NBA

Amar’e: Woodson, not doctors, keeping minutes down

Amar’e Stoudemire is tired of hearing about limits and hungry for minutes.

After being relegated to the periphery of the Knicks’ rotation, and having to listen to Mike Woodson repeatedly talk about medical limitations, a miffed Stoudemire set the record straight. He said it’s Woodson, not the team’s doctors or trainers, who is curtailing his time on the floor.

“From a doctor’s standpoint, there hasn’t been limitations since the first week of the season. So we can’t keep saying limitations, that’s a coach’s decision at the end of the day,’’ said Stoudemire. “I feel great. I am ready to play. But it’s up to him if he wants to play me or not.’’

Heading into Wednesday night’s game at the Garden against the Trail Blazers, Stoudemire is averaging just 18.9 minutes per game — the lowest of his career barring his injury-shortened, three-game season in 2005-06. But the proud six-time All-Star said he’s not limited medically, that his minutes are being limited by his coach, not the Knicks training staff. He obviously wants more playing time, and has repeatedly gotten in Woodson’s ear lobbying. So far, it has fallen on deaf ears.

“Yeah, I talk to coach all the time about it,’’ Stoudemire said. “He knows I’m ready. He knows how hard I train. He watches me in the weight room and also on the basketball court. The whole training staff knows, the Knicks organization knows how hard I train. I’m ready to play; but it depends on how the game’s played.’’

After missing seven straight games with a sprained left ankle and bone bruise — the Knicks closing that stretch on a four-game winning streak — Stoudemire returned to the court with a four-minute, two-point cameo in Saturday’s loss to Miami. Then he had seven points and four boards in 17 minutes during Monday’s 101-98 loss at woeful Milwaukee, the NBA’s worst team.

Stoudemire is averaging 9.3 points on 53.9 percent shooting with 4.2 rebounds. The Knicks talked often of limiting his minutes earlier in the season to keep him fresh for the playoffs; but they’re just 19-29, on the outside of the playoff picture, and Stoudemire is confident he can help in their postseason push.

That is, if Woodson will let him.

“I feel great, man. It don’t take much for me. I have been playing at a high level my entire career. I know what it takes to get back to the top of the game. I know what it takes to feel confident. That’s never going to go away,’’ Stoudemire said. “It’s just a matter of how the coach is going to play me. I am available if they need me. If not, then we go with that.’’

The offseason acquisition of Andrea Bargnani forced Woodson to at least tinker with a bigger lineup of Tyson Chandler at center, Bargnani at power forward and Carmelo Anthony at small forward. The Knicks appear to be best suited with Anthony playing power forward, as he did while winning the NBA scoring title last season. Sitting 1 ½ games out of the last playoff spot, they need every win they can get.

“Well, you never want to get to this point where you got to apply more pressure to win. But we put ourselves in this position, so now we really got to focus in now to get these wins,’’ Stoudemire said. “And we got tough games coming up. We got Portland [Wednesday] and it’s not easy from there.’’

It wasn’t the first time there has been seeming discord between Stoudemire and Woodson over the former’s status. Earlier this season, Woodson had expressed uncertainty about how much time Stoudemire would miss due, and the forward immediately took to Twitter to declare that he wasn’t injured.