Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t played yet this preseason and hasn’t had a chance to build chemistry on the court with his Knicks teammates. But the veteran power forward said that’s about to change, returning to 5-on-5 contact drills yesterday and vowing he’ll “absolutely” play in Friday’s preseason game against the Raptors.
“It feels good. My legs were a little heavy. I was trying to find my wind, but it felt great to be back out there,’’ said Stoudemire, who suffered a bruised left ankle last Wednesday. “I was able to work on a few [post] moves down there, just to get a feel back. I’ve been out of practice the past four, five days. It takes a few days to get back in top shape, but I’ll be ready to go.’’
J.R. Smith also returned from a sore left ankle and should play.
“I thought they looked OK — a little rusty in terms of their wind, running up and down. But that’ll come, the way we practice,’’ coach Mike Woodson said.
Stoudemire was looking forward to scrimmaging and building chemistry with the Knicks’ trio of seasoned point guards, whom he gushed over yesterday.
“It’s going to be a phenomenal year. Those guys are very, very great at creating offense,’’ Stoudemire said. “Pablo [Prigioni], a lot of people aren’t familiar with his game, but he’s great at passing the ball, he’s a great distributor. So are Jason [Kidd] and Raymond [Felton].
“Those floor generals out there with the lineup out there and the guys we got coming off the bench, we got a pretty solid team. These next four days of practice are going to be very key for us to get sharp and get ready for the next game.’’
* Rasheed Wallace didn’t do 5-on-5 work but spent most of the practice doing conditioning work, with Woodson noncommittal about when he would play.
“He’s starting to pick it up a little bit more in terms of getting up and down the floor with his conditioning work,’’ Woodson said. “It’s just a matter of time before we get him back.’’
* Steve Novak sat out practice, but the Knicks said it was just a “recovery” day after he logged 32 minutes Thursday and 38 minutes Saturday. … Ronnie Brewer (left medial meniscus) and Marcus Camby (left calf strain) didn’t practice, but Woodson said Brewer was “getting close.”