Mike Woodson was non-committal about his starting lineup for tonight’s game against the 76ers, though the coach said neither the lineup nor the rotation is causing the Knicks’ struggles.
“That’s not beating us,” Woodson said yesterday. “[Friday’s loss to Toronto] was a tie score after the first quarter, we were great in the second quarter and then that third quarter we went stale.
“We’ve got to figure out how we can jump on teams and see if we don’t have to worry about catching up to teams all the time. See if teams have to catch up to us.”
The Knicks have employed the same starting lineup for the past nine games — Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd in the backcourt with Iman Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler up front. The Knicks are 4-5 over that span, including four straight losses going into tonight.
Asked whether he wanted to keep the same starting five tonight, Woodson said, “Possibly. We’ll see.”
Anthony, Chandler and Felton will keep their starting spots in any scenario. Woodson could shift Kidd or Shumpert to the bench, perhaps moving Amar’e Stoudemire or J.R. Smith into the starting lineup. The last Knick to start besides the current five was James White when Kidd sat out with a sore lower back Jan. 30.
* Anthony practiced with the team before heading upstate to have his No. 15 Syracuse jersey retired at the Carrier Dome.
* Woodson said Rasheed Wallace (stress reaction) “went through some of the work [yesterday], but he’s a ways away still, I think.” He said Marcus Camby (strained plantar fascia) is “a little bit ahead of Rasheed at this point.”
* Woodson on whether he senses Stoudemire getting frustrated with his bench role: “He shouldn’t get frustrated. No, I don’t think he’s getting frustrated. He played right up to his level of minutes [Friday], he put up I think 12 to 14 shots [actually 10] and I thought he played pretty good.”