NBA

Fat chance Knicks’ Felton feels the love in Portland

DENVER — Raymond Felton is firing back at his Portland detractors who made him a scapegoat for the Blazers’ rotten lockout season.

“They didn’t make the playoffs last year when I was there,’’ Felton said before the Knicks’ ugly 117-94 loss to the Nuggets last night. “When I looked last, I don’t think they’re in the playoffs now.’’

It is a virtual certainty Felton will be booed heavily tonight at the Rose Garden as the Knicks face the Blazers (29-33). They hate him more there than they do the frequent rain for reporting out of shape and playing miserably the first couple of months.

When the Knicks and Portland executed their sign-and-trade last July, the sigh of relief in Portland was audible, as was the laughter the Knicks were banking on Felton as their starting point guard over prodigy Jeremy Lin.

It has worked out fine.

“The worst moment I had in basketball was there,’’ said the always candid Felton, who scored just eight points and had four assists in 29 minutes last night. “For sure. I’m not going to put it on the fans because some were great. I met a lot of good, real-important Trail Blazers fans. Certain people there, I don’t want to see and better not come near me.’’

Felton didn’t specify to whom he was referring, but it could be a Portland writer who called him “a candidate for a Jenny Craig commercial.’’

Ironically, after the Knicks initially dealt him to Denver in the Carmelo Anthony trade, Felton preferred another trade because he didn’t want to be second string to Ty Lawson. He wished he never asked out of Denver, where the Knicks played last night.

“No question, I didn’t want to leave New York,’’ Felton said. “I would’ve stayed here [in Denver] than going to Portland.

“I’m going to laugh the whole time, really,’’ Felton said of his Portland return. “I’m happy now. I’m back where I want to be. I couldn’t care less what they say. It’s behind me. I never one time made one excuse. I came in, was out of shape, said that from the beginning, said it the whole time. Anything else they want to say, it’s not true.’’

Felton hasn’t been the same point-guard dynamo since he broke his pinkie on Christmas Day. He sat out a month and lost his superb form. Nevertheless, after the road trip, Felton will get a final X-ray on his pinkie and likely be permitted to take the tape off the finger.

“Then I can say I’m 100 percent,’’ said Felton, who entered the game averaging 14.7 points and 5.8 assists but shooting just 41.2 percent.

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Patrick Ewing is back. Ewing will do broadcasting for the MSG Network’s postgame show March 20 and March 31. Ewing has long tried to get back into the organization, but has never been offered an assistant-coaching job. He is now unemployed after going down with Stan Van Gundy’s ship in Orlando. Ewing sat with owner James Dolan at a recent home game, stirring speculation he would do something Knicks–related in the near future.