It’s not just the Knicks players rising in the new year. It’s Mike Woodson, too, outcoaching the Suns’ Jeff Hornacek, who has gained early-season raves for getting the Suns to be an above-.500 club in the powerful West.
The Knicks finally look like a well-coached team in 2014, as their 6-1 record would indicate. Twice in their win over the Suns on Monday, at the end of regulation and overtime, the Knicks took the smart, intentional foul.
It didn’t pay off at the end of the fourth quarter, but it did in overtime. At the end of regulation, Kenyon Martin committed two straight fouls, the first one intentional to stop the clock and force the Suns to start over with 8 seconds left.
The second one, with 1.2 seconds left, should have resulted in a jump ball and given the Knicks the win. However, Leandro Barbosa was awarded two free throws and made them to send the game into OT.
Raymond Felton’s foul on Channing Frye with 3 seconds left in overtime worked like a charm.
It put Frye to the line to shoot two free throws with Phoenix down three points, ruining the Suns’ chance at tying the game with a 3-pointer. Reluctance to foul in that spot has been the Knicks’ Achilles’ heel since the Mike D’Antoni days.
Frye, meanwhile, proceeded to blow Phoenix’s strategy. Instead of intentionally missing the second free throw, he drained it, costing the Suns a chance at an offensive rebound. After the game, Woodson was self-effacing, admitting the coaches had room to improve in late-game situations.
Give Knicks owner James Dolan credit for calming the waters around Woodson after Christmas. Dolan held a talk with the team at the practice facility on Dec. 26 after their Christmas Day blowout loss vs. Oklahoma City to assure the team the coach was in no danger of being fired and he didn’t foresee any trades.
Then after a pair of losses to Toronto in a year-ending home-and-home set without Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks had a four-day break. Players have credited Woodson for refocusing them during that time.
“We had three days to kind of reflect and start thinking about where we were going as a team after the new year,’’ Woodson said.
Whether it was extra film work or on-court detail, the Knicks have been a more cohesive defensive unit during their 6-1 spree in 2014. And that’s without defensive center Tyson Chandler (bronchitis), who has missed almost the entire five-game winning streak. He left in the first quarter of the streak-starting win in Dallas, and could return Tuesday night in Charlotte.
Kenyon Martin has picked up the defensive slack for Chandler, just as he did down the stretch last season when Chandler was out with a neck injury and strep throat.
“We are locking in and realizing how we have to play each and every night,’’ Martin said.
In another key move, Woodson moved Raymond Felton off attacking point guard Goran Dragic late in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Martin could be seen hounding Dragic at the perimeter at times.
“We switched a lot,’’ Anthony said. “Anytime you have K-Mart out there at the big position, it is easier to switch on a guard.’’
The Knicks are holding opponents to 93 points per game in 2014. In four of the seven games, opponents have scored fewer than 100 points.
A familiar refrain during the depressing days of November and December was Woodson lamenting the Knicks’ inability to fall back on their defensive prowess when shots aren’t falling. It’s happening now. The Knicks were mostly bricklayers Monday, shooting 43.2 percent, but the Suns were 0-for-7 in overtime and shot 35.5 percent.
“Everybody is taking it personal,’’ J.R. Smith said of the new defensive approach.