Raymond Felton doesn’t see it as the Knicks’ season getting disrupted or the team’s continuity being disturbed by Tuesday’s postponed game vs. the Magic. His day, though, was lost.
“It doesn’t really disrupt anything. It just kind of messes up the whole day,” the point guard said yesterday of getting set to play and having the game postponed. “It just throws your whole day off.”
Tuesday’s Knicks-Magic game at Madison Square Garden never happened, thanks to debris falling from the ceiling into the arena. So the Knicks, idle since Saturday, got the night off, and as a result, they’ll now have four days between games. Aside from the All-Star break, that’ll match their longest hiatus of the season.
Their hiatus between home games, fortunately, won’t go much further. Late yesterday afternoon, MSG announced that safety concerns have been allayed and the scheduled Knicks-Wizards game tomorrow at the Garden will be played. So the Knicks won’t have to explore neutral venues or have any more postponements.
And tonight they’ll resume their season in Chicago against the Bulls, finishing their early slate of three extremely tough games in a row (it would have been four if they’d faced Orlando). After winning their opener against the Raptors in Toronto last Wednesday, the Knicks (1-2) lost Friday to the Celtics in Boston, then dropped their home opener Saturday against the Trail Blazers.
“The only thing we can do is take [the postponement] in a positive way, which would be when we do play [the Magic], we’ll be a better team because we’re young,” Mike D’Antoni said. “That’s the only way to look at it. And then get ready for Chicago. Just put it out of your mind and go ahead. Really, it doesn’t disrupt anything. We’re ready to go.”
D’Antoni was already at the Garden on Tuesday when he learned the game was postponed. Stoudemire was still home when he was alerted to it via e-mail, while Felton was about to leave when director of team operations Chris Bernard called and told him the game was off.
“And I’m like, ‘Man, you’re kidding me. Stop playing with me,’ ” Felton said. “He’s like, ‘No, for real, the game is canceled.’ ”
Said Stoudemire, “I’ve never really been a part of a situation where there was something wrong with the arena. But I think it’ll be OK. It’s no big deal.”
Felton still ventured into Manhattan to get something to eat, while Stoudemire stayed home and watched TV. D’Antoni and Donnie Walsh both watched basketball, with the coach watching game tape on the Bulls.
Felton, meanwhile, insisted that he wouldn’t be worried or concerned about safety once MSG re-opened.
“If they told me we’re playing there, that means they would take care of it,” he said. “I’m going to trust that they did it.”
Apparently they did.