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SAN FRANCISCO — Go West, old men!
Amar’e Stoudemire stayed in New York for another impending knee surgery as the NBA’s oldest, most fragile title contender flew West yesterday. The Knicks embark on their long-feared, five-game, eight-day West Coast trip, opening tonight against Stephen Curry and Golden State.
Stoudemire is out for the regular season and may not be back until the second round of the playoffs, if the Knicks get that far. Carmelo Anthony is highly uncertain to play tonight, listed as questionable, possibly missing his fourth straight game with a sore/stiff right knee. The good news is the Knicks have not announced that Anthony needs surgery, too. The better bet is Anthony will be ready for Wednesday’s homecoming in Denver, where he played the first seven-plus seasons of his career.
This Knicks’ traveling road circus — and they are built on stilts — is lacking star power. They have more concerns than just the Pacific time zone as Mike Woodson has to again re-jigger rotations.
To escape the west without getting massacred, the Knicks (38-22) will need vibrant 3-point shooting from Steve Novak, consistency from J.R. Smith and throwback defensive performances from Kenyon Martin. And perhaps Anthony will return with the same defensive mindset he had earlier in the season when the Knicks were streaking without Stoudemire.
“We’ve talked a lot about this trip,’’ Novak said. “We know it’s been coming. The whole month is not very gentle. It’s something we talked about a lot, so we’re ready for it. We put the [five] teams on the board and said, ‘Look, here’s who we are playing.’ Obvious it’s a change with Amar’e out now, but hopefully we’ll get Melo back soon.’’
A disastrous trip could threaten the Knicks’ 2 1/2-game lead on the Nets in the Atlantic Division and hurt their chances of securing the second seed from Indiana. (They’re a half-game ahead of the Pacers after Indiana’s loss to the Heat yesterday). But this trip stood as a beast — even with Anthony and Stoudemire.
Now an 0-5 trip isn’t farfetched. They face the Warriors, Nuggets, Blazers, Clippers and Jazz, who are a combined 183-135, with only the Blazers under .500.
“You’d like to win them all, that’s the goal,’’ Woodson said. “I just want to see us compete and put ourselves in position to win. We have five games. If we come back over .500 [on the trip], I’m happy. It’s a successful road trip. If we win them all, then I’m really happy.’’
There’s a compelling argument they can lose them all. The Warriors nearly beat the Knicks 12 days ago when the Knicks couldn’t control Curry’s 54-point barrage — and Golden State was without All-Starforward David Lee, the ex-Knick.
In Denver, they will face the altitude and hostile crowd bent on making life miserable for Anthony, who forced a trade in 2010-11. Blazers rookie point guard Damian Lillard tore them up at the Garden in a 105-100 Blazers win Jan. 1 and the Knicks will be on the second night of a back-to-back.
The deeper Clippers outclassed the Knicks in the Garden meeting. Though the Knicks just routed Utah at the Garden on Saturday, the Jazz were at the end of a four-game road trip, just like the Knicks will be at the end of their five-game sojourn. The Knicks also haven’t won in Utah since 2005.
“We’ve got a tough road trip here, [but] we’ll be happy to get Melo back,’’ Jason Kidd said.
Novak and Smith combined for 44 points vs. Utah as they survived without Stoudemrie and Anthony. Woodson ran more half-court sets to free up Novak beyond the arc. Smith took it to the basket instead of relying on his step-back jumper.
“I need him to be J.R. and score like he’s been scoring,’’ Woodson said. “But Novak is a major key. He made some moves [Saturday] that we hadn’t seen before off the dribble. We have to find ways for Novak to score because it opens it up.’’
Tyson Chandler doesn’t want to hear about missing Anthony and Stoudemire.
“It’s the New York Knicks,’’ Chandler said. “It ain’t about Amar’e. It ain’t about Melo. It’s not about Chandler or any other individual. It’s a team. It’s not tennis or golf. ‘’
Indeed, the Knicks are the NBA’s deepest team outside the Clippers and got off to a 21-9 start before Stoudemire returned from his first knee surgery. The Knicks have also been better defensively since Anthony crumpled in the second quarter in Cleveland a week ago.
“Every night has been a total team effort defensively,’’ Woodson said. “That’s something that had slippage in the past.’’
Without Stoudemire’s low-post game, though, the Knicks may have to be 3-point gunslingers in the Wild West to survive.
marc.berman@nypost.com