Physical play getting to Amar'e
New York Knicks' Amare Stoudemire (1) fouls San Antonio Spurs' DeJuan Blair (45) as he tries to block his shot during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game. (Jan. 21, 2011) Credit: AP
OKLAHOMA CITY - Amar'e Stoudemire expressed frustration Friday night with how he has been manhandled by opposing bigs such as Chuck Hayes and DeJuan Blair. But after watching a replay of Friday's loss to the Spurs, in which Blair and Tim Duncan physically dominated Stoudemire, Mike D'Antoni gave credit to good defense.
"They had two guys inside that are extremely, really good with their hands," D'Antoni said. "They got their hands on the ball."
After the game in San Antonio, Stoudemire said: "A lot of guys are playing very physical toward me. I'm starting to get injured a lot, my shoulders, my arms, my hands. I'm starting to get banged up a lot out there. It's frustrating."
Despite 25 field-goal attempts, with several of them drives to the basket, Stoudemire went to the line only once in the game for a pair of free throws.
He also had four fouls called against him, including two early, which caused him to miss a large portion of the first quarter. Duncan (two) and Blair were whistled for a total of three fouls in the game. The two totaled eight blocked shots and Blair had four steals.
Knicks fix
Last night's game featured the three leading scorers from the 2007 NBA draft - Kevin Durant (career average of 25.7 points per game), Jeff Green and Wilson Chandler, each of whom has a career average of 14.1 points per game . . . NBA All-Star voting closes Sunday. In the last returns, Stoudemire was ahead of Kevin Garnett by 100,000 votes to earn a starting forward spot for the Eastern Conference.
