Toney Douglas was in no mood yesterday to discuss the Giants 24-2 wild-card playoff victory over the Falcons on Sunday. He was at MetLife Stadium to root for his brother Harry, a wide receiver for Atlanta.
“I don’t want to talk about the football game,” Douglas scoffed before the Knicks’ 91-87 victory over the Bobcats last night. “We took an L. We lost.”
It added to what was a “L” of a weekend for Douglas, too. He was 0-for-8 in road games at Washington and Detroit, lost his starting job at point guard to rookie Iman Shumpert and is still having trouble with his surgically repaired shoulder.
In short, the start of the lockout shortened season has been close to a disaster for the third-year player. Things didn’t get much better for him last night. Though the Knicks beat the Bobcats for their third-straight win, Douglas was not much of a factor, scoring two points with no assists in 12:40 of duty.
The Garden crowd didn’t appreciate his effort. After Douglas missed a jumper and committed a foul with 10:07 left in game, it booed and began chanting, “We want Shumpert.” It applauded moments later when Shumpert came in to replace Douglas.
Certainly, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Shumpert is easy on the eyes. He scored 16 points with six rebounds and four assists, displaying the kind of instincts and aggression that made making him a starter an easy decision for coach Mike D’Antoni.
“He’s just a big guard and he is playing with a lot of confidence and he is going to get a lot better,” D’Antoni said.
That said, Garden fans should be smart enough to know they’ll need Douglas to be a contributor if this season is going to be a success. Booing him is not the answer. If anyone deserves some slack it’s Douglas. As D’Antoni pointed out, Douglas had a hectic offseason rehabbing from shoulder surgery and then inherited the starting point guard position when the Knicks released Chauncey Billups just before camp opened to make room for Tyson Chandler. It was too much too soon.
“He had offseason surgery and wasn’t ready to play until November and didn’t get any work in the whole time,” D’Antoni said. “He was a little bit behind and then thrown into a starting lineup where everybody expected us to win the championship two weeks ago. I think it got to him a little bit.”
When the Knicks played the Bobcats at the Garden six days ago, Douglas was first booed by the home crowd as Charlotte claimed a 118-110 victory. It was an unfair rush to judgment by impatient fans. Unfortunately, booing Douglas seems to have caught on as if he was briefly married to a Kardashian. It needs to stop.
Ultimately, Shumpert’s emergence should be a blessing in disguise for Douglas, who can return to doing what he does best, coming off the bench and providing a spark. The Knicks bench scored just three points last night with Mike Bibby limited with a bad knee.
Douglas is a standup athlete and isn’t going to use injuries as an excuse for his slow start.
“If I’m on the court I don’t make excuses,” he said. “It is what it is.”
D’Antoni sees it differently.
“I think his overall effectiveness hasn’t been good because of his shoulder not being quite ready,” the coach said. “Hopefully that will change.”
Booing Douglas doesn’t help. He doesn’t deserve it. It’s clear he and the Knicks are better with him coming off the bench. Now he just has to find his game again.