Amare Stoudemire stood up from the bench and the fans rose with him, a booming ovation filling Madison Square Garden as Stoudemire walked to the scorer’s table to enter a game for the first time this season.
The cheers turned to boos just a few minutes later when the Knicks couldn’t stop the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers overcame Carmelo Anthony’s season high-tying 45 points and spoiled Stoudemire’s season debut, beating New York 105-100 on Tuesday night.
Stoudemire finished with six points on 3-of-8 shooting and one rebound in 17 minutes off the bench in his return from knee surgery. He said he nearly shed a tear with the loud appreciation the fans showed him when he checked in, but he couldn’t give them anything to keep the cheers going in the first half.
“I felt good,” Stoudemire said. “The game felt like it was going 100 mph that first half. Had a couple of easy-looking shots, open shots, just a little bit rusty, wasn’t able to knock those down. But the second half was better than my first half. Hopefully my second game will be better than my first game.”
Nicolas Batum scored 26 points, rookie Damian Lillard had 21 points, six assists and five rebounds, and LaMarcus Aldridge had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Portland, which avenged a 121-79 loss here last March 14.
“When we came last year, that was the biggest loss of my career. Down 42, that was real embarrassing,” Batum said. “The only thing on my mind when I came in was just put (down) the stat sheet from last year. That was my motivation for tonight.”
Anthony shot 14 of 24 and nearly led the Knicks back from 19 points down after missing two games with a knee injury, but the Trail Blazers had too many options.
J.J. Hickson scored all of his 18 points in the first half as Portland won for the third time in four games.
Source-AP
