NBA

D’Antoni not on Raptors radar

Raptors general manage Bryan Colangelo said he expects Mike D’Antoni to return to the sidelines soon, but said his close friend won’t wind up in Toronto.

“We’re locked down with our coaching, with [Dwane] Casey,” Colangelo said Monday, trying to nip in the bud any talk of his former Phoenix coach going north of the border after leaving the Knicks. “We’re in the first year of what I hope will be a long-term relationship.”

Colangelo was D’Antoni’s boss with the Suns and spoke to the former Knicks coach briefly over the weekend. D’Antoni’s reputation is still great around the NBA despite four tumultuous seasons in New York, Colangelo said.

“Oh, yeah, I anticipate he gets a job in the near-term future, if it’s not next year,” Colangelo said. “If he wants to coach, I’m sure he’ll get an opportunity. He’s a very good coach, an innovative coach.”

Two jobs likely to be available for D’Antoni at season’s end will be in Washington and Portland.

Colangelo said a lot of “uncontrollable things” affected D’Antoni’s tenure, including “blending talent in midseason.” D’Antoni coached 58 players with the Knicks.

Colangelo spent 25 minutes in discussion with Leon Rose, Carmelo Anthony’s agent, and the Raptors boss would not comment on the Anthony-D’Antoni relationship.

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Knicks backup point guard Baron Davis missed his second straight game Tuesday night. He is sidelined with a strained right hamstring.

With Davis out, Mike Bibby again served as Jeremy Lin’s sub. Bibby, who played under Mike Woodson in Atlanta, logged 11 minutes, scoring one point and notching two steals but missing all three of his shots.

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Woodson said that not coaching last season helped him improve on the sidelines.

“A long year off being away from the game, but it gave me an opportunity to kind of re-think some things and try to get better in areas where I failed,” said Woodson, who coached the Hawks for six seasons until 2009-10.