D'Antoni tinkering, fine-tuning Knicks lineup

HARTFORD - Amar'e Stoudemire was given a night off in yesterday's 97-84 preseason loss to the Celtics at the XL Center, but Raymond Felton, perhaps the second-most-important player on the roster, was told to punch in and work his regular shift. The point guard, who has struggled in his first three preseason appearances with the Knicks, is being encouraged to take more of a lead role in the Mike D'Antoni offense, which is so dependent on strong play from the point.

With Stoudemire in a suit on the bench, Felton put forth his most promising effort to date with nine of his 16 points in the first quarter against Rajon Rondo.

Felton, who arrived just a week before training camp and overweight, attacked with his trademark crossover quickness and showed his scoring side, which the coaching staff believes he has been reluctant to do. But as much as he needs to set up the star in Stoudemire and feed the team's other scoring threat, Danilo Gallinari, the Knicks need Felton to look to score just as often.

"That's pretty much it, being aggressive," said Felton, who shot 6-for-13 from the field and had five assists and three turnovers in 27:58. "In order for the offense to work the way we want it, I got to take those shots and it's going to open up for other guys and stuff like that."

Perhaps to take a little pressure off him in the backcourt, D'Antoni opted to start Toney Douglas in the backcourt with Felton. It's a combination D'Antoni has wanted to see for future reference, and it seemed to do the trick for Felton.

"It's more speed on the floor, more ballhandling and more playmaking," D'Antoni said before the game. "And if that looks good, it might be something we'd want to go with. I don't know if we'd start with it or not, but it might be something we want to explore more."

Another point of exploration involves Wilson Chandler (17 points), who had been seeing time at shooting guard in the preseason but started in Stoudemire's place at power forward. Both D'Antoni and Chandler agreed power forward is Chandler's best position, but what remains to be seen is how the Knicks can get the most out of him there with Stoudemire dominating the minutes. One thought is to slide Stoudemire to the center position and have the 6-8 Chandler play power forward. It's a look that D'Antoni used in Phoenix when he had Stoudemire and 6-8 Shawn Marion in the frontcourt.

D'Antoni believes Stoudemire at center "makes him, probably, un-guardable," and he likes that lineup's ability to go up-tempo the way those Suns teams did.

But it likely won't be something the team would start with, especially with 7-1 Timofey Mozgov showing great potential. But it could mean sending Chandler to the bench and bringing him in as the first forward off the bench. "There will be matchups that will need a bigger guy in there, but Amar'e will play where he thinks is best for the team," D'Antoni said. "We've just got to decide that."

Notes & quotes: Gallinari led the Knicks (1-3 in the preseason) with 20 points . . . Kevin Garnett had 20 points for Boston . . . Mozgov (seven points, two rebounds, two blocks and six fouls in 20:22) got the start against Shaquille O'Neal, who offered a hug to the young Russian before the opening tipoff. When the teams played Wednesday at the Garden, Shaq, who did not play, said he "never heard of" Mozgov.