Guards combine 78 points as the Knicks beat the Trail Blazers 99-110

The Knicks returned to the Garden yesterday at noon after splitting a couple in Chicago, and took on the Portland Trail Blazers, routing them 99-110 after a great performance by Tom Thibodeau’s guards.

The starting front court duo netted 40 points, with Elfrid Payton putting up a team-high 22 points (after scoring 20 in the second match-up against the Bulls), 7 rebounds and 4 assists and RJ Barrett sinking 18 buckets, 7 boards and 3 assists.

The bench guards connected 38 points with Alec Burks delivering 16 points to go with 8 rebounds and Immanuel Quickley dropping 12 points and 3 assists.

Both Payton and Quickley have put up a great resistance defending Damian Lillard, who returned to action after missing the Sixers game with an injury. In spite of that, he still managed to score a game high 29 points and 9 dimes but shot just 0.500 from the field (including the three point attempts).

“We had to obviously take care of the problem, which is Dame. He’s the head of the snake for them. He creates most of the problems.”

– Julius Randle

Julius Randle had his double-double noon with 22 points and 11 rebounds, logging 39 minutes.

The game had six lead changes in the first half with both teams going at each other but the Knicks finished the first half with a 10-0 run that extended into the third quarter and from there, they never allowed the Trail Blazers to trail by less than 5 points.

Portland had a chance in the closing 3 and a half minutes when New York couldn’t find the way to the basket for over 3 minutes but neither did the visitors, with Lillard, Gary Trent and Robert Covington forcing and missing the three ball on and on.

Mitchell Robinson scored 6 and grabbed 10 boards and Reggie Bullock added 10 buckets to his stat sheet.

Former Knick, Enes Kanter was in double-double with 13 points, 11 boards and 4 blocks for the Trail Blazers, Robert Covington had 13 points and 10 boards and Gary Trent Jr scored 19 points.

The other former Knick, Carmelo Anthony shot 1-8 from the field and finished with just 2 points. He still needs 12 more to surpass Oscar Robertson for the 12th place on the NBA’s career scoring list.

Next-up: Knicks (11-13) will host the Heat (8-14) on Sunday, same place same time.