Much like Heat, Knicks are still in chemistry lab

MINNEAPOLIS - Amar'e Stoudemire never wants to reflect on what could have been. Let's say LeBron James and Dwyane Wade would have preferred him rather than Chris Bosh in their Miami-bound Machine. Would the Heat still be as ordinary out of the gate as its 5-4 record shows?

"I don't care about Miami at all," Stoudemire said with a dismissive tone. "Their problems don't concern me at all."

But team chemistry is a parallel issue for Stoudemire's Knicks, who went into Friday's game here against the Timberwolves with a 3-5 record and a three-game losing streak. The Knicks and the Heat went through massive roster makeovers - Miami's had just a tad more pomp and circumstance - and both teams are going through a slow orientation.

"It takes time, it does," Stoudemire said. "But while it's taking time for us, we have to figure out ways to get wins. Chemistry is one thing, but playing hard, studying the game and executing our offensive and defensive strategies is a different thing. We're going to have to be able to do that."

Stoudemire's struggles have been well documented to this point. The lack of any cohesion with point guard Raymond Felton in the pick-and-roll - Stoudemire's bread-and-butter play and the cog in Mike D'Antoni's offensive system - has stalled an offense that used to put up prolific numbers. Felton's scoring (14.8 points per game going into Friday) is up, but the Knicks need him to find Stoudemire just as easily as he's finding his own shots.

It's not just Stoudemire who Felton needs to worry about. Danilo Gallinari, who entered Friday's game shooting just 35.1 percent from the floor, is also playing well below expectations for the third-year forward. Felton, Gallinari and Stoudemire are the three main figures in this system and though collectively they're nowhere near as formidable as the LeBron, Wade, Bosh triumvirate in Miami, the problem is basically the same.

"It's up to us to manage it internally and that's the whole key to the thing," D'Antoni said. "You set a certain goal and you try to get there. You're not going to make it in the first week."

The Heat seemed a little more ready-made, especially with a two-time MVP in LeBron and a dynamic talent in Wade posing such a challenge to opposing defenses. On separate teams, both command double-teams. So as teammates, the belief was they'd be impossible to guard. And with all the attention being paid to them, Bosh would have all kinds of space in the paint. Instead, teams are merely packing into a zone and giving James and Wade the perimeter, which is not their strength.

Sound familiar? Teams are playing the Knicks the same way. Packing it in to contain Stoudemire and forcing the Knicks to beat you from the outside which, so far, they haven't been able to do.

So for a short while, the Knicks, and the Heat, will have newness as a viable excuse.

"You don't get to be Boston overnight," D'Antoni said.

Actually, Boston was Boston overnight. In the first year of the Big Three, the Celtics opened the season 8-0. The bar was set high.

Said D'Antoni, "I just know managing expectations is the toughest thing."