‘UPS, ‘UPS & AWAY: Chauncey Billups goes up for a shot late in the fourth quarter of last night’s 120-116 Knicks win over the Nets at the Garden. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
There are still so many times when he seems a step and a half away from an AARP membership card, looking every second of 34 years old. At these moments, the groan you hear inside Madison Square Garden is tangible and telling, the message delivered to Chauncey Billups impossibly clear:
Give the ball up, old man.
For the love of God, give the ball up . . .
Except it was at precisely that moment last night when Billups did something else, went another way. After watching the Nets’ hotshot kid, Deron Williams, taunt and tantalize Madison Square Garden with his moves, his passing, his passion, his shooting and his undeniable energy, after listening to the Garden swoon over the young star for so long, Billups finally launched a counterpunch.
Finally got his game — and, sure, his groove — back.
“I always look forward to playing the young studs,” Billups said with a tired laugh, maybe half an hour after nailing two clinching free throws that finally lifted the Knicks to a 120-116 win over the feisty Nets. “When you’re talking about [Williams], he as good as it gets. I like playing him Like letting people know I’m still here.”
Williams had dragged himself and his bum wrist off the bench for this one, for his one shot at the Garden this year, for the ESPN cameras and the opportunity to give Manhattan a glimpse of what it’s missing. But you could see that even as he took his early measure of Billups, the older guard understood he was approaching a moment of judgment, too.
“Sure, I’ve been hurt,” Williams said. “But I play bad some nights when I’m feeling healthy, too.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Knicks’ blockbuster trade with the Nuggets last month, it was Billups who emerged as an underrated key in the deal. He played terrific ball in his first games as a Knick, putting an unconscious fourth quarter against the Cavaliers, a huge closing effort against the Heat and 3½ spectacular quarters against the Magic back-to-back-to-back.
But then his thigh collided with Dwight Howard’s knee. That was March 1, the very start of an exhausting month for the Knicks. That was 18 games ago. The moment of the collision, the Knicks were three games over .500, solidly in sixth place in the East, thinking about making a move on fifth.
Now, they simply were holding on. Before that fourth-quarter instant in Orlando, it was possible to ponder Billups joining Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire as a legitimate Big Three, the kind of triumvirate that can make springtime very interesting.
That version of Billups spent most of the month on ice, when Billups himself wasn’t wrapped in ice. When he returned he was a step slow and two steps out of synch, at a time when the Knicks desperately needed him at his very best. But he couldn’t be.
Last night, he was.
Billups took advantage of Williams picking up his fourth foul, but even in those moments when the two shared the court afterward, Billups was equal to the moment and the matchup. In the game’s key instant — Nets up 114-111, 3:03 to go, the Knicks with their toes tickling the edge of the abyss — Billups produced what’s become a signature play for him, deking and ducking and drawing a killer foul while launching a 3-pointer.
“I learned that play when I was young,” he said, smiling. “Sam Cassell taught it to me. While I was guarding him.”
And Billups, who makes nine out of every 10 foul shots he’s attempted for his career, knows how to compose music with that.
Swish.
Swish. Swish.
The final numbers were breathtaking: 33 points, six assists, zero turnovers, 10-for-10 from the stripe.
“I don’t know if Chauncey needs to be stimulated,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said of his showdown with Williams, who ended up with a fine line of his own, 22 points and eight assists and eight rebounds. “He has a big enough ego where he wants to play well, and he knows what’s at stake. That’s what it takes sometimes in this league.”
Being healthy doesn’t hurt, either. Makes the AARP card seem a little farther out of reach. And an interesting spring a little closer.