Return of Amar'e will change Knicks' style
Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks celebrate from the bench. (March 15, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
CLEVELAND -- The way Carmelo Anthony has been playing lately, perhaps the only thing that could slow him and the Knicks down is the return of Amar'e Stoudemire.
The Knicks -- who clinched a playoff spot with Milwaukee's loss to Indiana Thursday night -- have four games left to secure a higher seed and maybe that long to reincorporate Stoudemire.
He will go through shootaround Friday and could play Friday night after missing the past 13 games with a bulging disc in his back. Stoudemire's minutes likely will be limited and he won't have his explosiveness, but his presence could change how the Knicks and Anthony play.
"I'm going to still play my game, play the way I've been playing," Anthony said. "When he comes back, we're definitely going to find him. We're definitely going to go through him sometimes. Bringing him back, it just gives us another option out there on the offensive end, it gives us another big on the defensive end. We could use as many bodies as we can right now."
The Knicks, 15-5 under Mike Woodson, are seventh in the East. They could move up if they win their final four games and the Magic goes 1-3 or the Hawks lose their final four games.
Since Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin left the lineup, the Knicks have gone 9-4, with Anthony scoring at a torrid clip. He's averaged 30.6 points, shooting 51 percent, and taken 21.9 shots per game. Before this stretch, Anthony averaged 20.0 points, took 17.4 shots a game and shot only 39.9 percent from the field.
"Right now he's at the peak of his game," said backup guard J.R. Smith, who played with Anthony in Denver. "Nobody's even coming close to matching it."
The Knicks have been playing small with Anthony at power forward, and with a quicker lineup that includes Iman Shumpert, they have been playing strong defense. But Woodson said Stoudemire will start when he returns. If Woodson goes with his regular lineup, Shumpert will come off the bench, making the Knicks weaker defensively.
Woodson also brought up the elephant in the room when he said he's got to find out if Anthony and Stoudemire can work together. Both need the ball to be effective and like to operate in similar places on the court.
The Knicks' record with both of them in the lineup -- 28-36, including the playoffs -- says no. But with both playing, the Knicks are 6-1 under Woodson, who said he's not concerned about Stoudemire disrupting what the Knicks have done. "I'm not looking at it in that light," he said. "A lot of you guys look at it that way, but as a coach, he's a pro player, man, that's been a dominant player in this league for a long time. With the help of myself helping him, we'll figure it out. I promise you that."
Stoudemire has four games to get his rhythm back, get comfortable playing the way the Knicks have been, and jell with Anthony. "I don't think anything [changes],'' Anthony said. "We're looking forward to him coming back. That's another body that we're missing that we definitely can use. Another rebounder, another guy we can go to, we don't have to rely on me every night. So I'm looking forward to having Amar'e back.
"I just want to continue playing the way I'm playing. As far as anything with Amar'e, he'll be fine. He'll come in and fit right in. This is crunch time now. Everybody has to be on the same page when we make our run."
