New York was defeated by Portland, 118-114, tonight to fall to 4-14 on the 2018-19 season. Tim Hardaway Jr. posted 32 on 10-21 shooting, five rebounds and four assists over 37 minutes. This was his sixth 30-point performance of the season. Hardaway entered the season with seven career 30-point performances. This is Hardaway Jr.s third consecutive 30-point performance. He is the first Knick to post three consecutive 30-point performances since Kristaps Porzingis on 10/27-10/31/17- three straight. Noah Vonleh posted 14 points and a team best 14 rebounds over 37 minutes for his fifth double-double of the season. The 14 rebounds are a season best for Vonleh. The five double-doubles are a career best for Vonleh (previous four double-doubles) Trey Burke posted 19 points on 8-15 shooting, three rebounds and three assists over 26 minutes off the bench. Over the last three games, Burke is averaging 24.7 points on 60.4-percent shooting, 2.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists. New York has scored at least 100-points in 14 of the 18 games this season. New York travels to Boston for a matchup with the Celtics on Nov. 21, 2018.
Madison Square Garden New York Knickerbockers vs. Portland Trail Blazers November 20, 2018 Head Coach Terry Stotts On tonight’s game: “I thought the Knicks played a really good game. They played hard, they made a lot of good shots, very competitive. I don’t think their record shows how well they were playing. I was proud of our guys, getting down in the third quarter, getting down ten. Showed some resilience. We were able to seal the win. Evan’s (Turner) tip at the end was big time. They defended Damian (Lillard) well on the shot. It was a hell of a play, especially with the bodies that were down there.” On fourth quarter approach: “I like our mindset, I think we’re playing with confidence. It helps when you have good players. Dame (Damian Lillard), CJ (McCollum) and Nurk (Jusuf Nurkic) are usually closing along with Farouq (Al-Farouq Aminu). We have a lot of good players. Evan (Turner) playing a long those guys in the starting line up has been a solid lineup for us, that is usually our finishing lineup. In other games, especially earlier in the season, we’ve finished the game with different guys and they made plays too.”
Madison Square Garden New York Knickerbockers vs. Portland Trailblazers November 20th, 2018 CJ McCollum On tonight’s game: “We won. That’s the biggest thing right now. No one is going to look back and say ‘oh you only beat this team by two or three.’ We just have to get wins by any means necessary, especially on the road. Now we have to turn our attention to the (Milwaukee) Bucks.” More on tonight’s game: “The pick-and-roll was working for us. We were able to get into the lane and penetrate. Guys were setting great screens for us and once the lane opened up we had some time to kick it out. Guys were knocking down shots and taking advantage of the spacing.” Damian Lillard On tonight’s game “We had to grind it out. They came out and played hard and made us earn it. They (Knicks) competed, made shots, attacked, and played a good game. It was up to us to just be poised and weather the storm. We did a lot of things we needed to do to win the game. It’s tough to win games on the road in the NBA and we got another one.” More on tonight’s game: “In the first half, they were just making shots. We were scoring too, so I think we played a comfortable game. At halftime we addressed the things that we wanted to do better defensively. We talked about it in the huddle before the third quarter started that we would come out and establish ourselves on the defensive end. It was like the first team that was going to come out and put some stops together was going to get the win.”
Head Coach David Fizdale On tonight’s game: “I really loved the way that we competed. We’re talking about a top team in the West, a team that’s gone through a lot of wars, and I was really proud of the way that our guys competed. I was just trying to find anybody that could get over the screens and face those guys. They’re elite.” More on tonight’s game: “We had a lot of improvement tonight. I thought defensively we took a step forward tonight. They’re one of the top two or three back courts in the NBA. They do that to a lot of people. The way we competed, I thought overall we didn’t have a lot of system mistakes.”
Trey Burke On tonight’s game: “We just have to continue to fight. In 24 hours we have another game. It’s not like we can forget it about it. We lost, but I think our fight was much better tonight. It came down to the last possession but if you ask me the last possession wasn’t the determining factor. It was the last five or seven minutes like we’ve been talking about. We have to figure out a way to get big stops. I think we got one or two stops but we need consecutive stops in that time. Right now we can’t figure out a way to get three to five stops which will allow us to win games.” More on tonight’s game: “It’s another learning experience. A learned lesson. Tomorrow if we fight that same way I believe that we can get a win.” On the team finishing games: “Finishing is the number one priority right now. We’re playing teams right down to the wire right now and we’re coming up short. I think that’s been the ongoing story all year. I think the biggest thing is to continue to put our heads together collectively and not point fingers or make excuses but to own it. Right now we’re in the storm but we have to understand that there is beauty in the storm and we have to figure out how to get out of it. I believe with the group we have that we will.” Enes Kanter On tonight’s game: “Obviously, if you look at Portland, they have the best record in the West. I think we are right there, we just need to go out there and play our best.” On moving forward: “Just stick together. I have been through a lot of losing streaks. The most important thing you need to do is we just cannot fall apart. We have to stick together and just go out there and just keep fighting, don’t make any excuses.” Tim Hardaway, Jr. On today’s game: “At the end of the day we’re taking the L home. It’s part of the game, it’s part of the process, it’s part of becoming a great team in this league, so we have to take this one to the chin and move on to Boston tomorrow.” On the team’s performance: “It was good to have our small group out there being able to match with up their quickness, match up with their pace on the offensive end, and we were able to also switch if emergency was the case, but we didn’t have to, we were fine over screens and making sure that we didn’t give them that much room on the floor unless they had a ball to screen other than that I think it worked.”
