Portland Trail Blazers combo guard Jerryd Bayless saw his first action of the game against the New York Knicks to begin the second quarter, and took advantage of his minutes. On Portland’s second possession, he lobbed a beautiful pass near the rim, perfectly placed for a ferocious slam by power forward and now part-time center LaMarcus Aldridge. The Madison Square Garden crowd let out a “oooh” of excitement at the alley-oop; the Knicks’ fan base has a tendency to celebrate dazzling plays by the opposition. Bayless ran nonchalantly back down-court, and Aldridge pointed to him, thanking the guard for the assist.

Then it was Bayless’s turn to score. Upon receiving the ball on the Blazers next possession, he drove into the lane as if being aggressive is the only way to score. That’s the way he treats nearly every play: drive, after drive, after drive. This, the first of many powerful takes to the rim, resulted in a layup after drawing contact from New York guard Larry Hughes. Mike Rice, commenting on the layup, said, “That’s Bayless’s Christmas present…Hughes is guarding him.” He treated Hughes as the bad defender he is, but as the game went on, he drove past nearly every Knick in his attempts to get to the rim.

He fed rookie forward Dante Cunningham, who was wearing goggles to protect an injured eye, for a smooth mid-range, baseline jumper after driving into the lane and forcing the Knicks to converge. When the ball wasn’t in his hands, Portland had a difficult time scoring. The team didn’t score over the next three-minutes, a span that featured two turnovers, two misses with the shot-clock winding down, and seven-straight points by New York.

Bayless ended the offensive lull, fancily dribbling between his legs on the right wing before hoisting and swishing a silky 21-footer. He was putting on a show, but it was a one-man show. The Blazers didn’t score over the next two minutes, while the Knicks spaced the floor and took advantage of mismatches and a scrambling, disorganized defense to score five straight on two uncontested jumpers. This was a recurring theme throughout the contest. Why was the Knicks offense so fluid, and why weren’t the Blazers able to adjust defensively? Because their center, David Lee, is perimeter-oriented, which forces Portland’s lone true center, Joel Przybilla to respect the mid-range jumper. In doing so, he left the lane relatively wide-open, which then, in turn, made their guards converge onto drivers. This left their assignments, usually camped from 19-feet out, wide-open.

The lack of size and overcompensation translated into three-pointers galore for the Knicks. After Bayless hit two free-throws to cut the deficit to four, 35-31, with just less than five minutes remaining in the second period, New York answered with two consecutive three-pointers–one set up by effective passing and the other by a drive into the lane.

A jumper by Knicks Italian forward Danilo Galinari wrapped up the quick 8-0 run. At the next dead-ball, Bayless was replaced by Martell Webster. Three minutes still remained in the quarter, and the Blazers desperately needed to finish the quarter strong. Head Assistant Coach Dean Demopoulos, who took over the head-coaching duties once Nate McMillan ruptured his achilles in Friday’s practice, wanted to get a fresh body into the game, but Bayless was the only Blazer really doing anything and didn’t look all too tired despite having spent seven straight minutes creating contact, making free-throws and layups.

Portland was outscored by twelve while he was in the game, but that was because the team was simply over-matched defensively, unable to doing anything to quell the high-powered Knicks. If Bayless remained in the game, the Blazers undoubtedly would have shaved off more than two points off the margin entering halftime, considering what a jolt he had provided.

His exit resembled what McMillan used to do with Greg Oden. The head coach, with the center in the middle of an incredible effective run that not only featured dunks, rebounds, and blocked shots, but also a swing in momentum, would yank the him about the time Bayless took a seat. Disaster would ensue; the opposition would end the quarter with a strong run, regaining their swagger and momentum. In this game, the Blazers weren’t on a run because they couldn’t stop the Knicks, but certainly Bayless could have put them in a better position at intermission. Nonetheless, the deficit was manageable despite only six assists and 14-34 shooting as a team.

