Two weeks after the Knicks failed to complete a stirring comeback in Portland — largely because they couldn’t stop Damian Lillard — they more than held their own in the point-guard battle against the Trail Blazers to post their second straight victory.
Elfrid Payton netted 22 points in his second strong performance in a row, rookie backup Immanuel Quickley kicked in 12 points in 13 minutes off the bench and both were active defensively against Lillard as the Knicks held off the Blazers for a 110-99 win Saturday at the Garden.
“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 said after the Knicks improved to 11-13, the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference. “We just tried to show him as many bodies as we could.”
Randle finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, RJ Barrett scored 18 and Alec Burks nailed four 3-pointers for 16 points off the bench for the Knicks, who next will play a home-and-home set against the Heat on Sunday afternoon at the Garden and Tuesday night in Miami.
The Knicks didn’t notch their 11th win last season until their 40th game and didn’t secure their 12th until their 44th contest.
“I don’t want us to feel too good about where we are, because right now there’s a long way to go,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I want us to feel good about the way we’re approaching things. I know if we practice well and we concentrate on our improvement and get ready for our next opponent then we’ll have a good chance to win.
“But in this league, the one thing I do know is as soon as you start feeling too good about yourself that’s usually when you get knocked down.”
Lillard was back in the Blazers’ lineup after missing Thursday’s game against the 76ers with an abdominal injury. He finished with 29 points — 10 fewer than he managed against the Knicks on Jan. 24 in Portland.
“Dame is such a great player. We just tried to get the ball out off his hands as much as possible,” Barrett said. “[Mitchell Robinson] did a great job of trapping and EP [Payton] did a great job of chasing him around.”
Quickley had poured in a career-high 31 points in 24 minutes in the previous meeting, but Payton played the entire first quarter Saturday after notching 20 points in Wednesday’s win in Chicago.
Barrett, who finished with a team-best 12 points in the opening half, and Payton connected from long distance as the Knicks closed out the second quarter on a 16-5 spurt to carry a 57-51 advantage into intermission.
Buckets by Barrett and Payton again to open the third extended the Knicks’ cushion to 10. Then Randle twice responded to 3-pointers from Rodney Hood and Lillard with jumpers from beyond the arc for a 67-57 game barely three minutes into the third. Payton finished the quarter with 10 for an 84-76 lead, and Portland never got closer than five thereafter.
The Knicks finished the game with a 50-28 advantage on points in the paint and 51-41 on the boards as Portland (12-10) was held below 100 points for only the second time this season.
“Did you see how hard they [were] trapping me? I’m a player that’s in attack mode. And I was attacking pretty much two or three people,” Lillard said of the Knicks’ defense. “They set screens higher. They had the bigs up. Thibs is yelling at them, ‘Get ’em, get ’em, get ’em.’
“I’m sure that was part of the game plan to make me work and send guys at me and levels and layers of help. And that’s tiring.”
Payton added that Thibodeau has made “a huge difference” this season in that regard, particularly stressing a team-wide Knicks’ defensive tenacity.
“He continues to challenge us every day,” Payton said. “He’s always on us. He almost demands perfection. We don’t always get there, but we get close. And we’ve been able to carve out a few wins.”