Well, they did it again!  They blew another one.  After playing a really solid 1st quarter, the New York Knicks found themselves with an 8 point lead.  At one point in the 2nd quarter they were up 13 (41-28).  The New York Knicks, like I’ve been saying all season, don’t have that killer instinct that you need to close out games.  I know I know it was only the 2nd quarter, but if they keep the pressure on the Trailblazers and sustain their lead going into halftime this game would have played out very differently.  Over a span of 2 minutes and 43 seconds at the end of the first half, the Knicks went from up 10 points to down 3 points.  It’s amazing how a team can play so well for 21+ minutes and in a blink of an eye watch all of their hard work wash away.  It’s almost like high tide coming up the beach, you know it’s coming there’s just nothing you can do about it.  If there was any doubt that the Knicks were going to lose this game when they went to halftime, they erased all doubt with their lackluster 3rd quarter.  The came out of the locker room as flat as they went in and they found themselves down 16 points at the end of the 3rd quarter.  The New York Knicks lost to the Portland Trailblazers by a score of 105-90.

I could write for days and days and days about the Knicks problems and why they are playing so poorly, but I’ll try to keep it simple.  The Knicks don’t play any defense.  I’m not going to sit here and make excuses about their injuries because they don’t play defense when their entire roster is 100% either.  They play defense for 8 minute stretches, but they don’t consistently shut teams down for 48 minutes.  They also are a jump shooting team that relies heavily on the 3-pointer.  When that is your teams strategy you go through ups and downs.  Right now they are clearly trending down.  On the Trailblazers side of things, they may not make any noise in the league this year, but they have a good young team with a lot of potential for years to come.  Damian Lillard is really really good (enough said).  If you don’t know who he is, he is going to be hoisting the Rookie of the Year trophy at the end of the year.  Let me get back to the hopeless Knicks.

The Knicks have played 3 out of 5 games on this tough road trip.  They must be more homesick than a child going to sleepaway summer camp for the first time.  Their road trip is not going to get an easier either.  They will have to head over to Los Angeles next to play the Clippers, and then they’ll finish up this dreadful road trip against the Utah Jazz (good, at least they’ll win 1 game on this road trip).  Side note:  what’s the deal with fans booing former players for literally no reason?  Last night the Trailblazers’ fans made it very clear how they felt about Raymond Felton.  However, just like Carmelo Anthony’s return to Denver, this unruly behavior was uncalled for.  Fans are not smart.  They boo players just because they used to play for “their” team, and now they don’t play there anymore.  They don’t have a valid reason to boo said player, they just do it because, well it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.  Well, once again these uninformed fans are 100% in the wrong to boo Raymond Felton.  Let me just state that I’m not defending these players just because they are on the Knicks, I would feel this way about any player that was treated this way.  Anyway, if you want to boo someone because they played poorly that’s fine but do it while they are on the team.  If someone plays that poorly for your team, you should be relieved that they were traded, no?  Plus, he was TRADED.  He didn’t leave under his own power because he wanted out of Portland.  I think fans should reserve booing for the players who actually caused problems or drama when they were part of your favorite team.  Other than that, get over it.

Like I said earlier you can find the Knicks in action again this coming Sunday at 3:30 P.M. against the Clippers.  They are going to need a miracle if they plan on winning that game.  They will be without Carmelo Anthony once again after having his knee drained Thursday.  Tyson Chandler’s status will also be in question come Sunday.  For the Knicks sake I hope Chandler is ready to go because if he’s not you can expect Blake Griffin and lob city to fill the top ten on SportsCenter come Monday morning.

If you enjoy my writing, follow me over to intheneutralzone.com where I am a contributing author there as well. Also you can follow me on twitter @DaveEttinger2 or like me on Facebook athttp://www.Facebook.com/DaveTalksSports. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!