Lost in the Portland Trail Blazers’ Tuesday night beatdown of the New York Knicks were a few new wrinkles by Terry Stotts.

For the first time this season, the Blazers’ coach used a lineup that featured Hassan Whiteside and Skal Labissiere on the court at the same time. Stotts extended his player rotation 10 deep in the first half, mixing seldom-used Gary Trent Jr. into the second unit. The Blazers used a three-guard lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Anfernee Simons.

And Stotts even mixed in zone defense on a couple first-half possessions.

Why the tweaks?

“I mean, why not?” Lillard said.

In other words, desperate times call for desperate measures. As the underperforming and injury-riddled Blazers (10-15) fight to save their season, Stotts is showing a willingness to experiment with different lineup combinations, new player rotations and fresh schemes to help the team turn the corner.

“Look,” Stotts said, “the way things are going, we’ve got to try different things.”

At least some of the adjustments against the Knicks were a byproduct of a meeting between Stotts and his coaching staff earlier Tuesday, when Stotts asked for fresh ideas to help the Blazers mix things up.

Perhaps the most notable change was the twin towers lineup of Whiteside-Labissiere, a move that allowed the Blazers to showcase a long and lean front-court duo of 7-footers. It’s not something the Blazers can turn to all the time — it only makes sense against teams that use bigger, plodding lineups — but early returns were encouraging.

Stotts used the lineup for about six minutes and the Blazers outscored the Knicks by 11 points. What’s more, the players seemed to like it.

“I think it’s good,” Whiteside said. “Skal reminds me a lot of Zach (Collins). I think we can do it more. I’m glad Coach had that confidence to go out there (with it). I think it could work.”

As Whiteside notes, the lineup in some ways mimics the Blazers’ initial plans to feature two 7-footers in the starting lineup, which was scrapped when Collins suffered a dislocated shoulder in the third game of the season. For a team that has struggled with both rebounding and defense much of the season, the Labissiere-Whiteside duo could potentially help shore some of those issues up, at least in spurts.

“I think it’s actually good,” Kent Bazemore said. “With Skal and Hassan being out there, it allows guards to be a little bit more aggressive on the ball with them protecting the rim the way they did tonight. So I’m all for it. I know I’ve got two 7-footers behind me, which has been a rarity for us this year, with all the injuries and what not. You can be a lot more aggressive on the ball and kind of funnel them to the help.”

The other notable tweak with long-term ramifications was the three-guard lineup that featured Simons alongside the Blazers’ starting backcourt. It’s not the first time the trio has played together this season, but it was notable this time because Stotts went to it early — Simons was the Blazers’ first substitute against the Knicks. Simons, who had been mired in a mini-slump, scoring in single digits in five of his previous nine games, responded with his best outing in weeks, recording 16 points, five rebounds and three assists, while making a season-high four three-pointers.

Stotts has used similar three-guard lineups in recent seasons, featuring Seth Curry and Shabazz Napier with success.

“Our minutes this year together have been positive for the team,” Lillard said of he, McCollum and Simons. “So why not? (Stotts) was just rolling it out there and seeing how it would go.”

It’s unclear how often Stotts will lean on his new wrinkles. But it’s a safe bet they won’t be the last tweaks as the Blazers continue to scuffle.

“We’ve struggled to start the season,” Lillard said. “So right now, why be afraid to try different things, if what we’ve been doing this whole time has been giving us issues anyway? You’ve got to be willing to step outside of you comfort zone and do things. As long as Coach is doing that with faith that it has a chance and when he puts in those positions, we do it with confidence and we believe in what we’re doing, I feel like it’s going to have a chance to work. That’s all that counts."

— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox