OLD GORY: Jason Kidd and the Knicks, who have stumbled after a quick start, could use Amar’e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert to stabilize their lineup, writes The Post’s Marc Berman. (CSM/Landov)
Dear Amar’e and Iman: Greetings from Houston. Happy holidays. Get well soon!
That would be my succinct Texas postcard to the two Knicks absentee studs.
It’s time to re-evaluate the notion Amar’e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert — namely the former — will rock the Knicks’ Love Boat upon their returns.
After the Knicks became Texas toast in Dallas and Houston, the premise is laughable. Through 11 games, the Knicks are 8-3 but starting to look their age — old.
Seventy-one games are left to play, including today’s panacea matchup against the inept Pistons in a 1 p.m. Garden matinee that will prove nothing. Tomorrow, the Knicks finally get their makeup game in Brooklyn against the hot 7-4 Nets. Deron Williams and Co. will want to knock the Knicks back over the Williamsburg Bridge.
The Knicks “Lindefensible’’ performance in giving up 131 points to Jeremy Lin’s Rockets on Friday had to give owner James Dolan indigestion. It was the most points scored by the Rockets in the Toyota Center’s 10-year history and came on the heels of 114 points scored by the Mavericks against the Knicks on Wednesday in Dallas.
The Knicks, the league’s oldest team, need all the help they can get after being humiliated by the NBA’s youngest team. The Texas losses don’t soil their heady start, but grind it to a screeching halt.
“Defensively,’’ Jason Kidd said, “we’ve got to find some answers. We are a team defense and we just didn’t do those things right.’’
Who figured Rasheed Wallace would look like the Knicks’ MVP? His sudden absence in Houston ripped out their defensive heart on a night center Tyson Chandler appeared to labor. Chandler perhaps was slowed by knocking knees in the first quarter and needed treatment after the game.
The Knicks are calling Wallace’s injury “a sore foot,’’ but it sounds as if it could be plantar fasciitis, which can linger. Wallace notified coach Mike Woodson he couldn’t go less than an hour before tip-off.
Starting small forward Ronnie Brewer, who had a lively start to the season, has been much less active recently and was the first of many to get torched Friday by the Rockets’ Chandler Parsons. Brewer’s knee swelled up in Orlando 11 days ago, and a source said he still is laboring with the issue. He left the bench at one point Friday.
Shumpert told The Post recently his target date for return is January, not December. The former Georgia Tech guard will be a dynamo to aid the Knicks’ on-the-ball defense and take pressure off Brewer. Before suffering a torn ACL, Shumpert was among the best perimeter defenders in basketball in his rookie season.
Woodson, who has seen his club go from No. 1 in defensive scoring average to 11th, seemed ready to punch someone to the moon in “Space City’’ Friday night.
“Our effort on the ball in a one-on-one position, it’s been awful,’’ Woodson said. “It started in Dallas. This was unacceptable and awful — awful performance on our part. We got the record we have because the way we’ve been defending. Our defense has held us in and has created offense for us. Now we’re just trying to outscore teams and that’s not good enough.’’
No, it’s not good enough. Nor was it good enough that Carmelo Anthony committed his most selfish act of the season in the third quarter. Anthony had missed on a contested drive in the lane and didn’t get a call. On the way downcourt, instead of defending, he kept yapping at referee Curtis Blair as the Rockets’ Patrick Patterson soared in for an uncontested dunk. Anthony has been too focused on defense and less on numbers to let that happen. Woodson, Mr. Accountability, should have benched Anthony as a reminder.
That said, Anthony’s inside-outside game is unstoppable at his new power-forward slot. But he’s not getting enough calls and getting in foul trouble.
Enter Stoudemire.
When their road trip began in New Orleans on Tuesday, Woodson wouldn’t commit to Stoudemire as a starter upon his scheduled return in mid-December.
If Brewer’s health doesn’t improve, Woodson may have to get Stoudemire into the lineup. If the Brewer-Kidd-Raymond Felton three-guard alignment works the way it did during their 8-1 start, Stoudemire is best served as a sixth man, perfect to spot Anthony and the marquee player of the second unit, putting less pressure on J.R. Smith.
Stoudemire is also the perfect guy to accept a bench role because he is more about winning than anyone. His arrival in New York started to turn the franchise’s losing culture around. Don’t forget that.
The Knicks will need Stoudemire and Shumpert. Get well soon, guys.