Well-conditioned Felton impresses LeBron

Raymond Felton’s fitness was obvious early in the Knicks’ 10292 win over the Heat on Thursday when he converted a nifty reverse layup, hanging in the air longer than perhaps many people thought he was capable. But that was just a precursor for the rest of the night, when he played his most inspired game of the season, scoring 13 points and dishing out a season-high 14 assists in 38 minutes, orchestrating the offense fluidly and setting up many of Carmelo Anthony’s 29 points.

It was enough to draw praise from LeBron James, who singled out Felton in his post-game comments. The performance also likely served as a confidence booster for Felton, who was in only his second game back since missing the previous six games with a groin injury.

“I thought Raymond Felton did a great job of breaking down our defense and putting guys in the right position to succeed,” James said.

Felton, who scored seven straight for the Knicks in the fourth quarter, said he was trying to “exploit different things on the pick-and roll,” adding, “We went through a slump and now I feel like we are out of it.”

STILL NO PABLO

Pablo Prigioni, who hasn’t played since Dec. 16 with a broken toe, said an X-ray taken earlier this week “looked really, really good.” He hopes to resume running Saturday or Sunday, and Woodson estimated it would be “probably another couple of weeks, maybe, a week or two” before Prigioni is available.

SICK BAY

Tyson Chandler missed his second straight game with an upper respiratory infection, but Kenyon Martin, Andrea Bargnani, Felton and Iman Shumpert — who all had been battling what Woodson termed a “bug going through our locker room” — all were in the starting lineup.

Beno Udrih didn’t play after an MRI on his sore left knee revealed inflammation of the tibiofibular joint.

A FRIEND IN K-MART

Martin had this to say on J.R. Smith’s shoelace fine and benching, offering his sympathies for what his teammate is going through: “It’s been blown way out of proportion. There was no malice or nothing like that. You know what I’m saying. It’s a stupid joke blown too far and people making a bigger deal of it than it is. You know once everybody started making a big deal of it the league jumps on it. It’s an unfortunate situation; you hate to see somebody lose his hard-earned money and be put in a situation where he can’t help his team go out and win. It’s very unfortunate. We’re going to stay with him.”