Mike Woodson said he scared the devil out of the Knicks on the day he took over for Mike D’Antoni.
That was his explanation for why the club has changed its losing ways under him.
Woodson, D’Antoni’s defensive assistant, was promoted March 14 as interim coach when D’Antoni abruptly resigned because he didn’t feel he could coach Carmelo Anthony any longer.
Last night, Woodson and D’Antoni squared off at the Garden as the surging Knicks beat D’Antoni’s slumping Lakers, 116-107. D’Antoni is 4-9 since taking over last month for the fired Mike Brown.
Woodson said his first speech to the club was met with a lot of stunned silence when he told it he’d be holding its three stars — Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler — more accountable for the team’s fortunes. The implication was D’Antoni didn’t hold the stars accountable, and that’s why Anthony underachieved.
“When I took over the team, maybe I scared them into playing. I don’t know,’’ Woodson said at yesterday’s morning shootaround. “I had things I had to get off my chest being back in the driver’s seat as a head coach.
“I stated what I wanted, what I expected from guys and who I was going to hold mostly accountable, which was Melo, Amar’e and Tyson, at that particular time. They kind of knew where I was coming from. They bought in and we’ve been playing pretty good basketball since then. Maybe I scared them into playing.’’
Woodson is 35-11 clip since taking over. He was 18-6 last season and is 17-5 this season after last night’s win.
“It got kind of quiet in that room,’’ Woodson said of his initial speech. “I was kind of out on a limb when I said that, but I meant it. They’ve done it the longest in the league and they were going to compile most of the minutes. I can’t expect to go at Iman [Shumpert], who [was] a rookie who won’t play big-time minutes. I got to hold them and expect them to do the right things in terms of policing guys and being more of a leader on the team. It was the right thing to do.’’
Asked if the accountability wasn’t high enough before he grabbed control, Woodson said, “I’m not going there. … What happened before happened and we moved on.’’
* Anthony will be the starting forward alongside LeBron James for the Eastern Conference as long as the All-Star voting holds up.
Anthony, who left last night’s game in the third quarter with an ankle injury, was ranked second among frontcourt players in the first voting results released yesterday. Voting closes Jan. 14 and the All-Star Game will be held in Houston on Feb. 17.
Anthony, who has started four All-Star games, had 573,112 votes, behind James’ 639,419 but well ahead of third-place Kevin Garnett’s 218,246 votes.