Amar’e Stoudemire (AP)
The news about Amar’e Stoudemire’s back isn’t good. It can’t be anytime the words “bulging disk” and “out indefinitely” are used in the same statement.
Interim Knicks coach Mike Woodson is holding out hope Stoudemire won’t be gone long, but mentioned the possibility of second opinions and surgery which sounds like we’ve seen the last of Amar’e for a while.
Sure, it’s a devastating scenario coming off last season where Stoudemire injured his back during warm-ups before Game 2 of the opening-round playoff series against the Celtics. The Knicks, swept in four games, had no chance after that.
It shouldn’t doom the Knicks this time. Not if they have the talent and depth they’ve bragged about since stocking their roster once the NBA lockout ended. Not if they have the leadership and togetherness that they have often pointed to as the strengths of this team. Not if Woodson wants to be the Knicks’ long-term coach.
The easy way out is to point to Stoudemire’s injury and concede the season the way the Knicks did the playoffs to the Celtics last year. The easy way out is to point to a schedule that has the Knicks playing four games in six days — all likely without Stoudemire — and say the challenge was too great. That’s a loser’s way out.
“I think the more you talk about how tough it is, the more you give guys excuses,” Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said before the Knicks’ 89-80 victory over the Bucks. “We all get paid a lot of money to perform and the conditions shouldn’t really matter.”
Last night was a good start to how the Knicks should handle Stoudemire’s absence. They committed too many turnovers (23), shot just 35.1 percent from field and Carmelo Anthony tweaked his groin again, but the Knicks played with persistent determination and hustle at both ends to beat the Bucks and improve to 7-1 under Woodson.
“Guys were committed to this game,” said Anthony, who scored 28 points and gathered 11 rebounds. “It was a must-win situation. We responded well.”
The victory also gives the Knicks a 2 1/2 game lead over the Bucks for the final playoff spot, a cushion that becomes important with only a month left in the season. More important, this is what we need to see from the Knicks. That they won’t accept the easy way out like they’ve done so many times over the last decade.
Even Bucks guard Brandon Jennings (15 points) noticed the Knicks’ urgency, saying: “They did play a lot more aggressively,” than past games. “They just played harder,” he said.
Let’s face it. Stoudemire was struggling to average decent numbers: 17.6 points and eight rebounds per game. He has looked slow defensively and hasn’t been the game-changer he was a year ago. It’s not like the Heat losing Dwyane Wade. The leadership Stoudemire displays in the locker room might be the bigger loss, but even that is minimized by the presence of the very vocal Tyson Chandler.
The knee-jerk reaction is Anthony will have to go from being conformist to a scoring machine again. And even though he vowed to “step my game up in all aspects,” it can’t be a one-man show. Last night’s starting lineup of Baron Davis, Iman Shumpert, Landry Fields, Anthony, and Chandler with J.R. Smith and Steve Novak coming off the bench is plenty good enough. Cross your fingers that Anthony’s injury is just a tweak.
The Knicks have bragged about their depth being an asset. Now it’s time to put that depth to the test. If Woodson can get the Knicks into the playoffs, if they can face this adversity and not let it break them, then he’ll have made a case to keep the job permanently. There is plenty at stake over the final month of the regular season.
This is no time to take the easy way out.