Carmelo Anthony, who missed the past two games with a hyperextended left knee, shot on his own yesterday and did not practice with the Knicks. His status for tomorrow’s game against the Trail Blazers at the Garden is day-to-day, pending a further determination to be made today.
“Carmelo was out shooting today,” coach Mike Woodson said. “Didn’t have any contact or any conditioning work up and down yet, so again he’s just day-to-day and we’ll take it a day at a time.”
* The Knicks’ practice wasn’t exactly overflowing. There were so many players ailing that the team used a coaches’ assistant to flush out the ranks to 10 men.
Anthony, Tyson Chandler (sprained right ankle), Raymond Felton (fractured right pinkie), Jason Kidd (recovery day) and Rasheed Wallace (acute stress reaction, left foot) all did not practice. Iman Shumpert (knee surgery recovery) went on a limited basis, working out with assistant coaches. Amar’e Stoudemire (knee surgery) practiced.
“I’m just anxious to get a full team just to see where we are as a ballclub,” Woodson said. “That’s the main goal right now: to get everybody healthy.”
Woodson said he expects Chandler and Kidd to play tomorrow. Wallace may return to practice today: “He’s still day-to-day rehabbing, and we’ll just have to again assess it [today],” Woodson said.
* At 39.3 percent, the Knicks still rank third in the league in 3-point shooting, behind the Heat (40.3) and Thunder (40.2). But in their past seven games, they are a combined 63-of-190 (33.2 percent) on 3-pointers. … Chandler has averaged 12.0 rebounds in his past eight games, including 4.6 offensive boards. The Knicks overall are 28th in the NBA in rebounding.
* Over in Brooklyn, the “interim” status has been placed on Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo. Woodson knows that label from wearing it the final 24 games of last season. But it is an area of little concern these days.
“P.J.’s been around, he’s coached a number of years,” Woodson said. “He’ll be fine. The Brooklyn Nets are not my concern. My concerns are the Knicks, and that’s how it’s going to be as long as I’m coaching.”
* Regarding Shumpert, Woodson said, “He’s right on schedule. Today he did a bunch of the conditioning work for the first time with us, and that was nice to see. He had a lot of pop in his step, but he couldn’t do any contact yet. So that’s the next step as we move up the road for him.”