Knicks Catch Their Breath
The other shoe may have finally dropped in midtown Manhattan.
The Knicks had won 13 of 14 games when the Celtics pulled off a miraculous two-point win at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 15. Two nights later Miami dropped New York by 22 at MSG.
But nothing has ripped the Knicks back down to earth quite like Saturday’s 109-102 overtime loss to the 8-20 Cavaliers.
"It was a tough month and a half," Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said before Wednesday’s 112-98 win over the Thunder. "Emotionally we got a little ahead of ourselves.
"We were riding a high and the Garden was crazy, which was great," he continued. "I’m not complaining, but that takes stuff out (of players). It’s like playoff games."
And as long as we’re comparing the Knicks’ recent stretch to the postseason, it’s worth pointing out that this team hasn’t been playoff tested. Aside from forward Amar’e Stoudemire and center Ronny Turiaf, the Knicks don’t have anyone playing meaningful minutes who has also done so in May.
In fact, the Knicks don’t have many guys getting meaningful playing time period.
Toney Douglas is the only reserve seeing more than 13 minutes per night and guys like center Timofey Mozgov, Bill Walker, Anthony Randolph, Roger Mason, Jr. and Andy Rautins have practically been forgotten.
But if the Knicks are gassed in December, how can D’Antoni expect his players to have their legs in the postseason?
"They’re young guys," D’Antoni said. "We don’t have older guys.
"They can do it. We’ll watch it, and if they get tired, then we’ll back off more."
D’Antoni maintaining a rotation of seven or eight players isn’t news. But this time around, he doesn’t even have the option of going deeper into his bench.
Mozgov is averaging over two fouls in under 11 mpg, and has the 388th "best" Player Efficiency Rating out of 427 NBA players.
Anthony Randolph sits only 15 notches above Mozgov and has played all of three minutes in the month of December because he hasn’t produced up to D’Antoni’s (or anyone else’s) standards. Rautins and Mason actually have negative Player Efficiency Ratings.
Meanwhile, forward Wilson Chandler (who was originally chosen to be the team’s sixth man) has been logging significant minutes at power forward because of the team’s barren frontcourt. Fortunately for the big men, the Knicks are in a six-day stretch in which they have only one game, and that has given the team more opportunities to practice.
"Getting everybody on the same page is definitely something that we needed as far as looking sharp," Turiaf said. "When you don’t really practice, you don’t really get put in situations to be asked to do certain things as if you actually practice and drill. It’s definitely great not to be able to play a high-intensity game. It definitely helps and I think we’re rejuvenated."
{AUTHOR_BOX}The backcourt hasn’t exactly been underworked either. Raymond Felton averages 39.1 mpg, fourth in the NBA, while Douglas and rookie Landry Fields are essentially the only other options at guard.
New York’s dearth of backups ignited trade rumors involving Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao and Daniel Gibson this week. Of course, any deal that brings talent to the Knicks bench is liable to come at the expense of the team’s existing reserves. And besides Eddy Curry’s $11.26 million expiring contract, the team doesn’t have any assets to spare.
The bench was well rested for the first time in four games on Wednesday night, which may be why the Knicks cruised to a 14-point win. New York’s reserves scored 28 points against Oklahoma City and that’s a noticeable improvement over the last three games in which the unit averaged 14.7 ppg.
"I feel like our bench is what’s going to take us," Douglas said. "Our starting five, they can’t do it by themselves. We’ve got to have a bench that comes in and brings energy and help win games."
D’Antoni’s short rotation has always seemed at odds with his offensive style. New York averages 99.1 possessions per game, which is tied for second in the NBA. However, Douglas sees the Knicks’ offense as its strength. Even if the team utilizes just a handful of players while running up and down the floor, he thinks this team is conditioned to outperform the competition in those circumstances.
"We weren’t winded," Douglas said of the team’s three-game skid. "I felt like we kept pushing it. In practice we kept our conditioning up. We run a lot, so we shouldn’t be tired. That’s what we do."
That’s what the Knicks (17-12) do now, but if they hope to run like this in the postseason, they’re eventually going to need more bodies.
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