George Willis

George Willis

NBA

Make up your mind about Woodson, Dolan!

The Knicks ended a three-game losing streak with an easy 117-90 victory over the Nuggets on Friday night at the Garden, returning smiles to faces that have mostly shown frustration this season.

The victory offers a temporary reprieve from the daily discussion of coach Mike Woodson’s employment status. On nights like this you would think all is well with the Knicks. But if this season has taught us anything, it’s that a win or two doesn’t necessarily mean the Knicks have solved all their problems.

It’s likely this “disaster” of a season, as Woodson called it, probably isn’t going to end anytime soon and the discussion will soon resume over whether the coach should keep his job. That’s why it’s time for the only man who can quiet the non-stop speculation about the head coach to step up and make a decision.

It’s time for owner James Dolan, especially with the All-Star break looming, to announce in a loud clear voice whether he intends to keep Woodson for the remainder of the season or cut him loose.

Yes, Dolan has shown support for Woodson before: once in an exclusive interview with Post columnist Mike Vaccaro and another time when he spoke to his players in December behind closed doors at the team’s practice facility. But the situation is dire now. It’s February and the Knicks are 20-30 after beating the Nuggets.

Despite the win, there is no longer talk of defending their Atlantic Division championship. The goal has been reduced to at least earning the eighth and final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

“We see what it takes to win,” Tyson Chandler said after the Knicks set a season high with 16 steals and limited Denver to 42 percent shooting. “We have to put more nights like this together.”

Woodson spent most of his pregame press conference stating why he is the best man to coach the Knicks.

“Do I think I’m the guy for the job? Absolutely I do,” Woodson said. “That’s not going to ever change while I’m the head coach of the Knicks.”

The choice here would be for ownership to keep Woodson for the remainder of the year. No, he hasn’t been as in tune with this team as he was last season when the Knicks won 54 games. And his players don’t often play with the urgency they did Friday night. But John Wooden couldn’t squeeze much more out of the Knicks underachieving roster.

“We have to help him out,” Carmelo Anthony said of Woodson. “He’s the coach and he has his game plan. We have to go out there and execute that.”

If Dolan wants to make a change, he could opt for Herb Williams or Allan Houston to take over and finish out the year. But what would that accomplish? Either way it’s time for Dolan to send a clear message to the fan-base, the media and, more importantly, the players that their coach is either here for the duration of the season or gone. The speculation about Woodson is like an open wound that’s constantly scratched.

Dolan, who rarely speaks to the media, needs just 90 seconds to stand in front of notebooks and cameras and declare Woodson’s future. It takes the pressure off not only the coach, but also Anthony, who has been unfairly cast as an influencer in all this. He and Dolan chatted over tea recently and their assumption is the conversation was about Woodson. It puts Anthony in a no-win situation.

A season that began with championship aspirations has been reduced to a chase for the final spot in the playoffs and probable first-round extinction against the Heat or Pacers. It’s hard to get inspired about that.

Whether Woodson is here for the rest of the season or gone in a few days, it’s time for Dolan to make a call. Not behind closed doors or in an exclusive interview. But in a public way the fans, the media and his players will know he’s serious.