D'Antoni says Nate's time wasn't affected by shot at wrong basket
Nate Robinson played only 6:02 against the Nets and went scoreless, both season lows.
He and coach Mike D'Antoni both swore the mercurial guard's minutes had nothing to do with Robinson's decision to catch an inbound pass with a half-second remaining in the first quarter, turn and drain a three-pointer in the wrong basket just after the horn sounded, after which D'Antoni chewed out Robinson in front of the Knicks' bench for all to see.
"Just don't mess with the game, don't play around with the game," D'Antoni said after the Knicks' 98-91 win, in which the Nets cut a 15-point deficit to one. "It's nothing [major], he just shouldn't do that. Nate's great, we don't have any problems. We've just got to take that one step forward, not messing with the game. He'll be fine."
Robinson said: "The guys we had out there had it rolling. Coach knew exactly what he was doing. He talked to me about [the shot] - half a second left, buzzer sounded and I just shot it. I wasn't trying to make it or anything."
Robinson played only 12 minutes Wednesday against the Pacers, scoring two points. D'Antoni said he went with Toney Douglas over Robinson Saturday, but Douglas played only 9:10.
"I'm trying to figure out from the first half who I need to go down the stretch with," D'Antoni said. "Toney played well in the first half, so I went with him. Could be Nate next time, I don't know."
The Knicks' modest two-game winning streak will be tested todaySunday at the Garden by the Celtics (9-4), who are coming off a rare home loss Friday.
"We're going to see about us, because that's going to be a real good test," Al Harrington said.
