BOSTON — Earlier this season, Carmelo Anthony said he was on “a personal vendetta’’ against the Celtics because he got “tired of hearing’’ about Boston’s first-round sweep during the offseason.
Anthony gets a chance to move the Knicks in that direction today when the Knicks visit the Celtics. After not speaking to reporters at any point during the three previous practices, Anthony saved it for yesterday when he admitted the Knicks are out for redemption.
In the last installment of Boston-New York, the Knicks were beaten 91-89 by the Celtics after the Knicks blew a 12-point second-half lead. But that was before Jeremy Lin.
“We want to win,’’ Anthony said. “We want to beat them. They got away with one last time we played them. We want to redeem ourselves. We want to beat them.That’s our mindset, our goal. In the back of our mind we know what happened in the playoffs last year. That was last year.’’
Anthony had a heroic 42-point performace in Game 2 last spring, but the Knicks were never able to overcome the injury losses of Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups.
That was when the Knicks were overreliant on Anthony and Stoudemire. With their new depth, Anthony no longer needs to carry the team on his back. In the last meeting, down two points with four seconds left, Anthony was triple-teamed on the inbound pass and the Knicks settled for a forced, off-balance 3-pointer from a cold Steve Novak, who hadn’t played until that possession.
While Lin’s Knicks are on a 10-3 surge to move to .500, the aging Celtics (18-17), who have won four straight division crowns, are riding a three-game winning streak to move above .500.
“We played well there, had a chance to win the game,’’ Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We’re both fighting for the seventh, eighth spot. They have higher aspirations. So do we.
“This is a home game for them they feel they have to have. This is a good way to measure ourselves. And just because it’s Boston, it adds extras spice. They beat us 4-0. A lot of subplots.’’