PORTLAND, Ore. _ James Dolan said on Monday the New York Knicks aren't tanking. Imagine if they were.
The Knicks fell to 10-30 on Monday night with a 111-101 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.
The Knicks, who snapped an eight-game losing streak in their previous contest Friday against the Lakers in Los Angeles, have dropped 14 of their last 16. The halfway point of the season comes against the defending NBA champion Warriors at Golden State on Tuesday.
Enes Kanter led the Knicks with 18 points and 14 rebounds off the bench. Emmanuel Mudiay scored 17 and former Blazer Noah Vonleh added 16.
Portland (24-17) was paced by Jusuf Nurkic's 20 points. CJ MCCollum and Damian Lillard each scored 17 apiece.
Dolan made his "no tanking" comments in Las Vegas, where he watched a New York Rangers practice before that MSG tenant takes on the Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
Dolan was asked about all the losing that is going on at the Garden (the Rangers are 17-17-7 and have lost three in a row by a combined score of 18-3). His answer included a hopeful portion about Knicks forward Kevin Knox, who was recently named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for December.
"Well, you know, nobody likes to lose," Dolan said. "But I look at it _ I just want to know we're getting better, that's all. I just want to know we're playing better. When we play a game where it doesn't look like we're getting better, that's when it bothers me. But, overall, you're going to have those. During an 80-plus-game season, you're going to have dips and stuff like that. This (with the Rangers) is one of them.
"The key is you just want to know your team's getting better. You want to know that the player's executing better. You want to know that he's developing something. With kids, it's all about the development. And we got a kid, one of our stars, the Knicks, the kid called Kevin Knox _ he doesn't turn 20 until (August). That's young. So, you can't look at Kevin Knox and say, 'That's the player he's going to be.' It's totally not the case. Kevin Knox could be a really great player. It depends on how well he's developed and how much effort and what his level of concentration is, etc. And that's what our guys work on."
Knox, beset by early foul woes on Monday, finished with eight points in 22 minutes.
The Knicks struggled early in each half. They didn't score their first points of the game until Knox hit a pair of free throws with 8:50 left in the first quarter with the Knicks trailing 8-0. Their first basket came on Luke Kornet's leaner 1:02 later.
Still, the Knicks rallied to take the lead and ended the first quarter tied at 30. They led for most of the second quarter but the Blazers took a 54-53 lead into halftime and scored the first nine points of the third quarter to take their first double-digit lead at 63-53.
Portland went up by as much as 18 in the third quarter and took an 86-76 lead to the fourth. The Knicks got no closer than 10 down in the final quarter.
