All Mike Woodson would say was that Amar’e Stoudemire had lacerated his left hand after the Knicks
lost Game 2 of their playoff series against the Heat on Monday night at
American Airlines Arena. He wouldn’t say how or how badly.
“That’s all I’m going to say,” Woodson said on the latest news-break
from a team that writes headlines these days like no other except maybe
the Jets.
The follow-up question could have easily been: Are you sure you really want this job?
Logic tells us that Woodson will be retained as the Knicks’ coach for
next season, even if they should lose their first-round playoff series
to the Heat, which they now trail, 2-0, after losing, 104-94.
Granted, logic and the Knicks have not exactly enjoyed the closest of
relationships for the past decade, and they weren’t even in the same
arena when Stoudemire apparently took out his frustrations on what was
suspected of being the glass case of a fire extinguisher.
“Let’s talk about the game,” Woodson said, changing the subject, a skill
Knicks coaches must perfect given the continuous circus they have
presided over.
Despite an 18-6 record after Mike D’Antoni’s departure, the Knicks did
not remove Woodson’s interim tag leading into the postseason, nor should
they have. They are entitled and even obliged to evaluate Woodson under
postseason conditions, which are distinctively different from the
regular season, and especially given the unique challenges the Knicks
have developed a habit of presenting.
If LeBron James and Dwyane Wade weren’t daunting enough for Woodson, a
roster that appears to be crumbling before his eyes was further muddled
by Stoudemire’s juvenile act after Carmelo Anthony’s 30 points — only 9 in the second half — weren’t enough for the Knicks to get beyond arm’s length of the Heat.
At least they competed, unlike their showing in Game 1, when they were
thoroughly unprepared for Miami’s defensive tactic of fronting Anthony
to deny him from making an easy catch on the wing. It was as if it
hadn’t occurred to the Knicks that the Heat — a defensive-minded team
under the executive stewardship of Pat Riley — would try something
different from their last regular-season meeting, when Anthony dropped
42 points in a tense Miami victory.
Nor did Anthony and the Knicks recognize how to combat the strategy,
with quicker ball and body movement to set up catch-and-shoot chances,
or by just having Anthony bring the ball up the floor and attack his
defender before double-team help could arrive. That works for James and
Wade — why not Anthony, a more stare-you-down scorer than either Heat
star, at least during the regular season?
To his credit, Woodson did not resort to the expanding list of readily
available excuses, beginning with Tyson Chandler’s illness, Iman
Shumpert’s season-ending knee injury, Baron Davis’s assorted ailments
and the cloud that has settled over Stoudemire’s career two seasons
after the Knicks gave him $100 million.
Unfortunately for Woodson and the Knicks, Miami had too much James and
Wade and got a welcome lift from its role players, especially Mario
Chalmers, the quick, cocky point guard.
“Now we’ve got to go home and protect our home floor,” Woodson said in
the interview room while paramedics stitched up Stoudemire and put him
in a sling in a closed Knicks locker room, where Chandler later said of
Stoudemire, “He’s probably going to be out” of Game 3 on Thursday night.
It was grand Knicks theater in the way they do it best — off the court.
Most folks around the Knicks seem to want Woodson rewarded with a
multiyear contract. He brings a quiet professionalism with the
appropriate amount of honesty and accountability when evaluating the
performance of his players. But he had to play the company man on
Stoudemire, and had better get used to two words in particular — no and
comment — if he does get a multiyear deal.
He is no brand name, but on the plus side he is not John Calipari, who
did not exactly thrive in an unstable professional environment in New
Jersey. Phil Jackson — the other oft-mentioned candidate, who has more
championship rings (11) than fingers — didn’t respond to an e-mail last
week asking if he might have interest in the Knicks job if it were to
become available, whatever that means.
Given the Knicks’ tattered backcourt, no coach — Woodson to Wooden —
would consider this situation enviable. It is possible that Woodson, who
is considered a strong defensive coach and communicator, could get the
job by default. But it is fair to ask that the Knicks at least be
competitive as they return home and not go out the way Woodson’s Atlanta
teams too often succumbed in the postseason.
In a 2010 series against Orlando, the Hawks were swept by an average of
25 points per game. In 2009, James’s Cleveland team hammered them, 4-0,
with the margin of defeat at 18. The previous year, as the eighth seed,
the Hawks extended Boston to seven games but in their four losses were
outscored on average by 25, including a 34-point walloping in Game 7.
Back then, Woodson was generally given a pass because some of the Hawks
were said to be of the knucklehead persuasion. In that sense, maybe
Stoudemire did him a favor Monday night if his suspected and belated
attack of the glass — pun intended — gives people reason to say, “Poor
Woody.” For having to deal with the Knicks right now and quite possibly
in the future.