After suffering through much-hyped losses to the Lakers, Cavs and Celtics, the Knicks have to fight the natural inclination to exhale and let their guard down. After a winless week, a poor three-game trip before next week’s All-Star break could undo the good work they’ve put in.
“There’s always a concern. We need to know the urgency of the situation, and not have a normal human reaction,” coach Mike D’Antoni said before his team flew for tonight’s game at Portland (6 p.m., MSG, WEPN). “We’ll understand that. Now it’s up to them, me and everybody, not to have a letdown.”
The Blazers (30-19) are good enough to have their full attention, 18-5 at home while the Knicks are just 7-16 on the road. With three straight away from the Garden, the Knicks (21-28) can’t afford to relax after their high-profile homestand.
“You can’t exhale, because you were 0-3. If we were 3-0, then we might go the other way,” said Al Harrington. “But now we’re hungrier, [there’s] more sense of urgency, so we have to go out there and find a way to win.”
He raised eyebrows by calling the Cavs defeat a “feel-good loss,” but the Knicks are past the point of needing moral victories, pseudo victories and all the other kind of fake wins that losing teams substitute for real ones.
As bad as the East is, they’re still in 11th place and things get harder after the All-Star break. They have more back-to-backs, play 13 of their last 21 on the road and cannot afford to go into the break on a six-game slide.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t come away with some wins on our homecourt. We had opportunities but didn’t get it done,” said D’Antoni, whose team now tries to regain momentum on the road.
That won’t be easy. The Clips finally got Marcus Camby, Baron Davis and ex-Knick Zach Randolph all back in the lineup together this week, the latter scoring 35 points in a rout of Memphis. And ex-Knick Jamal Crawford is averaging 19.2 points for the Warriors.
“I don’t know if I want to see them,” D’Antoni said. “One got 35 the other night and the other one’s team is playing well.”
