A big win in Portland highlights these Knicks are plenty good — and plenty deep

And with that, the grueling road trip comes to a close. After a dramatic victory in Miami, the Knicks were met with a tumultuous 10 days in which they had to play six games, five on the road and four against playoff teams. And yet, despite playing 11 of 12 halves without Jalen Brunson (as well as a couple overtimes in Boston), the Knicks ended the trip with a convincing 123-107 victory in Portland that saw them claw their way to .500 for this mini-stretch. How meaningful was this win? What does it mean for the team and Brunson’s looming return? It’s 2 a.m. and, due to a bad snowstorm causing a power outage, I am writing this from my phone. So without further ado, let’s dive in.

Never Never Never Quit 

I’ll be blunt: for a little while it didn’t seem as if it would end up this way. The Knicks didn’t score their first points until inside the eight-minute mark of the first quarter. In today’s NBA, falling behind double digits isn’t exactly doomsday, but this very much appeared to be a team running on the fumes of its fumes’ fumes. But then something funny happened: the team embodied its head coach and fought back.

Slowly but surely the Knicks, who made a bet that banked on containing superstar Damian Lillard just enough (38 points), chipped away. 23-8 became 36-28. Unsurprisingly, the early momentum they built to dig themselves out of the hole came courtesy of the bench unit. It’s almost become tiring to talk about Josh Hart doing Josh Hart things, but his never-ending impact insists on it. After tonight’s win, the Knicks are now +149 in Hart’s minutes in just 14 games. Yes, the Knicks are blitzing opponents by an average of double digits per game when Hart is on the floor. 

Joining Hart off the bench is fellow net-rating god Deuce McBride. McBride highlights perhaps the Knicks’ biggest strength: they are loaded with capable NBA players. As anyone who watched this game saw, McBride has no business being a situational player. 18 points on eight shots, including four huge threes, and he was the teams best defender on Lillard. By halftime the Knicks had clawed back within six, and the best was yet to come.

Taking Care of Business

In a league with parity, very few wins come easily. Almost any team can win or lose on any given night. The Knicks, oddly, have been an exception to this rule, for the most part winning the games they’re supposed to. So it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise when they took the wheel in the second half and never looked back. Led by Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, the starters blitzed the Blazers. Amidst a stretch of games that will be defined by grindage and survival, this was a quarter of executional dominance.

The Knicks came out of the locker room looking to push at every opportunity. They combined this inspired energy with unparalleled levels of efficiency. When the players weren’t moving the ball was, hopping around the perimeter as if it had a mind of its own, determined to get the Knicks the best shot possible. After scoring just 49 in the first half, the Knicks scored 42 in the third and found themselves up 10.

Full Circle

As Rust Cohle once said, “Time is a flat circle.” The Blazers countered the Knicks’ bench with four starters and Cam Reddish. This could have been one of those quarters that saw Thibodeau panic and rush his starters back in the game. We saw it happen last season in this same arena, a game that saw the Knicks blow a 20-point lead. Instead, the bench unit finished as it started.

Spurred on once again by McBride and Hart, the reserves extended the lead to as many as 17. This was a remarkably fitting way to finish this game. In the same way the Knicks have given Brunson a reprieve and a chance to heal his injured foot, the bench unit gave Thibodeau a chance to give Quickley and Julius Randle some rest. Which is why I’m not overly worried about Brunson returning Saturday.

Do I want to see him back on the court? Absolutely. The best version of this team has him leading the charge. But these are not the 2018 Cavaliers. This is a deep team that can compete in the short-term without him. The most important thing is getting Brunson healthy. The playoffs are about peaking at the right time. As the road team stepped off the court with the scoreboard reading “Knicks 123, Blazers 107,” I couldn’t help but think the Knicks are headed towards just that.