INDIANAPOLIS — Carmelo Anthony remembers the feeling last May, walking off the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse after a Roy Hibbert block, after the Pacers had knocked the Knicks into summer, winning the second-round playoff series in six games.
Thursday, the Knicks will make their first visit to Indy since the crushing loss ended the Knicks’ title hopes. The Pacers are a league-best 30-7.
“How can I forget the feeling?” Anthony said. “I can’t explain [the feeling]. It’s unexplainable. I will never forget that feeling.
“Indiana is rolling. They’re playing great, might be the best team in the NBA. It’s a tough game on their court, and we have to be prepared for that.”
Anthony, who has advanced past the first round just twice in his 10 playoff appearances, has suffered a lot of tough postseason defeats, so he won’t classify it as the lowest moment of his career. But it’s close.
Anthony was muted in the fourth quarter of all three playoff games in Indy to end an MVP-caliber season in disappointment. He repeatedly said during the 2012-13 season it was the best team he ever had been on.
It will also be a bittersweet night for center Tyson Chandler, who is battling back from bronchitis just as he was battling from strep throat last May and lost the low-post battle against Hibbert.
“I was [ticked] off the way we exited,” Chandler said. “Obviously we wanted to go further than that. But we can’t accomplish that in the next couple of days. We want to continue to build and start a new winning streak.”
Chandler was rusty in his Charlotte return Tuesday, when the Knicks’ five-game winning streak was snapped, so he doesn’t want to make too big a deal out of Thursday’s showdown. The Knicks have won six of eight games in 2014, showing signs of life, but they still own a 15-23 record.
“Right now it’s regular season,” Chandler said. “We played well against them throughout regular season [last year], but the playoffs is where it counts. Nobody remembers that. Nobody remember how well we played in regular season last year. They remember the end.
“It’s a big game, we need to get a win, but at the end of the day it’s still the regular season.”
The Knicks nearly beat the Pacers at the Garden in November. They were victims of a tough call against Iman Shumpert in the final seconds of regulation when he grazed Paul George on a 3-pointer, and George was awarded three free throws to tie the score.
The Knicks have beaten Miami and nearly beaten Indiana, which gives Woodson hope.
He doesn’t like the notion that some, including owner James Dolan, who believe Pacers coach Frank Vogel — who on Tuesday was named the coach of the Eastern All-Stars — got the better of Woodson last May.
In Woodson’s defense, he was forced into playing a feeble Amar’e Stoudemire, who had just returned from March knee surgery. Now Stoudemire is playing electric.
“He’s in a nice groove,” Woodson said. “If we stay in the neighborhood of 22, 25 minutes and get all our guys back, I think we’re going to be just fine. We’ll have a legitimate shot [at contending].”