No Pablo? No problemo.
The Knicks are confident they will withstand the ankle sprain to Argentine point guard Pablo Prigioni, whose insertion into the starting lineup coincided with the club’s recent 13-game winning streak.
Prigioni, who left the Garden on crutches, according to a source, after spraining his ankle on a drive in Wednesday’s regular season finale, likely will miss Game 1 Saturday against the Celtics and the best-case scenario is a return for Game 2 Tuesday. Prigioni became a Mike Woodson favorite for his playmaking and pressuring the ball on defense.
Woodson said he’s leaning toward starting Chris Copeland in Prigioni’s place to keep Carmelo Anthony at power forward.
“We definitely are going to miss Pablo but it can’t change nothing because it’s the playoffs,’’ Raymond Felton said. “We got to perform. We’re definitely going to miss Pablo. And hopefully we’ll get him back the second game. Maybe the first game and a miracle happens.
“Pablo is hurt but we got a lot of guys on this team who can step up,’’ Felton added. “We still got a lot of guys coming back who haven’t played in a while so they should have fresh legs.’’
The Knicks were at their best when Felton had help with a second point guard, and were 18-5 to start the season with a Felton-Jason Kidd pairing. Woodson said he can’t start Kidd now because it would give him no backup point guard. He also won’t start power forward Kenyon Martin because that forces Anthony back to small forward. That leaves Copeland, who has had an eye-opening rookie season with his ability to score inside-out — driving the ball and knocking in 3-pointers.
Woodson said the Knicks will miss Prigioni’s pressure defense.
“Raymond is a solo point guard now,’’ Woodson said. “He’s got to defend that spot. He’s got to apply pressure up for the floor like Pablo does. Nothing changes. [He’s] just got to duplicate what Pablo does until he gets back.’’
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Woodson all but ruled out Amar’e Stoudemire (right knee debridement surgery) for the first round. Stoudemire did some shooting yesterday but Woodson believes the Eastern Conference semifinals would be a more realistic goal.
“I think he’s going to be out,’’ Woodson said. “That’s my gut. But he was out today moving around and shooting today. It was kind of nice to see him on the floor.’’
In odd timing, a Stoudemire documentary, which began filming two years ago, will debut tonight on Epix.
According to a source, there is footage of his summer workouts with Hakeem Olajuwon and the tail end deals with his latest surgery in March.
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Woodson became the first Knicks coach to win Eastern Conference Coach of the Month since Pat Riley in 1994. Woodson led the Knicks to an 8-2 April as they surpassed the 50-win plateau for the first time since 1999-2000. Ironically, Mike D’Antoni, the man Woodson replaced, won the Western Conference honors with the Lakers… The Knicks finished with the league’s best home mark in East at 31-10. … Patrick Ewing will join the MSG Network coverage for Game 2 and newly-minted Hall of Famer Bernard King will be on MSG throughout the series.