LOS ANGELES — Take a deep breath, Amar’e.
That was yesterday’s message from coach Mike D’Antoni to slumping Amar’e Stoudemire and his reeling Knicks.
The coach said the club is “pressing’’ because of the big expectations this season, especially the Knicks’ All-Star power forward.
In the Knicks’ losses to the Warriors and Lakers on their Califormia trip, Stoudemire has shot a combined 9-for-31 as the “Broadway Bigs’’ have turned into the “Broadway Busts.’’
The Knicks (1-2) are too heavily dependent on the scoring of their starting frontcourt because their bench is depleted, and they lack a true starting point guard. As a consequence, they can’t win when Stoudemire is this much off his game.
Now there’s a chance Stoudemire won’t be able to redeem himself tonight when the Knicks finish this disastrous California trip against the Kings in Sacramento. Stoudemire sprained his left ankle in the fourth quarter Thursday night at Staples Center, did not practice yesterday at USC and admitted he’ll need a big improvement by tonight.
“Hopefully it gets better [tonight],’’ Stoudemire said. “If it feels much better [today], we’ll see.’’
Against the Lakers, Stoudemire shot 4-for-17 with four turnovers and no assists. The worst part is he played selfishly, driving to the basket, getting triple-teamed and still trying to send up shots.
“He, like a lot of guys, are taking it on themselves,’’ D’Antoni said. “When things aren’t quite right and don’t feel good, it’s ‘I’ll solve the problem.’ Everybody’s getting themselves in deeper problems. Relax, move the ball, keep the spacing.’’
The Knicks offense has been inferior to their slightly improved defense, which still allowed the Lakers to shoot 71.9 percent in the first half. The Knicks shot 33 percent in Los Angeles and 40 percent in Oakland — posting 78 points and 82 points, respectively.
It’s enough to make D’Antoni, reputed as an offensive guru, sick. After each loss, he has called the team “awful’’ and dismissed suggestions the defensive game plans of opposing coaches Mark Jackson and Mike Brown were too good.
“A little bit of it is, we’re pressing,’’ D’Antoni said. “We’re thinking we have to be that great team right now and we’re not. We’re a little bit tight. We’ve got to loosen up. We’ve got to get the spacing better, get rotations better. We want it too bad. We’ve got to calm down and relax.’’
The Knicks’ 1-2 start is disappointing but not completely surprising, considering the lockout-shortened camp. The team is trying to adapt to a lot of new pieces, including chemistry issues between Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire.
Jeff Van Gundy’s Knicks, trying to blend in Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby during the 1999 lockout, had a subpar regular season and finished as the eighth seed before their Finals march.
The new league buzz is the Knicks won’t be very good until playmaking point guard Baron Davis returns and that appears — depending on whom you talk to — to be late January at the earliest.
“We’ve got to win games in the meantime,’’ D’Antoni said. “And we can do that.’’
D’Antoni said the team hadn’t adapted to his ball-movement concepts before the season opener against the Celtics. But they escaped 106-104, as Stoudemire and Anthony starred.
The Boston win was “a little bit of fool’s gold,’’ according to D’Antoni. “That was individual talent,’’ he said.
Stoudemire needs more room to operate, and he needs to be smarter.
“We definitely need spacing for him,’’ D’Antoni said. “If he only becomes a jump shooter or is driving into a crowd, that’s not good. We’ve done that. We’ve got to lessen the crowd up and he’ trying too hard to take it on himself instead of relaxing. If he’s in a crowd, start kicking.’’
One concern is Stoudemire is not being used in the pick-and-roll any longer, with Anthony and center Tyson Chandler running it.
“What he does best is the pick-and-roll,’’ D’Antoni said of Stoudemire. “We have to find out how to get him the ball, spaced out. He has space, he’s really good.’’
Stoudemire defended himself against his forcing shots in traffic.
“There’s going to be games where we drive in and they’re going to collapse on you and you have no outlet sometimes,’’ Stoudemire said. “Certain players demand so much attention when you drive to the basket. Once we get better spacing and knock down a few open shots, it will make the game easier.’’