Amar’e Stoudemire was out and Metta World Peace was in Friday night.
The only thing the Knicks lost was seeing Stoudemire play in a back-to-back scenario for the first time this season.
World Peace, who before the Knicks’ 121-83 systematic beatdown of the Magic said his early season performances solidified his belief that “given the minutes, I could average 20 points,” backed up the words by scoring 12 points in 25 minutes to emerge as one of seven Knicks double figure scorers.
World Peace said his only focus is on winning — not minutes or playing time. Against the Magic, the focus was at a high level for him and everybody else on the home side.
World Peace — who essentially was dropped from the rotation, he had a total of 14 minutes in his three previous games — got his chance when Stoudemire was given the game off after playing 19 minutes against the Nets Thursday.
“He just didn’t feel like he was ready so we’re going to be cautious of that and hopefully the next back-to-back he’ll be ready to go,” coach Mike Woodson said of Stoudemire, who is expected to play Sunday.
Stoudemire had played in six straight games, going anywhere from 14 to 25 minutes. But he always had at least one day off in between. Now his next chance for a back-to-back will be Tuesday and Wednesday when the Knicks play on the road in Cleveland and then come home to face the Bulls.
So World Peace filled in for Stoudemire, and no one seemed more psyched with the outcome than Woodson.
“I can’t say this loud enough: Every team I’ve ever coached I felt the bench has to be just as important as the guys who start the game,” said Woodson, who referred again to his mantra that minutes don’t matter, what you do with them does.
“I can’t play everybody. I’m not promising anybody minutes,” Woodson said. “It’s what you do with the minutes when you’re out there.”
World Peace gave a positive effort with his minutes but said winning overrides playing time.
“When you focus on winning, you don’t have time to focus on minutes,” World Peace said. “So when I’m on the bench, I’m focused on winning. When I’m sitting on the bench, I want to win. When I’m in the game, I want to win. When I’m home, I want to win.”
World Peace emphasized he is healthy, and the left knee that twice was drained this season is currently not an issue.
“The knee is a thing where if it gets drained it will affect me for a day or two,” World Peace said. “The first time I had it drained, I came right back the next day so the last time I had it drained I sat out two games. Other than that I feel great.”