Portland Trail Blazers vs. New York Knicks: Injuries, How to Watch

With eight games left in the 2024-25 season, the Portland Trail Blazers are jetting over to New York City to play a Knicks team that’s more consistently relevant today than they’ve been in a generation or two.

Sitting at third in the Eastern Conference (8.5 games behind the Boston Celtics for 2nd and 3.5 games ahead of the Indiana Pacers in 4th), the Knicks will almost certainly enjoy home court advantage in the playoffs for the fourth time since the year 2000. Under coach Tom Thibedeau and with length aplenty, New York has found their groove over the season even if their most recent stretch has been a bit checkered, going 6-7 in their last baker’s dozen games.

Portland Trail Blazers (32-42, -3.3 Net Rating) vs. New York Knicks (46-27, +4.0 Net Rating)

Sun. March 30 @ 3pm Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; NBA TV elsewhere (also available on streaming via NBA TV on League Pass)

Trail Blazers injuries: Anfernee Simons (questionable); Jerami Grant (doubtful); Scoot Henderson, Robert Williams III, Deandre Ayton, Bryce McGowens (out).

Knicks injuries: Jalen Brunson, Cam Payne, Miles McBride, Ariel Hukporti (out).

The Blazers, meanwhile, have more or less put to bed their dream of making the play-in, now four full games behind the Sacramento Kings for 10th and needing to also pass the Phoenix Suns who at three games ahead. And while the Knicks will be missing Jalen Brunson, Portland may be without Anfernee Simons, which would take the on-paper matchup from “unbalanced” to “unfair.”

That said, there’s something about the magic of Madison Square Garden, where you will in fact find the author tonight. Scores of players and fans have said the creaky old building, the NBA’s oldest at nearly 60 years old, feels special, and maybe when the Blazers disembark and make their way to the court, they can find another 30-point Deni Avdija game to pair with a Toumani Camara hot shooting night and a Shaedon Sharpe breakout to keep the game competitive, or heck, even sneak away with a win.

Last Time They Played…

…Scoot Henderson had 30 points, Deni Avdija had 27 and 15, and the Blazers were up two with seconds left in overtime before Knicks wing Mikal Bridges hit a three at the buzzer to send the Blazers home with the 114-113 loss.

Reader Questions

Before most games, we ask you all to make our previews better by asking us questions! Keep your eyes peeled for posts just like this to add your questions and (possibly) have them answered right here in these very previews!

From XLJersey:

Why is there a photo of Bill Walton and John Gianelli from the 1970’s?

Two answers, one from our very own Timmay!: “Brandon is just enjoying our image archives as the season winds down.”

This is accurate! The second answer is to play with ways to visually brand the preview questions post and give them a bit more unique value. If it’s an opportunity for us to dig into the archives and rustle around for some cool pictures we wouldn’t have otherwise seen, then I’m all for it! I will admit that I haven’t actually proposed this to the other editors… so time will tell if I keep doing it or if it’s just a quirk of the moment.

From WinningHoop:

I think most would agree that to still have a solid chance getting the 10’th seed we’d need to win all our games left. This game is one of the hardest left. I was very disappointed by our last three performances against the Celtics, Cavs and the Kings. I’d really like a competitive game (or better than that) this time.

A competitive game may be in the cards, but I think the 10th seed ship has sailed. Especially is Anfernee Simons is unable to go, Portland would need herculean efforts from Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, and Donovan Clingan to make up for the talent gap, even with Jalen Brunson sidelined for the Knicks. There’s a reason why New York is 20 games over .500 despite a not-so-great recent spate of games.

From raoulduke:

Will we finally get to see The Lineup – Banton, Rupert, Murray, Walker and Reath? It’s time, right?

Is that THE lineup? I was actually surprised to find it was Portland’s 22nd-most used lineup by games played (eight games) and had a decent -1.0 plus minus! Not great, but not the worst. And yes: based on the injury report and the blowout potential this game has, it’s quite possible this lineup will see its ninth game.

From Ziggybirds:

I want to see the Willis Reed, Bill Walton matchup.

Me too.

