Trail Blazers Lose Heartbreaker to Knicks in Overtime
A buzzer-beater by Mikal Bridges robbed Portland of a much-needed victory.
📍PORTLAND, Ore. — The Trail Blazers’ game of the year had it all—except a win.
Not one but two crunch-time kickball violations. A near NBA-record 42 lead changes. A tough and-one by Deni Avdija, getting his first shot attempt blocked, to give the Blazers a two-point lead with three seconds to go. A standing ovation for Toumani Camara as he fouled out early in overtime. If he’d been available to play, he undoubtedly would have been assigned to Mikal Bridges on the three-pointer that won the Knicks the game as time expired.
And what a showing by Scoot Henderson. He’s had better games as a distributor, but this may have been his most complete performance as a scorer. The 30 points weren’t his career high, but the caliber of defenders the Knicks have are much higher than the Brooklyn Nets that he scored 39 against in a game the Blazers lost by 18. All night, Henderson knocked down open threes and finished through contact at the rim.
Forget the play-in dream, which is still technically alive but looking less likely by the day. This is a game the Blazers would have liked to have just because they haven’t beaten a playoff-caliber team in a while and went toe-to-toe with the Knicks.
“Those ones are tough,” Chauncey Billups said. “You play good enough, you feel like you deserve to win that game.”
After Avdija put the Blazers up two in overtime, Billups wanted his team to use their foul to give in the closing seconds. He also said he wished he’d pulled Donovan Clingan for the final possession to allow the defense to switch. He kept Clingan in just in case the Blazers needed to get a rebound, even though there was so little time left on the clock that likely wouldn’t have mattered. By all admissions, the late-game execution by both players and coach was a miss, and it cost them.
“Youth—it just happens sometimes,” Billups said. “We had a foul to give at the end and we’re trying to take it but we don’t take it. Just youth. It’s part of the growing-up process.”