The Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks played an amazing game at the Moda Center on Wednesday evening. The Knicks came into the contest with a reputation for being one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, with wings to burn and an All-Star center. Portland matched them position for position, blow for blow. It was a great example of two squads with grit and heart refusing to let go of a contested victory.
When the tug-o-war was over, the Knicks ended up winning 114-113 in overtime. Honestly, you couldn’t ask much more from Portland. New York will not forget this game anytime soon. Neither will anyone across the league watching.
Blazer of the Game
Shaedon Sharpe and Deni Avdija made strong bids, but this was Scoot Henderson’s announcement to the rest of the league that he’s ready to be taken seriously. Scoot scored 8 points in the final minute of regulation, keeping Portland alive and matching the combined output of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, both of whom were trying to win the game for New York. Henderson also scored the first layup of overtime. He’d finish with 30 points on 10-16 shooting, 4 of 4 triples made.
Stat of the Night
Turnovers. The Blazers would have had a much easier time if they hadn’t committed so many. Avdija, in an otherwise superlative game, committed 7. The Blazers as a whole gave up 25 turnovers and 31 points after.
What We’ll Remember
Scoot Henderson had a BEAUTIFUL series of moves in the lane with 9:00 remaining in the fourth quarter, He drove the key and found only Towns opposing him. Still, Towns is large compared to Scoot. Near the rim it’s not really a fair fight. But Henderson made like Bugs Bunny, literally running 360-degree circles around Towns, who looked like nothing so much as Elmer Freakin’ Fudd. Towns spun in place a couple times, stumbled sideways, and Scoot converted a perfectly clean, unguarded layup. It was cartoonish, Henderson at his best. That it was also high comedy made the whole thing even better.
That’s in addition to Henderson’s heroics with the game on the line. Wowzers.
Bridges’ game-winning three in overtime comes a close second, but let’s give a Blazer credit where deserved.
Up Next
The Blazers have a few days off before facing the Toronto Raptors on Sunday with a 3:00 PM, Pacific start.
