The Knicks yesterday talked about the New Year, the new attitude and the new toughness the team has displayed this season, but all you had to do was look at point guard Raymond Felton to understand what these Knicks are all about.
Felton stood against the wall at the team’s practice facility with his left hand bandaged. Asked about the nagging injury, Felton, who did practice, shook off questions by saying, “It’s a little sore, I’ll be all right.”
Asked again about the bruised hand, he said, “I can deal with it.” He then shut down all questions on the injury by saying, “I don’t talk about pain.”
Felton will be on the court today when the Knicks kick off the New Year at the Garden against the Pacers. At 18-14 the Knicks have their best mark at this point in the season since 2001.
For the Knicks, the last 10 years have been the Lost Decade. They have not won a playoff game at the Garden since April 22, 2001. They haven’t won a playoff series since beating the Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Miami on May 21, 2000.
To put that in perspective, Landry Fields was 12.
Making the playoffs is all that matters for Amar’e Stoudemire’s Knicks. They must take care of business against the 14-17 Pacers. The raging Spurs visit Tuesday and then the Knicks go on a four-game Western swing.
“You’ve got to protect your home gym,” said Felton, who missed 10 of 13 3-point attempts in the losses at Miami and Orlando and is coming off an overall 6-for-22 performance against the Magic. “It’s going to be a tough fight. We had a great West Coast swing the first time, but we have to take care of these two games at home first.”
As for what the Knicks have accomplished, Felton said, “It’s a winning record. Who wouldn’t take 18-14? But at the same time we’re not going to say we are satisfied, because we feel we can be a whole lot better, that’s what we are working hard for.”
Coach Mike D’Antoni said the Knicks must eliminate “those spells where we go brain-dead sometimes” to grow. “We competed twice down in Florida, but it’s not good enough,” he added. “We’ve shown signs of being really good. We just have to make it through 48 [minutes] and be sure we keep improving.”
As for his New Year’s wish list, “The biggest thing is to make the playoffs,” the coach said. “That’s our whole goal, whatever it takes, that’s what we need to do; to be able to do that we do need to play better defense and be a little more active on the rebounding. We’re just plugging away, trying to get as many wins as we can and get to the playoffs. We’ve shown a lot of improvement since training camp and we need to make another jump.”
Surmised team president Donnie Walsh, “I’m pleased with where we are right now because I thought our schedule was a very difficult schedule for a new team. I think they think they can beat all the teams. I haven’t seen signs of them getting worn down, mainly because the games have been close against those teams. We have to keep getting better and I think we will.”
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Young center Jerome Jordan, who was acquired from Milwaukee and is currently playing in Europe, visited the Knicks yesterday. His club is on holiday break. Walsh is excited about Jordan’s progress and said he can only hope Jordan emulates what one of his former Pacers — Antonio Davis — did by going to Europe. “He’s getting a lot of coaching,” Walsh said. “He’s maturing. They just let the other center go. Jerome got 23 points in his last game.”