NBA

Amar’e could be game-time call for Knicks

The Knicks went to Amar’e Stoudemire yesterday.

The ailing Stoudemire missed practice as the Knicks sent a handful of their training staff to his home to give him treatment day and night on the pulled muscle in his back that an MRI exam revealed Wednesday.

One source said Stoudemire was “definitely hurting” and the Knicks didn’t want him commuting two hours round-trip in a car.

The plan is for Stoudemire to arrive for today’s morning shootaround in Westchester and do strength and agility tests in the pool. One source thinks the Stoudemire situation could be a “game-time decision.” He officially is listed as day to day.

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Sometime tonight, Stoudemire may have his Willis Reed moment, walking stiffly out of the Garden tunnel in the first playoff game on 33rd Street since 2004.

“I think I’m optimistic,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We won’t know until he wakes up. He’s had a few spasms. We’ll work him out [this] morning. He’ll get here, get in the pool, work out, and make a determination. But I’m pretty optimistic.”

If Stoudemire’s movement is limited, the club is leery of playing him. A likely scenario is playing him in the first half and seeing his effectiveness. Rajon Rondo’s slew of fastbreak buckets in Game 2 partly was because a stiff Stoudemire couldn’t get back on defense in the first half.

“It depends on how he moves, how he feels, when you got a bad back, you can’t have him back at half-speed,” D’Antoni said. “If he’s ready to go, he will. If not, we’ll close ranks and go forward.”

Asked if Stoudemire at 50 percent still is better than the downtrodden Knicks’ front line, D’Antoni said, “Tough call. We can try him. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll change. Hopefully he’ll be full speed.”

➤ D’Antoni on Billy Walker’s Tuesday showing. “That was the best 0-for-11 performance I’ve ever seen,” D’Antoni said. “I thought he played great. His defense on Paul [Pierce] was great, his toughness, rebounding. I thought he was one of our best players out there.” Imagine if he had made just one shot.

➤ D’Antoni said he never thought to put Ronny Turiaf into the game late in the fourth quarter for Jared Jeffries because Turiaf, the starting center, told the coach his knee was hurting.

“He came to me at the start of the fourth, he was limping,” D’Antoni said. “I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ His knees were bothering him, hurting. The assistant coaches talked to him later, he said his knee was killing him. In my mind, he was done for the day. It was really never a question.”

Turiaf said afterward he was OK. With Turiaf’s health issue, don’t be surprised if D’Antoni leans on Shelden Williams tonight. Williams has not played in the first two games.

➤ Stephon Marbury, upon his return from China, told The Post two weeks ago he would be at the Garden for the Knicks’ first home playoff game since he led them in 2004, when they were swept by the Nets. Instead, he decided to head to South Korea for a promotional appearance before returning to China for the CBA Finals.