NEW YORK _ David Fizdale reached into the hat and pulled out another starting lineup Tuesday night, his sixth different one in 18 games. And if the lineup juggling act might have an air of mystery, the results do not.
While the new lineup performed well by the standards of their predecessors, as the game wore on so did the reality that the new lineup was much like the old ones. The Knicks led for a half, but eventually were worn down for their sixth straight loss, this one to the Western Conference-leading Portland Trail Blazers, 118-114.
Fizdale pulled the plug on the experiment of starting three rookies, replacing them with Enes Kanter, Noah Vonleh and Mario Hezonja. When he started the rookies the last two games, he admitted it was an effort to advance the learning curve on the rookies, which he considered more important than winning right now.
"It all goes hand in hand," Fizdale said. "Every game we play to win. There's never a time we step out on the court not to win the game. These guys are putting their heart and soul in this. Me and staff are putting our heart and soul in winning every game and preparing for every game.
"But you have to learn through that. It doesn't always come from everything being good and rosy. You get smacked away and go through your lumps and try to teach through that. We've got a young group. That's the bottom line. They have to learn from some suffering."
But no combination of players on the Knicks' roster, rookies or veterans, could contain the explosive Blazers backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. The Knicks led 35-33 after a quarter and 60-58 at halftime, which was a step forward. But Lillard and McCollum totaled 33 points in that first half, which was an ominous sign. McCollum finished with 31 points and Lillard added 29. Tim Hardaway Jr. led all scorers with 32 points.
The Knicks started defensive-minded guards Frank Ntilikina and Damyean Dotson together earlier this season, but went with Emmanuel Mudiay and Hardaway in the backcourt.
"This is something he has to go through," Fizdale said of starting Mudiay against Lillard, who came in averaging 26.6 points per game. "I don't want to just hunt for that, you know what I mean? I've got to put these guys through some stuff so they can learn and grow from it and not just say, 'Oh, he's not good at that right now. This isn't necessarily his strength right now. So let's keep him away from that.' I don't think that's player development.
"You've got to go through getting beat up and learning and doing again and doing it again. Over that time you grow. The suffering part is tough. If you don't do it well, you lose. That's part of it. We're going to just keep growing from the experiences."
Leading by one, the Knicks ran off seven straight points early in the second half, capped by a Kanter 3-pointer for a 70-62 lead. When Mudiay hit a 3-pointer to up the lead to 75-65, the Knicks were leaping off the bench.
But by the time the fourth quarter began, the Blazers had pushed ahead 89-85. After trailing by 11 the Knicks continued to push, cutting the deficit to 104-101 on a Trey Burke 3-pointer. They had a chance to cut it to one, but Vonleh missed two free throws.
With the Blazers up 109-107 with 2:16 left, Hardaway was called for a foul as Lillard attempted a 3-pointer. He made two and the Knicks were down four again. Hardaway made amends with a layup to pull it within two again, but McCollum converted a 3-pointer. This time Hardaway was given three free throws when Evan Turner was called for a foul with 1:43 to play.
Vonleh had another chance to tie it with 1:04 left, but missed both free throws again. Lillard drilled a jumper over Burke with 44 seconds left, and the Blazers were up 116-112. After Hardaway hit a pair from the line, Turner followed a Lillard miss with nine seconds left, pushing the lead to four again and sealing it.
