NBA

Knicks’ first-half goals within reach despite hiccup

MIKE WOODSON: Not happy with “awful” effort vs. Wizards. (AP)

WASHINGTON — Mike Woodson has talked almost ad nauseam over the last two weeks about finishing no worse than 9-2 over the 11 games before the All-Star break.

Reaching that goal almost seemed a given the way his Knicks had played heading into last night’s game against the Wizards, where the visitors carried a five-game winning streak into the Verizon Center. But now reaching that goal isn’t such a certainty after a 106-96 loss against one of the worst teams in the league — a loss Woodson called “awful across the board.”

The Knicks must now win their three remaining games to meet the goal set by their head coach or risk entering the break feeling like failures.

“The good thing behind this is we’re still on pace to reach our goal,” Woodson said, trying to bring some perspective to an otherwise dismal performance. “We have to win these next three [games] to go into the break 9-2. If we can do that, I’ll sleep better over the break.”

He probably didn’t get much sleep after last night’s game considering how poorly the Knicks performed. Their defense couldn’t contain the speedy John Wall, who led six Wizards in double-figure scoring with 21 points. Washington (13-35) shot 53.2 percent from the field and 11-of-20 from 3-point range. Most importantly, they outscored the Knicks 36-23 in the fourth quarter.

“We were flat,” Woodson said.

The Knicks (31-16) are at Minnesota tomorrow before home games against the Clippers on Sunday and the Raptors on Wednesday. In the grand scheme of things, finishing 9-2 before the break doesn’t assure anything. But as much as Woodson has harped about reaching the mark, falling short amid a loss to the Wizards would leave a bad taste after what has been a good first half to the season.

But give Woodson credit for putting so much emphasis on finishing strong. Lapses like the Knicks had last night might be more frequent without that type of motivation, manufactured or otherwise. At least they have something to play for.

“It’s a great sign when guys are committed,” Woodson said. “When something is thrown out there, they jump on it and they ride it. That’s what has happened in terms of this stretch and staying the course and doing what we have to do to finish this first half of the season.”

Two of the toughest challenges a professional coach faces is keeping his players happy and motivated. On both fronts, Woodson has scored well in the first half of his first full season as the Knicks head coach.

Amar’e Stoudemire, who had 19 points last night, is coming off the bench without complaint. Ronnie Brewer, James White and even Steve Novak are supplemental pieces who can never be sure how much playing time they’ll get, while veterans like Kurt Thomas can go multiple games without getting any playing time at all. They have all put their egos aside, presenting themselves as one big happy family, willing to make individual sacrifices toward the task of winning an NBA championship.

But there will be emotional highs and lows throughout a long season. Playing a losing team like the Wizards on the road is tough to get excited about, even with a 9-2 finish as a goal. The Knicks will face the same mental test against the Timberwolves and the Raptors, two woeful teams with less than 20 wins.

“If we want to accomplish all the things we say we want to accomplish, we have to get up for games like this,” Tyson Chandler said. “It’s never about the opponent. It has to be about us every single game.”

Now the Knicks must win every single game they play before the break to finish 9-2. Otherwise, they run the risk of feeling like failures.