Overpowered by Love, young Knicks look to rebound

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - There certainly are fires to put out. What Saturday's tape review showed the Knicks about Friday night's 112-103 loss to Minnesota, in which they squandered a 21-point lead, was "all the different ways we can lose another game," coach Mike D'Antoni said.

Fourth quarters, he said, "have been killers for us." His players are having trouble "understanding spacing and trying to get Amar'e [Stoudemire] the ball. We're trying to keep our mental toughness. We're playing hard, but there's some things we need to tighten up a little more."

Houston is coming to town Sunday night, and the Madison Square Garden crowd is not likely to be especially patient with the 3-6 Knicks. But D'Antoni and team president Donnie Walsh chose to be nobler about suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

"These guys are learning to play together," Walsh said. "We're playing against good teams, we're playing away from home a lot, and we just have to work our way through it. There's just got to be a dedication to getting better and learning how to finish games."

Walsh already is being asked if this is the team he envisioned after all the salary-cap maneuvering and rummaging for a top free agent, the whole post-LeBron James frenzy. "I don't know," Walsh said. "I don't know. It's too early to tell.

"And the pressure of all that, here in New York, it's 'Oh, God, Rome's falling.' You've got - what? - 73 more games. It's not time for me to be making proclamations from my standpoint."

The fact that one man, Minnesota's Kevin Love, pulled down a remarkable 31 rebounds to go with his 31 points against the Knicks Friday seemed to reveal one of several areas of concern, but D'Antoni thinks that can be solved by "not playing against Kevin Love; he had 24 rebounds against the Lakers, too, so he's really, really good. When we get [Ronny] Turiaf back in there and keep Amar'e out of foul trouble, we'll rebound the ball."

SEE PHOTOSTop 10 Knicks ever

Turiaf, who has missed two games with a sprained left knee, had limited practice time Saturday, and his availability will be a game-time decision Sunday night.

D'Antoni said he needs "bigger guys in there" to start games. He will resume using Wilson Chandler off the bench Sunday night, in part because the Knicks can use more scoring punch from their reserves.

The Knicks walk a thin line, he said, between emphasizing aggressiveness and patience; in relying on three-point shooting but knowing when not to take bad shots.

Of such personnel and strategy decisions, "I don't make any judgment on that kind of stuff," Walsh said, "because that's Mike's job, and I know that if you're losing games, you're searching. You're searching."

D'Antoni reminded again that his is "a young team and we've just got to show them what it takes to win all the time, and get over the stigma of losing and just do different things, keep pushing.

"I'm really surprised when we get beat. We should be able to turn this around soon."

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.