Despite skid, D'Antoni OK with Knicks' play
New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni smiles as he talks with an official during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game. (Jan. 21, 2011) Credit: AP
GREENBURGH, N.Y. - On their practice floor Sunday, not many hours removed from their toughest loss of the season, the Knicks made a commitment to not look backward. Except for looking back to Nov. 16.
That was when they lost to the Nuggets, 120-118, taking their sixth straight loss but showing enough good signs to encourage them despite a 3-8 record. Then they won 13 of their next 14.
"I feel a little bit like we did with Denver, when we kind of came off our little malaise," Mike D'Antoni said early yesterday afternoon, insisting that the Knicks had shaken the shell-shock of having lost, 101-98, in Oklahoma City on Saturday night on Kevin Durant's fall-away three-pointer at the buzzer. That was the only time the Thunder led in the second half of a game that had "Knicks win" written all over it. Instead, it extended another losing streak to six games.
"I feel like we're doing OK. I feel like we're getting back on track," D'Antoni said after conducting a workout that dealt mostly with late-game execution and what it will take to beat the Wizards Monday night at the Garden. "Nothing physical. More mental stuff."
D'Antoni acknowledged that the Heat was not on the schedule during the 13-1 run, as it is this week (Thursday at the Garden). "It might change, it might not, we'll see. But I'm confident we're playing well. If we play well, the schedule will take care of itself," he said.
He didn't question the decision-making down the stretch Saturday night, when Raymond Felton missed the Knicks' final three shots despite having had a cold hand for weeks.
"We'd like to get some clearer shots, maybe, in the last five minutes," D'Antoni said, "but again, wide-open shots are wide-open shots. So we're fine."
Felton, who shot only 5-for-16 Saturday to close out an 18-for-51 trip, said: "Everybody is pretty much in a slump right now. We're not hitting the shots that we normally do. It's all about being in the season, that's all it is. We'll get out of that."
How does a shooter break out? "Take extra shots," Felton said, adding that the whole team was encouraged Saturday by its defense.
Then again, perfect defense doesn't always help. Danilo Gallinari could not have done any better against Durant, who made a classic game-winner anyway.
"If I'm being honest, I didn't even see it because I was so focused on my man, on him not getting the rebound," Landry Fields said. "When I looked up, all of a sudden it went in. And I didn't watch ESPN last night or this morning."
Team president Donnie Walsh saw enough to believe the Knicks are trending upward. He added that the streak has not made him more itchy to trade (nor did the Nets' dropping out of the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes).
"Let me put it this way. I'm doing the same thing whether we're winning or losing," he said. "If we can get something to help the team, we'll do it. But I'm not going to just do something because we're going through a tough period or even through a losing year, which you guys saw the last two years. I'm not going to just do something so guys can write, 'Oh, they did this.' "
