Raymond Felton to return for Knicks

Raymond Felton missed the last four games with a pinched nerve in his hip, but he will return tonight to face Chris Paul and the Clippers.

The Knicks, losers of six straight, could use all the help they can get. But Felton wasn’t playing well defensively when he was healthy, and Paul isn’t the best guy to face when you’re coming off an injury like that.

“Chris Paul is not a good matchup for anybody,” Mike Woodson said. “He’s pretty damn good. Raymond says he’s ready. He didn’t have no ill-effects from yesterday’s practice so we’ll start him and play him.”

But Woodson said Beno Udrih and Pablo Prigioni have to be ready as well.

Perimeter defense, especially containing point guards, has been a cause for concern for the Knicks this season. But right now everything is a cause for concern.

Their overall defense hasn’t been good. Some players showed frustration during and after Monday’s loss at Portland.

There was sulking and slumped shoulders on the court and finger pointing in the locker room afterward about a lack of ball movement – presumably directed at Carmelo Anthony and/or J.R. Smith.

Woodson addressed the Knicks before practice yesterday and said it wasn’t ball movement but a lack of defense that is the biggest issue.

Amar’e Stoudemire, one of the Knicks who pointed to the ball movement, said this morning that he wasn’t singling out Anthony and was talking about the team as a whole.