It wasn’t all that long ago that descriptions like “championship contenders” were applied to the Knicks.
Now, with the season not even half over, their best player calls today’s meeting in the Garden against the team with the worst record in the West a “must win.”
That’s what happens when you get pushed around at home and play with all the physicality and toughness of custard.
“We’ve got to approach it as a must win for us, get this little monkey off our back,” Carmelo Anthony said of the noon matinee with the 11-25 Hornets.
Coach Mike Woodson has called for some toughness from his Knicks. Now he’s not asking for carnage and destruction and laying asunder of opponents, but a little channeling of their inner Charles Oakleys would be nice.
“I’m not condoning to hit people or anything like that,” said Woodson who showed the Knicks film of recent games, like Indiana (good), San Antonio (real good), Boston (bad) and Friday’s game with Chicago (real bad). “We’ve just got to be a little more physical.
“We were that way when we started the season and we’ve had some slippage in that area,” Woodson said. “I look at the Boston game and the two Chicago games here at home. They were the tougher team. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. They were tougher.”
And players readily acknowledge it. Hard not to. The Knicks’ defense early on was one of the NBA’s biggest surprises. Now, they have dropped to 14th in points allowed (97.06) and a dismal 23rd in field goal percentage (.458).
“Our defensive intensity to start the game up has been lacking the last few games other than the Indiana game,” said guard J.R. Smith, who agreed with Anthony this is a “must win” scenario. “We’ve got to come in and be focus and play aggressively on defense.
“I felt like that last game. This game definitely. We’ve got to figure out how to especially protect home court.”
Oh yeah, home. They were 10-0 at home at one point and now are 13-5, having lost the last two. Pretty soon they’ll sing, “There’s no place like the road.”
“We have to get back out there and get after it defensively and stay with the principles that Coach Woodson puts forth,” Amar’e Stoudemire said. “We’ve got to get back on track. Character is being built now. We’re having a low point.”
Real low. The Knicks suddenly have divisional concerns. The Nets are hot and are within two games. Boston is now four behind. So Woodson dumped the “Scarface” DVD and cued up recent game films.
“He showed us the San Antonio game … Indiana. And then he showed us from [Friday] night,” said Anthony, who added Woodson’s critique didn’t upset the Knicks but they will “take it as motivation.
“It was just a lack of communication. We wasn’t communicating, we wasn’t talking. And the games we’ve been losing are the games that we don’t talk and we don’t communicate with one another,”
“We take it as something we need to take heed to. We need to get back playing the way we’ve been playing.”
And not like a bunch of old softies.
“We need to get back to what we should be about,” Woodson said. “It ain’t about trying to outscore teams, which we’ve been struggling in that area of late. It’s about trying to defend, rebound and then we figure out the offense once we get the ball.”