The Knicks still believe they can win the series, despite losing Baron Davis on Sunday and facing a 3-1 deficit entering tonight’s Game 5 in Miami. (Anthony J. Causi)
MIAMI — This crazy and chaotic Knicks season could be extinguished in the first round of the NBA Playoffs tonight.
The blue-and-orange jalopy that is the Knicks barreled into South Beach for the do-or-die Game 5 against the Heat with a one-handed power forward, a starting point guard who was a fourth-stringer in March and a maligned superstar who went from goat to hero Sunday by finding his shot and 41 points.
The Knicks’ starting backcourt that opened the series — Baron Davis and Iman Shumpert — stayed home, disabled with devastating knee injuries. Sore-kneed Jeremy Lin, the team’s most famous player globally and former coach Mike D’Antoni’s starting point guard, made the trip to Miami, but was ruled out for the series yesterday, ending the Linsanity Watch.
On the Knicks’ last visit to AmericanAirlines Arena, paramedics raced into the locker room after Game 2 to tend to Amar’e Stoudemire. Punching a glass-enclosed fire extinguisher outside the locker room in an impulsive fit rendered a massive cut on Stoudemire’s left hand that came a millimeter from severing a nerve.
“I’m going back to Miami,’’ said Stoudemire, his hand still bandaged. “I just don’t want to look at that fire extinguisher at all.’’
The Knicks endured countless incarnations this lockout season, and it may finally end tonight, like this.
Carmelo Anthony, who had 41 points Sunday including the go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute, tried summing up a season’s worth of mayhem.
“We had injuries at the beginning of the year,’’ he said. “We got back healthy. Guys got hurt again. We got back healthy. Coming down the stretch, we thought we were healthy. And then we had some bad breaks. We’ve been dabbling with that, injuries, all year long. We just have to find a way to get through it.’’
The Heat own a 3-1 lead after the Knicks shockingly extended the series with Sunday’s 89-87 Garden thriller. No team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit in 101 prior tries. The Knicks have not won in Miami this season in four attempts, the first two in the regular season.
“That’s the excitement part for me,’’ Anthony said. “History is definitely not on our side right now. But we believe, and we’re confident that we want to go down there and win this basketball game and bring it back here. We get this one, who knows what can happen?”
If the Knicks don’t pull off the big upset, they can have their pick of excuses, starting with Game 1 when center Tyson Chandler barely could function with the flu and Shumpert, their defensive stopper on Dwyane Wade, tore his ACL. It only got worse with Stoudemire missing Game 3 after hand surgery. Davis blew out his knee in Game 4, putting him out 12 months. They will try to avoid another devastating mishap tonight.
“We can’t make any excuses,’’ Stoudemire said. “Miami outplayed us in those three wins. I know it seems there are so many areas where we can make an excuse, but we’re better than that.’’
Stoudemire will play despite admitting he can’t dunk, rebound or catch some passes with two hands.
Mike Bibby will make his fifth start of the season after being out of the rotation for large stretches of the season. J.R. Smith could serve as the backup point guard with interim coach Mike Woodson hesitant to use much of Toney Douglas, who started the season opener on Christmas Day.
Yet, Anthony said, “We never lacked the confidence. Even right now, we feel confident in the way we’re playing. The last game, we want to build on that.”
Anthony doesn’t want to think about what could have been had the Knicks maintained their health like the Heat have.
“It’s not a big difference,’’ Anthony said. “It’s not a huge margin between teams. It’s just some little things here and there. That’s it.’’
Miami’s superstar trio of LeBron James, Wade and Chris Bosh may have been in pity mode in the Game 4. They weren’t physical with the impaired Stoudemire and seemed to lose focus after Davis’ gruesome injury. James is one of Davis’ best friends. That is unlikely to happen again tonight.
“We’ve got to show heart,’’ Stoudemire said. “Obviously Miami’s going to come out in Game 5 with a lot more tenacity.’’
marc.berman@nypost.com