Amar'e looking forward to playing with Lin
The Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire drives against Milwaukee's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute during the first half of a game in Milwaukee. (Mar. 20, 2011) Credit: AP
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Beginning Tuesday night, the Knicks will get an idea whether Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony could disrupt their Jeremy Lin-fueled chemistry. The stars and their coach said yesterday they don't think jelling is going to be a problem, and even laughed off the possibility.
"It's funny to me," Anthony said. "When I'm reading the stuff, it's more funny than anything."
Said coach Mike D'Antoni: "We'll make jokes about it . . . I mean, I think that's ludicrous."
The eventual return of the Knicks' two best players -- Stoudemire Tuesday night in Toronto and Anthony perhaps later this week -- is causing people to ask whether the Knicks can continue to prosper.
They have won five in a row since Lin-sanity began, the last four without Stoudemire and the last three-plus without Anthony, who was hurt in the first quarter of the victory over Utah on Feb. 6. Lin has become an international sensation by averaging 26.8 points and 8.0 assists in the five games.
It should get easier if Lin has better players to pass to and doesn't have to shoulder as much of the scoring load, no? The 23-year-old from Harvard already is showing the strain of playing more minutes than he ever has (194 minutes during the streak vs. 339 before that in his NBA career).
Lin was allowed to rest during Monday's practice because of aching feet and a tweaked right ankle, according to D'Antoni, who said he could have played if there had been a game Monday night.
Fortunately for the Knicks (13-15), there wasn't one. That allowed Stoudemire to get a full practice in after missing a week following the death of his older brother, Hazell, in an auto accident in Florida.
Stoudemire said he watched all four games during his absence. "The only positive for us during that whole week was we were watching the basketball games and we were watching Lin-sanity,'' he said. "My family was getting a kick out of it. That's the only smiles they really had all week."
Stoudemire and Lin should be a good fit because both are well-versed in the pick-and-roll. Stoudemire ran it well in Phoenix with a previous D'Antoni point guard, Steve Nash, and again last season with Raymond Felton.
"I think it's something special now we're building on," Stoudemire said. "Mike D'Antoni is a phenomenal offensive coach. He has the understanding to where he can get the best out of your point guards. He was a fellow point guard himself, so he knows how to get the best out of his players. So that's what he's doing now again with Jeremy Lin. He did it with Steve Nash. He did it with Raymond Felton and he's doing it now with Jeremy Lin. It's going to be fun to play."
The Knicks have three games in the next four nights. They hope to have Anthony (strained groin) back as early as Friday against the Hornets at the Garden. He has not practiced since getting hurt Feb. 6.
"Jeremy took a lot of pressure off of a lot of us at the point-guard position," Anthony said. "For him to step up the way he's doing, everybody is feeding off of that. I'm excited to get back and playing with him."
But wait . . . can Anthony play with Lin?
"I know there's questions about can I fit in and stuff like that," Anthony said, "but this is like a dream come true to me . . . It's not even funny. It's more exciting than anything, the buzz that he's created here in New York, here in the NBA as a whole. Like I said, I just want to get back out there and be a part of that."
