The Knicks may have to play another game without Carmelo Anthony, who is officially being listed as questionable for Friday’s game against first-place Toronto while he nurses a sprained left ankle. Mike Woodson said Anthony will be evaluated Friday morning, but it seems as if Anthony may want to save himself for the second night of the back-to-back in Toronto.
Now, Knicks fans talk about blowing it up, trading Anthony at the February deadline and starting over.
Why? So they can be as terrible as they were Christmas Day for the next five years?
Last season, as Kevin Durant pointed out after Wednesday’s 29-point win, the Knicks nearly beat the Thunder without Anthony, losing by one point at the Garden. That was last season’s team.
Yes, Anthony has not been clutch enough in the final minute of games, but his rebounding, defense and scoring spirit is as good, maybe even better, as last season. His absence on Christmas underscored how badly this team relies on him. And that’s not a good thing.
J.R. Smith, a vibrant force last season whenever Anthony was out, attempted to pick up the slack. He took 22 shots, made eight and ultimately was jeered by an otherwise quiet crowd. Andrea Bargnani seems in a funk since his boneheaded shot in Milwaukee last week and Mike Woodson limited him to 16 minutes.
Tyson Chandler had the quote of Christmas when he said the litany of “holes’’ on the Knicks, he’d miss his kids opening presents if he recited them. Chandler, one of the premier team defenders in the NBA, likely was referring to the team’s inability to execute its defensive rotations properly. It is why Bargnani played so little. Amar’e Stoudemire, while racking up 22 points, was a statue on D. It’s painful for him to vie for rebounds, and there’s a poster out of the Thunder’s Reggie Jackson throwing one down on Stoudemire’s head late in the fourth.
Woodson has talked for the past two weeks about getting “a full deck.’’ But one wonders whether the Knicks ever will get healthy. They almost were in the first half in Orlando on Monday, when they built a 24-point lead at intermission.
Then Anthony went down and Raymond Felton went down. Now the Knicks are playing Beno Udrih, who seems disgruntled with the criticism he has received, as their starting point guard.
“Orlando was the first time all season we had Raymond, J.R., Iman [Shumpert], Melo and Tyson on the floor, we looked like our team from last season,’’ Woodson said before the Thunder game. “I walked in at halftime. I felt good how we played in the first half. It was the first time from a coaching standpoint that I felt good about what I saw. Then the injuries hit us again in the third quarter.
“Melo is having a solid season, but again it takes everybody to make a season successful. Not just Melo. I’m not putting it all on his shoulders. That was it about last season. Everyone did their part.’’
No one’s doing their part this season except Melo.