Remember when the Portland Trail Blazers were dominating the Western Conference? Well a recent scoring slump has made that run a distant memory as the team's high scoring offense appears to have hit a cold streak, especially on the road. The Trail Blazers will attempt to avoid their fifth-straight road loss as the face the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Portland failed to score more than 90 points for the third time in four games as they fell to the Washington Wizards on Monday night. Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge accounted for 45 combined points, but the team shot 6 for 17 in the third quarter, getting outscored 26-14.
Portland's offense was averaging 109.6 points per game while starting the season 31-9. However, they have fallen to just 100.0 points while shooting 28.8 from 3-point range. On Monday, the team missed 14 of 19 shots from beyond the arc. On the road, the team is even worse. They have lost four games by an average of 11.5 points and are in need of ending their fast-falling skid.
The New York Knicks are being inconsistent at best. The team is needing to end another losing streak after falling to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith put up 66 points combined, but a buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Bucks the win.
The Knicks have hit a two-game scoring slump. The team has total 189 points in the two games, but are shooting just 43.3 percent from beyond the arc. Anthony has gone cold as well. After averaging 35.3 points during a six-game win streak, he has total just 79 against the Blazers.
The last time these two teams met, the Blazers got the best of the Knicks as Lillard and Nicolas Batum put up 23 points apiece. Smith scored just six points in that game, but is currently averaging 18.8 points per game in the last nine contests.
