Forget Mike D’Antoni’s speedball. This is Mike Woodson’s winning ball.
Madison Square Garden felt something special was coming, chanting “De-Fense!’’ in the opening minute. The Knicks responded with a second straight sensational performance in blowing out the resurgent Pacers, 115-100, in a game they led by 32 points.
It took D’Antoni’s resignation to get the Knicks’ defensive spirit back after a disastrous six-game losing streak. One fan held up a sign “Woodsanity.’’
When your superstar is happy and playing defense, it trickles down. Carmelo Anthony scored 12 points in 22 minutes, shot 4 of 12 but played tenacious defense as the Knicks held Indiana to six points in the game’s opening 10 minutes — 14 in the first quarter and 31 by halftime. In Woodson’s debut, Portland was held to 29 points at intermission.
The Knicks (20-24), who were celebrating madly on the bench, complete the home-and-home series tonight in Indiana. They trail Milwaukee in the tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff spot, with the Bucks defeating Golden State, 120-98, last night.
“I think with the change, we had to come together as a team,’’ Anthony said. “We’re locking in as a team and going after it on defense. It’s kind of fun playing on the defensive end where everyone has each other’s back. And this is over the last couple of days. We have everybody on the same page.’’
Steve Novak came off the bench to fire in 12 points, making four 3-pointers as the fans chanted his name.
“I don think there’s a better place to play than the Garden,’’ Novak said. “The energy fans gives us we make shots because of the energy. It’s easy to feed off of.’’
Center Tyson Chandler brutalized Indiana center Roy Hibbert, who made the All-Star Team over the Knicks center.
Chandler had 16 points on 8 of 11 shooting with four blocked shots, while Hibbert was invisible (2 of 10, four points).
“We’re playing for something,’’ Woodson said. “We kind of fell out of the playoff picture during that stretch and they’re playing with more urgency. For 3 1/2 quarters, the defense was as good as it’s been the whole year, kind of playoff-atmosphere defense.’’
The blowout came after Pacers star Danny Granger called the home-and-home “two very winnable games.’’ Granger was awful, finishing with nine points on 4 of 15 shooting.
“They made comments about these two games, so I expect them to respond [tonight],’’ Chandler said.
Certainly, the Knicks were more motivated by Granger than they had been by D’Antoni recently.
“We didn’t let them breathe,’’ Chandler said. “We trapped. There was never any question out there whose rotation was that.’’
The Knicks are playing fiercely and moving the ball like it’s hot. It almost makes it look as if some players weren’t putting out maximum effort for D’Antoni during the six-game losing streak that led to his resignation because of his conflict with Anthony.
Woodson gave them a big speech at the morning shootaround.
“He told us how good he knows we can be and that we can be special group,’’ Novak said.
Jeremy Lin said the Knicks’ energy is starting to come back.
“You can’t describe how much fun we had during the seven-game winning streak and that’s what we’re building toward,’’ said Lin, who had 13 points and five assists, including two bomb passes to Anthony for easy layups.
Lin got a huge vote of confidence from Woodson, who met with him in the morning to tell him not to worry about his starter’s job despite his ominous comments.
“Unfortunately, sometimes it takes something dramatic to happen to open guys eyes,’’ Chandler said of the D’Antoni resignation.
The only bad news was Baron Davis sustaining a right hamstring injury in the second quarter. He didn’t return and won’t make the trip to Indiana. The Knicks have some hope he will return on Tuesday.
With Woodson as defensive assistant, the Knicks still were ranked 10th in the most important defensive-efficiency category, but they are taking it to a new level since Woodson has become the sole voice.
“When you’re playing the way we’ve been playing the last couple of days, getting down defensively, holding teams to one shot getting out of the open court, it makes the game fun and we’ve been having fun the last few days,’’ said Anthony, who was so engaged he even delivered a flagrant foul in body-checking Paul George in the first half.
In Woodson’s debut, the Knicks romped over the Blazers by 43 points but that was a team in the tank. This marvelous showing came against the vibrant Pacers, who entered 25-16.
“Everyone’s scrambling, scrapping and playing hard,’’ said J.R. Smith, who tied for the team high with 16 points.