----- Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle combine for 44 points as the New York Knicks hammer the Portland Trail Blazers 117-93 Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
2020 feels just like 2019!
The Portland Trail Blazers poor play at the end of 2019 continued on New Year's Day with a disturbing 117-93 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Second-year center Mitchell Robinson matched his career-high with 22 points off the bench on an impressive 11-of-11 shooting.
Julius Randle added 22 points and 13 rebounds as the Knicks outscored the Blazers 54-32 in the paint. New York won the rebounding battle 55-47 and second chance points 17-11.
When the Knicks weren't pounding the Blazers inside, they found multiple guys to knockdown threes. Randle connected on 3-of-6 from three-point range, Bobby Portis went 3-of-4, and Reggie Bullock 3-of-5.
Carmelo Anthony led Portland (14-21) with 26 points. He connected on 11 of his 17 shots and pulled down seven rebounds. Knicks fans changed "We Want Melo!" as time winded down in the fourth quarter.
Damian Lillard finished two assists shy of his first career triple-double but scored just 11 points on 5-of-20 shooting.
The Trail Blazers have now dropped five-straight games.
Up Next- Portland will travel to Washington D.C. to meet the Wizards on Friday at Capital One Arena. The game is scheduled to tip off at 4:00 PM.
Chad's Take- In a season of bad losses, this one was the worst. Poor defense. Poor offense. Poor effort. Worst of all, no team concept. This loss was troubling.