KNICKS GO FOR GLORY
Things are looking up until Pablo goes down
The last game of the regular season went a lot like many others these last six months: The Knicks won, the Knicks got hurt, the Knicks said they would be just fine anyway. As the Knicks prepare to open the playoffs on Saturday afternoon against Boston, it is a legitimate question: Are the Knicks ready, or are they too rickety?
During this 98-92 victory over the Hawks, Pablo Prigioni limped off with a sprained ankle, Chris Copeland said his left shoulder popped out of its joint “for a second,” and Iman Shumpert suffered a “charley horse” in his thigh. Mike Woodson downplayed all the injuries, as is team policy. The Knicks just might list Rasheed Wallace as day-today, after announcing his retirement on Wednesday.
“It’s what it is,” Woodson said. “The game’s scheduled and we’ve just got to be ready. You’ve got to play like it’s the last game. I want to extend this thing.”
Woodson has spent most of this regular season carefully nursing injuries and distributing minutes as if they were precious metals. He started out with an old roster that got only a little younger when Wallace quit.
Somehow, Woodson and Carmelo Anthony won 54 games this way. They won their last 10 home games. Now the long-haul playoffs begin, beginning against another creaky team from Boston, and the big problem is not one of talent. It is one of frailty. Can Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin ramp up their games while staying in one piece long enough to provide the necessary depth and punch?
On Wednesday, another 30-something, Prigioni, rolled an ankle. The Knicks were down to six players in uniform, playing a game that didn’t mean much at all to them.
“It was a necessary evil to keep playing,” said Steve Novak, who logged more than 41 minutes. “So it goes.”
It never seems to end with this team. Now, the question is whether these timeworn athletes can give Anthony, NBA scoring champ, enough help at both ends of the court this spring to make the Knicks more than a oneor two-man show.
“Having veterans put us in position to win the division, I wouldn’t change that,” Woodson said. “They’ve brought a lot of excitement back to New York.”
The old-timers have had some nice rest now, which may serve to heal or rust muscles and tendons. Anthony will need help from a few of them, even on his best days.
This Knick season, from Day 1, has been about Anthony learning that lesson. He could always score when he put his mind to the assignment. He just wasn’t always the best teammate in the world.
That changed these past six months. Anthony came to know when to break down a defender one-on-one, and when it was better to pass off or set a screen.
“He’s learned to trust his teammates,” Woodson said. “I haven’t seen too many guys do it all by themselves. He’s learned how to manage his game and help players around him manage theirs.”
When the Celtics, or when the Heat, start fronting and denying, Melo will need to know how to handle that kind of pressure. He’ll need some healthy veterans around him for that.
The Knicks aren’t exactly proven commodities in the postseason. It’s been 13 years since this franchise last won a single series, and there is no institutional memory for large victories.
Anthony is supposed to write a new basketball chapter in New York. “We’re not gonna change a whole lot,” Woodson said. “I like our style.”
That means a lot of three-point shots early in the shot clock and enough sets and isos for Anthony to pull defenders away from the perimeter and shooters like J.R. Smith and Novak. It helps if Kidd is setting the pace and if Chandler and Martin are providing interior defense. “Let’s get it,” Raymond Felton told his teammates, during the Knicks’ final, regular-season huddle. He was talking about the Celtics already, not the Hawks.
The Knicks get another scheduling break, because their nemeses, the Bulls, aren’t in their half of the Eastern Conference draw. They get Boston and Indiana or Atlanta in the second round.
“Got to get through tonight and get ready for Boston,” Woodson had said, before Copeland scored 33 points and Earl Barron, an emergency fill-in, pulled down 18 rebounds.
They didn’t quite get through the night without another injury, though. Prigioni, 35, became another old Knick with ice on his ankle.