 12, 2022 - SATURDAY - 2:00 PM (PDT) ROOT SPORTS

Postgame Notes – February 12, 2022

Portland 112, New York 103

Game #57, Home Game #32



TEAM

• The Trail Blazers fell behind by as many as 23 points with 5:22 remaining in the third quarter (56-79) before outscoring the Knicks, 56-24, the rest of the way.

• Portland outscored New York 35-11 in the fourth quarter.

• The Trail Blazers outrebounded New York, 50-41, and outscored the Knicks in the paint, 48-28.

• Portland made 17 of its 20 free throw attempts (85.0%) while the Knicks shot 29-of-34 from the stripe (85.3%).


PLAYER

• Anfernee Simons scored a game-high 30 points (11-23 FG, 6-12 3-PT, 2-3 FT) to go with five rebounds and eight assists in 37 minutes. It was the fourth time this season that he scored 30-plus points. Simons has made at least five three-pointers in three of the last four games.

• In his Trail Blazers debut, Josh Hart recorded 23 points (7-12 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 6-8 FT), one rebound and two assists. Hart is the eighth player in franchise history to score at least 23 points in his first game for Portland.

• Justise Winslow recorded 14 points (5-10 FG, 1-2 3-PT, 3-3 FT), five rebounds, six assists, one steal and one block in 37 minutes of action.

• Ben McLemore had 17 points off the bench for Portland on 6-of-12 shooting (3-9 3-PT, 2-2 FT) to go with five rebounds, two assists and one steal in 30 minutes.

• Jusuf Nurkic logged his 29th double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points (5-9 FG, 2-2 FT), 19 rebounds and six assists in 33 minutes.

• Julius Randle led the Knicks with 28 points (8-20 FG, 12-13 FT), 16 rebounds and six assists in 41 minutes.

• Quentin Grimes had 20 points (6-10 FG, 5-8 3-PT, 3-6 FT), four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 37 minutes. It was his second-highest scoring game of the season.

 

HEAD COACH TOM THIBODEAU

On the second half collapse…

“We got the big lead going into the second half but didn’t close out the third quarter. We gave the Blazers easy buckets and they gained momentum going into the fourth quarter. And then we struggled to end the game.”

On the culmination of a long road trip impacting the performance tonight…

“We’ve just got to find a way to get that win. That’s what competitiveness, toughness, and discipline are all about; that’s why all of that matters. Sometimes it’s in your favor, sometimes its’s not. Every team goes through long road trips, it’s just part of the job. We were outscored 35 to 11 in the fourth quarter. We allowed them to shoot 48 percent from the field and we were badly outrebounded. It was going to be hard to win that game.”

On the team’s toughness and poise down the stretch…

“It depends on how you define the toughness part. The toughness is being on the road a long time; maybe there is some fatigue, but you still have the ability to do all the things that are necessary, even though you may not be feeling your best but we’re counting on each other to get the job done. It’s got to be five guys tied together on offense and five guys tied together on defense. If one guy is choosing not to do what’s needed, even if it’s not going his way, then it’s going to hurt the group, so that’s why you have to keep going no matter what. And then everyone has the responsibility of protecting the basket. That’s the number one thing in defensive transition is protecting the basket first. If we don’t do that then we’re giving them easy points. If you have a big lead, the only way for them to come back is to give up easy baskets and give them open three-point shots.”

On rebounding struggles tonight…

“Our rebounding tonight was problematic. We gave the Blazers multiple chances to score. Also, the penetration in the lane hurt us. I thought the first half, our defense was pretty good and in the second half it was very poor. Mitchell [Robinson] left the game early so Taj’s [Gibson] minutes ran up and then we had to give Taj a break. Then we tried to go with Jericho and that wasn’t working so we went small before Taj came back, just trying to bide some time. But that’s not to make excuses because if we go small that means we’ve got to have everyone fighting for rebounds and going to find a body when a shot goes up, to get it done.”

 

Knicks guard Kemba Walker

On what led to the team blowing a big lead..

“I don’t know. I got to go back and watch the film. I don’t know. We just fell apart, like you said. They got momentum and never looked back.”

On what the message was from the coaching staff was…

“Pretty disappointing. Just got to pick it up, that’s really it. Just got to get better.”

On what changed in the types of shots they were taking in the fourth quarter compared to the rest of the game…

“The rhythm of the game. Obviously, they learned from their mistakes. They adjusted… Make sure we get back I guess and they stopped the way we were scoring, they adjusted.”

On if he feels like things are turning around for him scoring wise…

“I don’t know. It’s just one game. I shot it pretty well tonight, that was it. I don’t know. I just got to keep it going. Hopefully, I can continue to make some shots for this team. Try to keep it going.”

