Help is coming for the Knicks. And at the best possible time.
Coach Mike Woodson Tuesday stressed his full confidence that center Tyson Chandler and forward Kenyon Martin will be back Saturday for the start of the playoffs against the Celtics.
“Yes. Yes, I am,” Woodson responded when asked during his weekly ESPN Radio interview if he was “100 percent confident” of having the two defensively stout bigs ready for Game 1 at the Garden.
“Only time will tell. I’m sure we’re going to get Tyson and K-Mart and guys like that back in uniform by Saturday,” Woodson said, noting the Knicks will “have to wait” on other injured and rehabbing big men Amar’e Stoudemire, and possibly Rasheed Wallace and Marcus Camby.
Martin has missed the past four games with a sprained left ankle and Chandler has missed the past five with a bulging disc in his neck, the same problem that sidelined him for 10 earlier games.
* The Knicks did not announce any update on Wallace, who returned Monday for the first time since Dec. 13 but lasted just four minutes in a loss at Charlotte.
Wallace asked out, Woodson said, because of soreness in his left foot. Wallace has been felled by a left foot fracture.
* Same game, different views. Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton have opposing ideas about tonight’s regular season finale against Atlanta at the Garden. Kidd would like the night off, Felton wants to play.
“I’ll probably talk to Coach and see — I got some minutes [Monday] … and then I’ll be ready to go Saturday,” Kidd said. “I think I’ll be off Wednesday. I hope. I’ve always taken it off.
“No matter how you’re playing, I’ve always taken the last game off unless we needed it to get into the playoffs. I’ve always taken it off just to rest mentally and physically just to kind of digest and feel what we had to do to be successful to start the playoffs.”
* Raymond Felton was one of the many who did not play in Charlotte (five guys, including Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith) did not make the trip. Felton would like some minutes tonight.
“I’m going to play. I just don’t want to sit out two games,” Felton said. “I’m definitely going to play that game for sure.”
Woodson said he intended to give some minutes to Anthony and Smith against Atlanta.
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Woodson said, during his radio interview, he learned an important, though painful, fact last year in the playoffs.
“We didn’t have enough. That’s what I learned more than anything. You’ve got to give Miami all the credit, but we did not have enough,” said Woodson, who theorized “it would have been interesting to see where we would have been had Amar’e not cut his hand” and the Knicks possibly tied the series at home, 2-2. “But we never could get to that point.”
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The Celtics finish their season tonight in Toronto. Fans with tickets for last night game against Indiana in Boston, which was canceled after the Boston Marathon bombing, will receive full refunds.