The Knicks’ rocky preseason became a watery one yesterday.
Hurricane Sandy knocked out yesterday’s 11 a.m. practice and imperils today’s in Tarrytown. Why does this matter so much? Why is Coach Mike Woodson’s famous black goatee ready to turn gray?
Amid a report last night that said Amar’e Stoudemire may miss six weeks to cap an injury-wracked preseason, Woodson spoke of a silver lining of having six straight days of practices to develop teamwork and chemistry with the Knicks finally getting healthy. That silver lining has been tarnished by Sandy.
The marathon sessions were to be capped by scrimmages with referees yesterday, today and tomorrow leading into Thursday’s ballyhooed season opener in Brooklyn. That will be followed by Friday’s home opener at the Garden against the defending champion Miami Dream Team.
Several Knicks, including Jason Kidd, Kurt Thomas and Carmelo Anthony, live in Manhattan and couldn’t get to upper Westchester. Things were to turn from bad to worse today, though some players thought of getting up to Westchester yesterday before the worst of it hits.
In fact, Woodson joked Sunday after the team’s light Garden walkthrough, “I was telling [the public relations staff] to get cots because I still want to practice regardless.’’
Six rotation players — J.R. Smith, Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace, Ronnie Brewer, Iman Shumpert and Amar’e Stoudemire — combined to play just four preseason games, so continuity will be a big issue with the season two days away.
Stoudemire and Shumpert, both projected as starters, are the lone players definitely out for the opener. Shumpert (ACL surgery) is out to at least mid-December. Stoudemire could be sidelined a few more weeks with a ruptured cyst in his left knee. A source said his former Suns doctor was sent his MRI results and agreed with the Knicks’ diagnosis, and a report said Stoudemire likely may miss the first six weeks of the season.
Shumpert made a lighthearted tweet about the hurricane.
“If I miss my first jumper when I return I’m blaming Sandy for cancelling my regularly scheduled workout,’’ Shumpert wrote.
Anthony feels the club has enough with Camby about to return.
“Right now, we have 85 percent of our guys being healthy,’’ Anthony said. “Our chances are definitely high. When Amar’e comes back, Shumpert comes back, we hope to have everyone healthy.’’
And when that happens, Kidd expects to compete for the Atlantic Division crown.
“We happen to be in the toughest division, the Atlantic,’’ Kidd said. “Four teams can easily win the division. We have our work cut out. We feel we’ll be right there at the end of the day.’’
Woodson has to make a decision as to whom will start at shooting guard against the Nets. Kurt Thomas is locked in at starting power forward because of the Nets’ big frontline of Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez. The Knicks were worst in the preseason in rebounding percentage.
Brewer played just the last two games of the preseason and looked very rusty around the hoop. Woodson may lean toward Kidd because Pablo Prigioni had a dynamite preseason and is well-entrenched in the rotation in a backup point guard role. Woodson wants Smith, who played one preseason game because of a sore Achilles, off the bench as sixth man.
Camby was supposed to make his return to full practice today and scrimmage, with an eye on the opener. But he hasn’t practiced fully in more than four weeks. Meanwhile, Wallace has just one scrimmage under his belt after missing all of the preseason to get into shape.
Tyson Chandler, who suffered his scary knee bruise last week against the Nets, planned to return to practice for the first time yesterday to make sure he’d be a go on opening night. That didn’t happen either.
Sadly, the Knicks are depending on Wallace way too much. The volatile veteran has shown a good outside shot, and was even knocking in bank shots all day during drills at the Garden Sunday, yelling “Chase’’ after connecting.
“Chase Manhattan Bank, because it’s always open,’’ Wallace said.
Wallace sat on the bench during the Nets game and was on the referees nonstop. Woodson finally went over to the NBA’s technical fouls leader to quiet him down.
Wallace is nothing if not volatile — as volatile as this storm surge that is doing more damage on the Knicks’ preseason.