From RedUniInLA:

When certain players on, say, the Knicks, take less salary so there’s more of the pie to go around and bring in additional, good players, in what ways can the team later kick back some of that money to the seemingly altruistic player who took the cut? Not necessarily ways sanctioned by the NBA, but let’s put on our sinister hat.

For example, say I’m Paul Allen and I have a mega yacht named the Octopus. I would also have a safe on the Octo, and in the safe I would have at least one briefcase full of $10M USD. On the day that Damian Lillard came for a visit, I could have ten of those briefcases and I wouldn’t miss them when they walked off the yacht with him. I also wouldn’t have to supermax extend Mr. Lillard and we could use the cap space to bring in a FA or two to pair with him to win the championship. Maybe some guys he went to Villanova ahem, I mean Weber State with?

Say, I do that and then win a championship. WE WON! YAY! Then, like five years later there’s an investigation and we get sanctioned like USC under Pete Carrol. Do we have to vacate the ‘chip? Or just lose a FRP or two? Seems like a small price to pay for the second world championship in our lifetimes, right?

Are the Knicks operating under the “Octo Rules” right now? Will they be caught before they win a championship?

I respected this question so much I’m sharing it in full.

Without grabbing a roll of tin foil and shaping it into a hat, I won’t ever put goofiness past people with unimaginable sums of money. For example: was the Luka trade just a secret handshake situation for some future casino kickbacks? They never EXPLICTLY told us that it wasn’t!

We can also draw our own conclusions about why New York hired Jalen Brunson’s dad, then got Jalen Brunson.

To your point: you might be able to vacate a championship after the fact, but Knicks owner James Dolan would sue the NBA seventeen times and the banner would likely still fly high at Madison Square Garden.

About the Opponent:

Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News wrote about how the Knicks, despite missing their best player and several backups, got the win over the (Dame-less) Milwaukee Bucks and kept their playoff seeding intact for now:

Delon Wright started at point guard, Tyler Kolek continued his play-making wizardry off the bench, and the Knicks blitzed the Bucks early, then played a game of keep-away with the lead in a 116-107 victory at Milwaukee’s FiServ Forum on Friday. Wright, who the Knicks fittingly acquired from the Bucks in the Jericho Sims trade, scored 10 points in the first quarter and finished with 12 points and four assists on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. Kolek added five points and five assists with no turnovers in 17 minutes off the bench. The Knicks turned the ball over just eight times on Friday. “They did an amazing job taking what’s there,” OG Anunoby said in his walk-off interview after the game. “Being aggressive trying to set us up get us into sets. They’ve done a phenomenal job and it’s getting better and better each game.”

OG Anunoby led the way with 31 points on a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line, tying a career-high for free throw attempts in a game. The star forward who signed a five-year, $212.5 million deal has scored 23 or more points in each of his last five games. Anunoby said in his walk-off interview this stretch is the best-scoring run of his career. “I’ve been getting better and better each game,” he said. “That’s what it’s about. Growth. Just staying positive looking forward to the next one, always looking to grow and get better each game.

Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (subscription required) shared more on the long-standing consternation between Knicks owner James Dolan and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver:

Dolan is no stranger to conflict. He has taken on, in no particular order, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, countless lawyers suing Madison Square Garden, his own fans, a beloved franchise icon and several New York City politicians… But lately, Dolan and his Knicks have taken issue, publicly and privately, with the NBA and its commissioner, Adam Silver. Over the last two years, the tension between the two sides has escalated to new heights, driven by Dolan against a league he seems to find persistently acting out of order. He has lodged complaints, sent letters and even filed a lawsuit against another NBA team. Every board of governors meeting is potentially an opportunity to lodge a complaint, and another is set for later this month.

Some who know Dolan, and have worked for him or in the NBA, believe it is a reflection of his longtime acrimony toward the league’s revenue sharing system — a construct meant to level the playing field between large- and small-market franchises. But his pique has also come as the league’s media infrastructure, nationally and locally, has undergone a great reshuffling, and as MSG Networks, another Dolan-run company, has come under duress. A man who has run his properties with singular power is increasingly butting up against a league he believes is trying to scrape away his control of them.