After running a grueling stretch in March, with 18 games packed into a single month, the Knicks had a choice between using three consecutive days between games to practice hard or give players some rest. The Knicks chose the latter, and they hope it will benefit Amar’e Stoudemire most of all.
“I think we’ve got to be careful. We played 18 games in 30 days and we’ve just got to be careful,” said coach Mike D’Antoni, who gave his team Thursday off and held a scaled-down practice yesterday that consisted of little more than film work and a light shootaround.
“Amar’e, Carmelo [Anthony], if they can’t go, then it really doesn’t do any good to just run the other guys into the ground,” he said. “We just worked on individual stuff, get their minds straight, watch film and make sure we know what we’re doing. [Today] we’ll have a good practice, and get ready for Sunday.”
Stoudemire has appeared to wear down of late, after largely carrying the team on his back and logging the most minutes he has in his career. He’s averaging a career-high 37 minutes, well over his lifetime norm of 34, and it has taken a toll.
After being dominant in the fourth quarter earlier in the season, he has shot just 38.9 percent in the fourth over the past seven games. That’s why D’Antoni acknowledged some rest — and tomorrow’s expected return of Ronny Turiaf — would serve his All-Star big man well.
“It’s good,” said D’Antoni, acknowledging Stoudemire needed the break. “Probably. Mentally, I think so. Physically, he played 82 games last year and played two less minutes than he’s playing now. But I think [that] psychologically he could use a break. He’s been carrying the load for eight months.”
March was the most grueling the Knicks have suffered in years — it was their first 18-game month since 2003, because of a rescheduled game with the Magic from November after the Garden’s asbestos scare.
“I worried about the month of March back in October,” team president Donnie Walsh said. “And then we made the trade, and that made it even harder. So I’m glad to get out of it. It’s a very, very difficult thing to be going into March with 18 games — you’re playing back-to-backs a lot.”
The Knicks’ schedule lightens up starting tomorrow against Cleveland, who already have beaten the Knicks three times this season.
Though the Knicks have a magic number of three to clinch a playoff spot following the Bobcats’ loss last night in Orlando, D’Antoni said he is taking nothing for granted.
“We have a better sched ule now, but we’ve still got to close it out,” D’Antoni said. “We’re not there yet. We have to keep play ing.”
And part of that en tails playing faster, getting back to the pace that saw them average 97.8 posses sions per game, according to Hoopsda ta.com. Since the Anthony deal, the ball has moved less and their game has slowed down.
Their pace slowed to 92.3 in their six-game losing streak, but has sped back up to 101.5 in back-to-back wins over Orlando and the Nets, a pace D’Antoni wants to see through the rest of the regular season and hopefully postseason.
“Much better. I have a general feeling, my sense is it’s better. It went from 98 to 88 [in recent games]. We were losing about 10 possessions,” D’Antoni said. “It’s getting better. Our last game we put up 120 points, so we’ll see over two or three games. We’ll see.”