At the end of the half, Bayless entered to throw a inbounds pass with two seconds remaining. He heaved the ball down-court, trying to find Webster, who was well behind the three-point line. The clock started with the ball in the air, however, an obvious mistake by the clock operators, and Webster received the ball with eight-tenths of a second left, unable to get a shot off. Aside from Bayless’s energy, this summed up Portland’s first half.

It summed up the third quarter as well. The Blazers began the third quarter with the same lineup that began the game–Steve Blake, Brandon Roy, Webster, Aldridge, and Przybilla–and this five-some played just as they did in that first half. They made shots here and there, at one point cutting a lead that had swelled to 13 down to 9 on a jumper by Aldridge, but were exploited defensively. Knicks forward Wilson Chandler, a 27 percent (18-65) three-point shooter, buried two three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, both coming after his defender had converged on players in the paint.

Bayless entered with one and a half minutes remaining. Before his entrance and after those two three-pointers by Chandler, the Knicks advantage had increased to seventeen. He wasn’t able to make an impact during the closing seconds of the second half, entering just in time to see New York complete a 15-4 quarter-ending run with a three-point play by Lee and a three-pointer by Hughes.

The deficit was twenty-one entering the final quarter, and the Blazers only had 57 points against a team that allows an average of 108 to opponents. But behind Bayless, they cut into the lead considerably, so much so that the Knicks crowd began to groan in nervousness. The guard reached the free-throw line on successive possessions, making three of four free-throws to begin a 12-0 run. The first free-throw came after a The final two came after leaping from outside the paint–a good six feet from the basket–challenging Jared Jeffries at the rim, and taking a hard hit from the Knicks forward.

Bayless ignited the spurt with free-throws, and finished it with two baskets. He drove inside, tried to create contact, and though the defender evaded him, he managed to acrobatically bank in a strong layup. The Knicks, ahead by just eleven with just under seven minutes left, held possession after a timeout. Hughes missed a layup. Lee grabbed the rebound. Aldridge swatted his attempt. Hughes grabbed the rebound, then missed a layup. Lee grabbed another offensive rebound, a fourth opportunity for New York. He tried to shovel a pass to point guard Chris Duhon, but Bayless stepped into his passing lane, stole the ball, sped downcourt, and made a driving layup. After making the layup, whittling the margin to nine, he looked at season-ticket holder and heralded director Spike Lee with a “Yeah, I’m that good’ stare.

His ego continued to rise on their next possession. He tried to split a double-team at the top of the key, throwing the ball in between two Knicks in hopes of making another amazing driving layup. He couldn’t sneak through the two, and the ball bounded into New York’s hands. That was the end of Portland.

He was aggressive throughout, but too aggressive in the end, as the Blazers dropped their first official game without Oden, looking dysfunctional, shaken, and depressed in the process.

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Game Notes:

LaMarcus Aldridge did very well splitting time as power forward and center, scoring 19 points while grabbing 13 rebounds. If Portland doesn’t make a move for a center, this will have to be a nightly average for the Blazers to be successful.

Brandon Roy struggled early, but finished strong, scoring 27 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, dishing 3 assists, and swiping two steals. On the downside, he had 5 of the team’s 18 turnovers.

Portland played a lot of one-on-one basketball. They only had six assists in the first half, and finished with just thirteen. Considering how guard-oriented they are, this is not a good sign.

Bayless had a season-high 14 points on 4-5 shooting from the field and 6-7 from the free-throw line. But he, Aldridge, and Roy were the only Blazers in double figures. Steve Blake had 9 points, but no one else had more than four.

The Blazers shot 47 percent to the Knicks 41 percent, but here is how New York won handily: They had 13 three-pointers to Portland’s one, outscoring them in that category by an astounding 36 points.

Martell Webster had 3 points on 1-6 shooting in 23 minutes. The Blazers will need much more out of him, given how depleted they are at the small forward and shooting guard positions.

To make matters worse, Andre Miller had as many points, four, as turnovers in 26 minutes of play. One night he scores 24, the next four. Portland needs some consistency from a usually dependable player.

On a side note, the Blazers have not been engaged in any trade talks since Oden’s injury.

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