Just as he did last winter and again earlier this season, Chris Duhon has fallen into a funk and taken the Knicks offense with him. When the inconsistent point guard has struggled, so has his team. But Mike D’Antoni insists Duhon’s woes are mental, not physical — that Duhon too easily loses his confidence, not his game.
“(It’s) probably confidence. He gets down on himself way too much. We have to get over that and give him confidence. Other guys have to pick it up, and we haven’t been able to do that,” said D’Antoni, who has had to give more playmaking chores to David Lee and Nate Robinson, with Duhon looking timid and tentative.
“He’s got to get his legs back,” D’Antoni said. “He loses confidence easily. He just needs to get over it. It’s a tough period right now. It happened to him last year. We’ll try to figure out why. It happens; these are dog days and sometimes the minutes wear on you. Whatever. But we’ll stick with him, and he’ll be fine.”
Duhon has been anything but fine the past five games, averaging 2 points on 3-of-24 shooting after back-to-back scoreless outings. It’s no coincidence the Knicks (17-24) have lost four of their last six, defeats that weigh on Duhon.
“When you’re not performing well, you just kind of beat yourself a little,” Duhon said. “I think I just stop being aggressive. I don’t think it’s so much a confidence. You just stop being aggressive and look to pass even more instead of making the defense respect you. So for me, it’s all about being aggressive.”
Duhon has looked as aggressive as a deer in headlights. It has been eerily similar to his slump last year, when he wore down under career-high minutes, and also when he stumbled at the start of the this season. Through the first 10 games, he averaged 6.5 points on 22.8 percent shooting, and the Knicks went 1-9.
After going 16-15 since then to claw back into the playoff picture — the Knicks woke up yesterday just two games behind Chicago for the eighth and final spot, and only four behind Charlotte for fifth in the inept East — they can ill afford another stretch like that.
D’Antoni is leaving nothing to chance. He put Robinson back in the rotation on Jan. 1 and put the ball in his hands down the stretch Monday. Robinson scored a game-high 27, while Duhon played a season-low 19:44.
D’Antoni also has run more high-post plays with Lee — a point guard until his sophomore year of high school — facilitating for others. Lee followed nine-assist outings against Toronto and Detroit with a five-assist showing Monday against the Pistons.