Jalen Brunson, Knicks come up short in OT loss to Trail Blazers

Back from an arduous but successful five-game road trip, the Knicks were home at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, facing a Portland Trail Blazers squad without its most important player, Damian Lillard. Just the sort of opportunity they could not let slip away if the unexpected wins on the road trip were to mean anything.

But everything that the Knicks accomplished on the trip seemed left somewhere along the road as they were outworked by Portland.

The hustle and scrambling by the Trail Blazers paid off as they beat the Knicks, 132-129, in overtime. After the 3-2 road trip, the Knicks fell back to 9-10.

All of the problems that had haunted them before the trip were awaiting them as they got home. Outworked by a shorthanded opponent? Check. Unable to find a way to stop the high-scoring options on the opposition? That too. RJ Barrett struggling to find his shot? Definitely that one.

Jalen Brunson again carried the offense through critical junctures, finishing with 32 points after his 34-point effort Monday in Oklahoma City. However, he missed a floater at the regulation buzzer that would have won it.

Barrett’s line in the boxscore may have looked decent with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, but a closer look would show another dismal shooting performance. He shot 6-for-22 from the field, including 1-for-7 from beyond the arc.

The Trail Blazers shot 38-for-51 from the free-throw line, attempting 24 in the second quarter. Jerami Grant had 44 points, with 21 coming at the foul line, and his 28 free-throw attempts matched the Knicks’ team total. “Fifty-one free throws. I can’t recall someone getting 28 in a game,” Tom Thibodeau said.

“I want to look at the film, but we have to adjust to how the game is being called,” he said. “Sometimes it’s going to be [called] tight, sometimes it’s not as tight. But we can’t keep repeating. If they’re calling it that way, we have to adjust.”

Said Brunson, “We definitely have to adjust to it and we have to adjust however they are calling it. Calling fouls like that, you’ve got to back off, you can’t be so aggressive. It’s all right. Got to learn. You can’t foul or appear to foul. That’s it.”

“What happens in one game doesn’t carry over to the next,” Thibodeau said. “You gotta win each game. You gotta prepare, understand what goes into winning each day. There’s no shortcuts to this. And then you gotta know your opponent well and then you also gotta factor in, OK, how’s this game being [officiated]? Is it a physical game? Is it a game that’s being called tight? And then we have to adjust, and we didn’t adjust.’’

Anfernee Simons had 38 points, including a three-pointer with 2:08 left in overtime that gave the Blazers a 127-119 lead, and Josh Hart had 19 rebounds.

The Knicks entered the night answering questions about how Thibodeau would manage to juggle his abundance of centers and his desire to limit the rotation to two. But in the most crucial moment, it was not the 7-footers or the high-flyers who took over at the rim. It was the smallest man on the court, Brunson, who again showed his old-school footwork in the paint, spinning and pivoting to give

the Knicks a two-point lead with 13.7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Brunson’s bucket couldn’t finish it, though, as the Blazers got in the paint, too. Simons misfired in the lane but drew a foul on Quentin Grimes and hit a pair of free throws with 9.6 seconds left in regulation. Brunson’s buzzer-beating attempt bounced off the rim and the game went to overtime.

Julius Randle had 23 points and Immanuel Quickley added 18 off the bench for the Knicks. Jusuf Nurkic had 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Portland.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.