NBA

Knicks’ Copeland becoming fan favorite

OKLAHOMA CITY — You are Out There, everywhere, on social media and in front of televisions, a growing posse of fans who have become smitten with Chris Copeland. When he spends long stretches of the game on the bench, when Knicks coach Mike Woodson seems to forget his name, you simmer and boil.

When he plays well — and did he ever play well yesterday, in the Knicks’ 125-120 win over the Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena — you can almost hear the shouts and the calls of triumph from 1,000 miles away.

Copeland hears it, too.

“It’s just incredible the way Knicks fans, New York fans, have treated me,” said Copeland, who scored 13 points, 11 of them in a key second quarter in which the Knicks outscored the Thunder 35-25. “I walk on a street in New York and people are always saying, ‘We’re rooting for you; we’re pulling for you,’ and it’s hard to describe just how amazing that makes me feel.”

Copeland’s output made his exacting coach feel pretty amazing, too.

“That second quarter,” Woodson said, “he carried us. He was alert. And we know he can make shots.”

Copeland is just one of the reasons the Knicks have become increasingly difficult to scout, because so many elements that are working now — Kenyon Martin is the other significant one with, maybe, Rasheed Wallace to follow — haven’t been a part of the Knicks’ plans, or their game tapes, for long stretches of the season.

Copeland was bound to be a fan favorite thanks to his peripatetic journey from the University of Colorado to the NBA, which has included stops in the D-League, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. He even wears No. 14, most famously worn as a Knick by Anthony Mason, another guy who never had it made before landing a spot in New York.

And while Copeland still suffers from lapses that drive his coach crazy — and limit his minutes — there is little to argue about his offensive game.

“My teammates are always on me about being more aggressive and I tried to remember that today,” said Copeland, who was 5-of-9 from the floor, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range. “And I’m confident enough in my own game that that’s really the only encouragement I need.”

What he has done, as much as anything, is force Woodson to keep him in the playoff rotation, so yesterday’s effort in front of 18,203 boisterous partisans wasn’t a bad internship.

“I’ll be ready whenever I’m called,” he said. “That much I know.”