 

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS

On what he liked from the team today…

“I just like the way we hung in there, kept scrapping. You know, I thought that they were kind of having their way with us in the first half. They held up eleven second chance points. We talked about that at halftime. Six offensive rebounds and we came out and we were better there. They had two second chance points in the second half and for that team [the Knicks] that’s doing pretty good for us. And I think three offensive rebounds in the second half so I was happy about that. I really was. We just kept scrapping man, kept scrapping. Obviously Ant [Anfernee Simons] played well, I thought Josh [Josh Hart] was really good. I thought Justise [Justise Winslow] was really good. Nurk [Jusuf Nurkic] he

was beastin down low, getting every single rebound, we went to him, he made great passes out of post when they doubled, and they [the Knicks] fronted him. Ben [Ben McLemore] obviously, Ben just being Ben so, so many good efforts from so many guys.”

On Josh Hart’s debut…

“I’m just happy that I knew what I had. I knew what I was getting. I told you, he’s just tough and he’s just a basketball player. He’s my type of dude so I was happy to see him play well. He’s so good getting downhill. Like when he gets a rebound, which he didn’t rebound a ton tonight because there wasn’t many out there because Nurk was gobbling them up, but when he gets a rebound or even when he gets a kick-ahead there’s not much you can do to stop it. He’s really crafty, step-through’s and he finishes at the basket. He did that a few times. He makes shots, he gets fouled by the way of how hard he’s playing. I thought he had a really good day.”

On Anfernee Simons’ growth…

“Yeah, that's what this is all about. You know, this time for Ant it was figuring out—you know this was a tough team to play against. I mean, Thibodeau’s [Tom Thibodeau] team they were so, so physical. They make you really, really go into physicality mode and I thought Ant did a good job at adjusting to that. I thought all game he was pretty good to be honest with you but late in the game, we started running a little higher pick and rolls, they started switching some, trapped a little bit. I thought he made really good decisions when he didn’t have an advantage of getting off of it quickly. And then the next guy, Nurk or whoever it was had to make the decision. But I thought Ant was poised the entire night.”

On what he wants to take away from today’s game…

“Again, I just loved how hard we played. There was so much life out there. I mean, the fans were great. Even when we were down, we still played the right way, nobody got impatient, nobody forced anything. It was like okay, cool. Now we just chip away. And then we start chipping away and this building does what it does and it was very electric out there and that just gave us so much life to try and get over the hump. So I like everything about it. I like everything about how we played and it was fun. It was fun to be able to coach that.”

 

ANFERNEE SIMONS

On playing with Josh Hart…

“He’s pretty good. You can tell he’s a very smart player, knows what he can do best and gets out there and plays hard. Instantly, we can tell that there’s already a connection. On the defensive end he’s constantly communicating with us, and it can only get better from here.”

“He knows where to be. Obviously, he’s been in multiple situations, so he knows how to adapt to a new situation. He can shoot the ball, drive the ball, pass the ball, defend at a high level. You always need somebody like that on the team where they can do multiple things very well, so I’d say all and all, he’s a good player.”

On coming up in the fourth quarter and taking control…

“I think now the past two games I’ve been able to figure it out and be able to set the team up for big runs on the offensive end. Everybody else as a team did a great job getting stops in the third and fourth quarter to get us back in it and eventually win the game.”

On Simons’ response to the Knicks being so physical…

“I wouldn’t say, like, gaining 20 pounds. I think I been fine just handling the physicality and getting used to it. That’s one of the biggest things about playing all these minutes is getting used to the physicality each and every night. But other than that, I’ve been handling each and every game pretty well and just getting used to people trying to bump me and stuff like that.”

On not defending his dunk contest win this year at the All-Star game…

“It’s like a checklist—it was like, ‘Ok I won the dunk contest…what’s next?’”

 

JOSH HART

On his first game at Moda Center…

“It was exciting, entertaining. I wish it was a little less entertaining in that we didn’t get down 20, but it was fun, man. The team played great—they showed a lot of fight and Moda was rocking so it was a fun Game 1. We got to keep building.”

On how he will help the team…

“Just go out there and lead vocally and by example, give my all on both ends of the court. Energy—having attention to detail. I was talking to these young guys about certain things that I see out there and things that could help them on both sides of the court, you know, little tricks. That’s the biggest thing for me and I think that’s what Chauncey [Billups] and Joe [Cronin] were looking for me to do. I’m excited.”

On holding Knicks to 11 in the 4th quarter…

“That was news to me, sheesh. I think we did a great job in terms of our rotations, a great job of not fouling. Leading up to that, you see what they had: the first quarter was good; we had 30 points in the second and 39, almost 40, in the third. We put them on the line a lot, so I think we were a little more disciplined not fouling; and then on rotations we were real able to close out the shooters and make them shoot tougher shots than what they were doing. I think that’s what we did and it kind of pressured them a little bit. After that we were playing fast, running on stops and having fun.”