The Knicks couldn’t afford to blow this one, not after leading by 23 points in the third quarter to the depleted Bulls, not at the Garden, not with Mike Woodson’s job security in question and Amar’e Stoudemire having a throwback night. Not with a rough back-to-back staring at them this weekend.
They did blow all of the 23-point lead but they didn’t blow the game, and a beleaguered Woodson gets to coach this weekend at the least.
Despite the fourth-quarter slide that saw Chicago tie the score at 74 with 3:39 left, Stoudemire hit the big shot and the Knicks squeaked by for an 83-78 triumph Wednesday over the depleted Bulls in a small step in the right direction.
“We struggle to win games, so any game we win is important to win because it keeps us in the hunt,’’ Woodson said. “No one is running away with it.’’
Despite all the turmoil and concern over Woodson’s job and with owner James Dolan running out of patience, the Knicks have won three of their last five games. But this one should not have been the nail-biter it became.
“I think guys really realized this was a game we couldn’t let slip out of our hands from a mental standpoint,’’ said Carmelo Anthony, who finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals. “I thought we did pretty good. From a mental standpoint, if this game got away from us, there’s no telling what would’ve happened.’’
Perhaps Dolan would’ve finally made a move if they choked this away after the prior two blowout losses to Boston and Cleveland. Instead, the Knicks moved to 6-15, one game in the loss column behind the Atlantic Division-leading Celtics, whom they meet Friday in Boston. The Knicks may not have Iman Shumpert, however, after he banged knees with Mike Dunleavy (20 points) midway through the third quarter and didn’t return, diagnosed with a bruised left knee.
“It was a desperation game,’’ Stoudemire said.
Stoudemire just may have saved Woodson’s hide. He poured in 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting, sinking the go-ahead bucket with 2:34 left — a no-hesitation 18-footer from the left of the key just as Anthony was cooling off.
Woodson called it the “biggest shot of the night.’’ And perhaps the season if this was the play that keeps Stoudemire on the court in crunch time and allows Anthony not to have all the offensive focus on him.
This was the first back-to-back Stoudemire completed this season — a major breakthrough.
“I’m not surprised,’’ Anthony said. “I know the work he puts in that nobody sees in practice and before practice. It looks like it’s all coming together for him.’’
The Knicks carried a 68-54 lead into the fourth quarter against a Bulls team playing without Knick killer Luol Deng, Jimmy Butler and, of course, Derrick Rose.
The Knicks succumbed to the Bulls’ backcourt pressure and started to get tight. The Bulls, in all-out hustle mode for coach Tom Thibodeau, tied it at 74 on a Joakim Noah tip-in. It was shaping up as a disaster. And then it wasn’t.
“We closed it out,’’ Anthony said. “We figured out a way to close it out defensively and made some good stops. We pulled the game out. It sunk in that we got tired of losing and the way we’ve been losing.’’
After a double-teamed Anthony forced a shot in the lane that clanked off the iron, the Bulls actually had a chance to take the lead, but Noah committed a turnover. Stoudemire then fired in the game-saving jumper to put the Knicks up for good at 76-74.
“It’s going to be like that,’’ Anthony said. “When we win, the heat is off. When we lose, the heat is on. That’s just our business. That’s New York. [Woodson] can’t worry about that. It was a good feeling to get that win, for us and him.’’
With point guard Raymond Felton shutting it down with a pulled hamstring, Pablo Prigioni was given the start and the Knicks played smoother from the outset — getting off to a 9-2 lead. It was all roses until the fourth quarter, when they became sloppy and foolish. J.R. Smith (seven points) was one of the culprits, committing a violent foul on Hinrich, pushing him to the ground as he fought through a pick. Smith got benched briefly.
“We got comfortable with the lead and started throwing the ball all over the gym and they got excited with their defense because they were causing us to throw it away,’’ Woodson said.
But they didn’t throw away the game.