Late in the Knicks’ season-opening rout of the Heat on Friday night, the fans at Madison Square Garden chanted “MVP!” for Carmelo Anthony.
“The Garden is one of the loudest places, so of course you hear that,” Anthony said yesterday. “But it’s one game for me, one game for us. We took care of our home opener. Now it’s Philly.”
The next step comes this afternoon at the Garden, where the Knicks play host to the 76ers as part of a back-to-back home-and-home with their Atlantic Division rivals.
Anthony and Co. will try to avoid a letdown performance after the incredible high of Friday night’s 104-84 drubbing of the Heat in the first post-Sandy sports event in New York.
The game today is at noon, not in prime time. It’s no longer the season or home opener. And the Sixers hardly match the Heat’s hype.
“It’s my job to make sure that guys don’t come out flat,” coach Mike Woodson said.
“There’s no need for us to take a step backwards right now,” Anthony added, “especially after a great win against Miami.”
Like the Knicks, the Sixers are dramatically reconstructed from last season. They are without three of last season’s top five scorers in Lou Williams (now with Atlanta), Andre Iguodala (Denver) and Elton Brand (Dallas).
In dealing Iguodala to Denver as part of the four-team Dwight Howard megatrade, the Sixers got back star center Andrew Bynum from the Lakers, but he is out with a right knee bone bruise.
Still, the Sixers won their opener Wednesday against the Nuggets, holding Denver to 75 points.
The Knicks also were impressive defensively in limiting Miami to 84 points, though the Heat outshot them, 46.5 percent to 42.9 percent. The Knicks made up for it by nailing 19 of 36 attempts from 3-point range.
Anthony — of all people — said the Knicks’ defense is what ultimately matters for them.
“Although we didn’t shoot a great percentage from the field, from 2-point [territory], the most important thing was we played defense,” he said. “We know that we’re not going to shoot the ball that well every night, but if we can buckle down and defend like the way we did, then we’ll be fine.”
Added Jason Kidd, “The one thing that we did tell ourselves is that we can play defense. That’s something we have to hold each other accountable, that if you want to win in this league, you’ve got to play defense.”
It is illogical to draw too many conclusions after one game out of 82, and as Anthony said, they’re not going to hit 19 3-pointers every night. What’s more, three key Knicks — Amar’e Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert and Marcus Camby — did not play because of injuries.
Still, one thing that was notable was the Knicks didn’t look intimidated by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Heat. That has not always been the case.
“I think with the team we have now, we can compete with anybody,” Anthony said. “We’re a very deep team. Especially if we play the way we played [Friday] night.”