When Baron Davis entered the home locker room following the Knicks’ 103-65 beatdown of the Wizards last night, he was serenaded by his teammates.
First they sang “Happy Birthday” to the point guard, who turned 33 yesterday. Then they plastered him with a face full of cupcakes.
“It was probably the best birthday experience,” Davis said after cleaning the icing off his face and beard.
It was a special day all around for Davis. His family was in attendance, there was the victory over the Wizards and he got a bubble machine for a present.
“It fills up the room with pint-size bubbles,” Davis said, sounding like a kid at Christmas.
There was also the season-high 18 points he scored on 7-of-9 shooting in what just about everyone in Orange and Blue agreed was his best performance as a Knick.
“It was nice to see him have a breakout game,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “He did some nice things on the floor.”
With Davis orchestrating the offense, the Knicks avoided a possible trap game by doing what was expected against the lowly Wizards. The Knicks pounced on the visitors early, jumping to a 26-13 lead at the end of the first quarter. When Washington cut the deficit to eight points midway through the second quarter, the Knicks used a 16-1 run to break the game open for good.
Davis was in the thick of it all, shooting 4-of-5 from 3-point range. About the only negative was when he got dunked on by John Wall, but that was for just two of only 8 points Wall scored on the night.
Davis credited a pregame talk he had with former Knick Allan Houston for helping find a happy medium between trying to do too much and thinking too much in compensating for the back and leg injuries he is trying to battle through.
“I came in with a lighter load,” Davis said. “Since I’ve been playing with the injuries, I’ve been pressing myself to be right and give all I can and not really thinking about offense or relaxing and settling into a flow. Maybe because it is my birthday I was little lighter and having more fun in the locker room. Guys need me to do that, keep the spirits up and keep everybody laughing. I think that translated into me settling down on the court and finding my pace. I got my legs under me.”
Houston, who endured his own share of injuries during his Knicks career, said Davis was trying to think too much on the court.
“I’ve been there,” Houston said. “Mentally, it can wear on you trying to figure out what you can and cannot do. He was trying to figure out where his body is at. It’s hard. He’s got to take a lot of the thinking out so he can just play and get used to the adjustment in his body.”
It has been a challenging season for Davis, who signed with the Knicks as a free agent because he has known Tyson Chandler and Carmelo Anthony since they were youngsters. He is often either riding an exercise bike or putting a heat pad on his back — he missed the first two months with a herniated disk — during timeouts just to stay loose. At times he has looked 43 instead of 33.
“I’m just so thankful just to be able to be out there and be playing,” he said. “This team took a chance on me when I could barely walk. The training staff and the doctors and the therapist, they got me into a position where I could go out there and perform and play. I’m just thankful to be out there and to be playing. It’s a great organization and a great team, and I’m just happy to be here.”
The Knicks will need Davis to have another solid game tomorrow when they play the Heat. A victory would be just as nice as the bubble machine and cupcakes in the face.