When the Knicks lost Friday in Sacramento, there was talk after the game about the need to play harder than the opponent every night, an acknowledgment that little had really been accomplished in a season that hit the quarter pole Sunday in Portland.
It would be hard to argue that the Knicks gave it all they had in the early going against the Trail Blazers, and they fell behind by as many as 25 points in the third quarter. They didn't gie up, but a too-little, too-late comeback left them with another hard defeat, this one a 116-113 loss that dropped them to 8-10.