The Knicks’ once-airtight defense has been leaking like a sieve lately, and coach Mike Woodson has let them hear about it. Woodson said he doesn’t want to listen to alibis and excuses about injuries, and demanded they take pride in guarding the man in front of them and not worry about the missing teammate not beside them.
“I’ve been on these guys a lot about defending. We haven’t been that bad [until lately],’’ said Woodson, whose Knicks play host to the Magic tonight. “But defensively, [Sunday against the Hawks] we got exposed a little bit out front along with the Philadelphia game.
“We’ve got to clean up our high pick-and-roll defense and get back to our coverages we were doing early in the year. It’s just guys being up and being committed on the ball and not begging for help. That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to take pride in guarding your man who has the ball.’’
On Sunday, Woodson was hopeful of getting Rasheed Wallace back at practice this week, which would have helped the defense. But Wallace didn’t practice yesterday and might not be back until after the All-Star break.
Nevertheless, Woodson said the Knicks who are playing have to tighten up their defense.
“We got a lot of injuries, guys in and out, but I’m not one for excuses,” Woodson said. “You watch film, you’ve been around since the beginning of camp, you’ve got to do what’s asked of you from a defensive standpoint.
“We’ve had some slippage in that area, from a pick-and-roll standpoint, but that’s something that’s correctable and that we’ve got to get better at.’’
Slippage was being kind. The Knicks let Jrue Holliday score a career-high 35 points Saturday in Philadelphia, falling behind by 29 before losing 97-80. The next night they gave up 27 to Jeff Teague, and let the Hawks shoot 60 percent.
In both cases the Knicks got abused on the pick-and-roll.
“I’ve just got to get [Raymond Felton] to pick up his defense, and help us in that area,” Woodson said.
The point guard, in his third game since returning from a broken pinky, admits as much himself.
“Yeah, there’s been a difference for sure,” Felton said. “There’s been a difference on my end. There’s been a difference on the bigs’ end. We all have to clean it up together as a team.
“The biggest thing [is] just being aggressive from the gate. Once I get back 100 percent to myself, I’m not going to be [allowing that much].’’
Iman Shumpert, the Knicks’ best perimeter defender, said the team has to get back to its principles and talk more on the court.
“What we’re doing on defense, we’ve got to clean up as a team,” he said. “I don’t think it’s guys going in and out. It’s our defensive principles, and we’ve got to stick to them.
“We had a lot of miscommunications. We’ve just got to talk more out there. … We definitely got to go out there and take care of our defensive assignments.’’
J.R Smith acknowledged the recent lineup shuffling has hurt defensive chemistry, but said it’s just something the Knicks have to overcome.
“We have to get to that nail,’’ Smith said. “The weak side can’t just hug their guys. Everybody has to tilt and stop guys from walking through that paint.”