ATLANTA — Raymond Felton hinted at it again late Friday night in the visitor’s locker room at Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., after another Knicks loss: The defensive system coach Mike Woodson has employed can be beaten and exploited.
Woodson ripped the Knicks’ defensive performance in their 129-121 double-overtime defeat to the hapless Magic and the team followed that up with a 107-98 loss to the Hawks on Saturday, allowing 68 points in the second half. With 26 games remaining, the Knicks fell 5 ¹/₂ games behind the Nets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
What were the breakdowns?
“Not necessarily breakdowns,’’ Felton said Friday. “We’re in rotations. When you’re in rotations, you’re closing out to guys. It’s hard to stop a guy from driving, taking a shot. You got to give something up. Those guys did a good job of capitalizing when we were in rotations, and they made plays.’’
It has been a running theme since January: The Knicks switch too much on pick-and-rolls and find themselves scrambling during possessions, and the end result sometimes is an open shooter. Oladipo excelled all evening running the high pick-and-roll, in particular.
“We played six minutes of defense the whole entire game and two overtimes, and that was at the end of the second quarter,’’ Woodson said.
Say what you want about Carmelo Anthony when he played in Denver, but he never missed the playoffs there. Now in his 11th season, Anthony never has been home for the postseason after a one-year college career in which he won the NCAA title at Syracuse. Ten straight playoffs berths, though, could well end in April for the Knicks.
“I can’t imagine what that’s like,’’ Anthony said on not participating in the playoffs. “I’m not even trying to think about that at this point. We still have a lot of basketball left. Till that time comes, that’s the furthest thing from my mind.’’
The Knicks came out of the All-Star break realizing they had no margin for error. After losing three times on their current road trip, in Memphis and Orlando, things are even worse.
“Not a lot of room,’’ Chandler said. “Not a lot of room at all.’’
Worse, the Knicks have no easy task after finishing the four-game trip. They face the Mavericks at the Garden Monday before a rough back-to-back of the Heat and Warriors.
Anthony was in no mood to analyze the brass’ decision not to make a trade at the deadline.
“We didn’t make any moves,’’ he said. “Should we have or not? That’s not for me to say. We didn’t. We move on. We have the same team and have to move on.’’
Felton squared off with the Hawks’ Jeff Teague — one of the point guards the Knicks targeted at the trade deadline, and Teague came out the winner. Felton had 16 points and 10 assists on 6-of-15 shooting while Teague, dealing with a sprained ankle, had 28 points on 7-of-12 shooting and made 13-of-15 free throws.
Disgruntled point guard Beno Udrih sat out for the 15th time in 16 games, and while he may be bought out soon, he still feels he’s learning as a future coach. Udrih also dropped the fact he has won titles in three leagues.
“When you guys are asking me what I learned. I won championships in three different countries,’’ Udrih said. “Slovenia, Israel, San Antonio [Spurs]. I’ve learned from every coach. And I just didn’t win in the NBA.’’
Udrih won titles with Slovenian team Olimpija Ljubljana and with Maccabi Tel Aviv.