Blazing out of Hell? Let's hope.

Can the Knicks escape the depths of NBA hell tonight?

The great Winston Churchill once said “If you’re going through Hell, keep going”. This is also an appropriate message for Coach Mike Woodson and his Knicks. Tonight the Knicks (3-9) visit Rip City to take on a Blazers team (12-2) that has not lost since November 5^th to Houston. For the fourth straight game the Knicks signal caller Raymond Felton will be out leaving the nightmare of guarding PG and reigning Rookie of the Year, Damian Lillard, to Beno Udrih and Pablo Prigioni. It is unclear whether Amar’e Stoudemire will be given the green light for the second straight game, something the Knicks’ staff has been against all season.

With or without Amar’e the Knicks will be fighting an uphill battle from the get-go. Aside from the dynamic Lillard the Trail Blazers have one of the top power forwards in the game in LaMarcus Aldridge, lanky small forward Nicolas Batum and shooting guard Wesley Matthews. Andrea Bargnani will have to shoot himself out of his slump and play competent defense against a Portland front line that will crash the glass if not boxed out. Expect Kenyon Martin and his high energy to play a big factor early to getting the Knicks going.

One dirty secret about Portland is that they start off slow, being outscored in the first half in three of their last four games per NBA.com. If Melo and the Knicks can start out hot and build a nice first half lead they can steal a win before heading to LA to meet the Clippers. The backcourt is long overdue for a good game especially Iman Shumpert and reigning Sixth Man J.R. Smith. I feel like we haven’t seen the same J.R. from last year since Game 3 in Boston before that Terry elbow. If Smith can finally help Melo on the scoring end and play hard on defense the Knicks can start to get on track.

In the end it boils down to effort, the theme of this early season. If the Knicks show up against Portland like they did against Indiana a Knicks win is in sight. The team has shown that they play up or down to the competition so expect this one to go down to the wire. If the defense finally gets that late stop the Knicks will be one step closer to getting out of basketball hell.