Defensive-minded Knicks are gaining confidence
(L-R) Toney Douglas #23, Amar'e Stoudemire #1, Ronny Turiaf #14, and Wilson Chandler #23 of the New York Knicks look on in the second half against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, October 30 2010 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Portland defeated the Knicks 100-95. Credit: Photo by Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH, N.Y. - No longer does Toney Douglas need to be timid going after the ball.
The Knicks guard now knows he can lunge for a steal every now and again without having to worry about getting beaten. There's help on the way. Help in the form of several tall, athletic guys who are just as committed to playing defense as he is.
That would be Ronny Turiaf, Amar'e Stoudemire, Timofey Mozgov, Anthony Randolph and Wilson Chandler.
"I can go for a steal and if I don't get it, I know Ronny, Amar'e, Timmy, Anthony and even Will have my back," said Douglas, who had five of the Knicks' 11 steals and watched his teammates block 11 shots in a 112-91 victory over the Wizards on Friday night. "That's all about being a team. That's just like I have their back for rebounding. They're boxing out, so I get the rebound. It's all about having each other's backs."
The Knicks lacked shot-blockers last season, but "now we have a lot of them," he said. The team leads the NBA with an average of 8.4 blocked shots per game. Last season the Knicks averaged 3.7.
The individual focus seems to have changed. So has the energy level. Several players believe the defense-first mind-set has become contagious.
Said Turiaf: "I think we definitely want to create some kind of environment where people know coming into Madison Square Garden they're going to have to deal with a scrappy team and a team that really wants to do whatever it takes to win basketball games."
This may not be the roster coach Mike D'Antoni and team president Donnie Walsh envisioned during the summer, but it's one that shows promise.
"To play the way we wanted to play, there were certain things we wanted," D'Antoni said. "One was energy, one was speed, one was length and guys that can shoot the basketball . . . and we got surprised because Landry Fields gave us something we didn't think would be there, Billy Walker keeps coming on, Toney kept getting better, Mozgov. So we got a lot of long, athletic guys that weren't in the grand design of things, but we got lucky."
In the past two games, the Knicks withstood runs by Chicago and Washington en route to impressive victories. That poise and confidence is a welcome sign for their coach, who believed his team lost to Portland in the home opener because it lacked confidence.
"It shows resiliency," Turiaf said of the team's ability to battle back. "It shows we are guys who care about what we're doing."
