WOODY: TURN OUT LIGHTS!
Coach calls for early bedtime
BED CHECK! Taking no chances after the last two noon games the Knicks played at home resulted in their two most lopsided losses of the season, endangered coach Mike Woodson planned to have the entire team holed up together at an area hotel Friday night before Saturday’s 12 p.m. game against Memphis at the Garden.
“Yeah, we’ve had those troubles and you know, we’re going to all get together tonight and huddle together,” Woodson said after practice Friday in Greenburgh. “I’m not going to let them hang out.
“We’re going to all get together, ourselves, as a team.”
Asked if he felt the need to “baby-sit” his players — after the Knicks were blown out on their home floor by 31 points by San Antonio on Nov. 10 and by 41 by Boston on Dec. 8 — Woodson replied, “Well, we’re going to be together. Put it that way.” Carmelo Antho
ny said he was “hearing” that curfew would be 10 p.m. The All-Star forward indicated the Knicks (8-17) also stayed together at a hotel before the Celtics debacle earlier this month, but it certainly appears they will be more closely monitored before facing the Grizzlies.
“We’ve done that plenty of times where we stayed at a hotel together, the night before a game. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it works. We’ll see about that tomorrow,” Anthony said. “We didn’t do it the San Antonio game. Sometimes it works — early games. Sometimes it don’t.
“It’s just a matter of us coming out the gate and establish that early. I don’t think it has anything to do with us staying in a hotel or not. That’s what Coach wants to do and we’re going to do it.”
Added Woodson: “I don’t know why we’ve gotten off to such bad starts and hadn’t played well. I don’t think it’s any thing of guys hanging out. I don’t know why that is. But we’re going to do something a little different this time, see if it helps.”
Woodson’s job status remains in question after the Knicks barely pulled out a double-overtime victory Wednesday in Milwaukee following a brain cramp by Andrea Bargnani, who hoisted a shot with a two-point lead and a fresh shot clock in the closing seconds of the first extra session, enabling the Bucks to tie.
The K nicks also didn’t use an available foul, and Woodson didn’t call a timeout in the closing seconds of Monday’s late loss to Washington, which pushed their home record this season to 4-9.
“We want to come out the gates (Saturday), establish the tempo, establish the style of game we want to play. We want to win. That’s the goal, to get back winning on our home court,” Anthony said. “I think it’s a mental thing. When you have them early morning games you start thinking too much. Should you go to sleep early? Should you get this amount of rest? I think it’s all mental.
“Besides it being an early game, I think it’s all mental at that point.”
The Knicks will have Amar’e Stoudemire (knee) back in the lineup Saturday, one game after Tyson Chandler (fractured leg) returned against the Bucks for the first time since early November. Memphis is still without Marc Gasol (MCL), but Mike Conley (thigh)is expected back.
The Knicks somehow began play Friday just two games out of a playoff spot in the East and only three behind first-place Boston (12-15) in the weak Atlantic Division. “Despite everything, the inconsistency of us being able to put games together, I still think we’re in a good place,” Anthony said. “We have a chance to do something. There’s only a couple of teams playing well. If we put a good run of games together we’ll be sitting in a good spot.
“We control our own destiny. We just got to figure that part out, string some games together and get back rolling.”