MIAMI – It was his opportunity to tell his critics, who have doubted his talent and his heart since he became a Knick four years ago, to take their opinions and stick it in their, uh, notebooks.
Who would have blamed him? There was a time when the typical New York fan and those who report on the team wanted Chris Childs and Charlie Ward gone and anyone –anyone – else to be the Knicks’ point guard.
They were the weak link, the reason the Knicks would never win a championship. Isn’t that what Stephon Marbury said last year?
Childs could have issued his, “I told you so,” after playing the hero in the Knicks’ 83-82 win over the Heat in Game 7 yesterday. Instead, he acted as if he’d never head the criticism.
“As long as we win, that’s all I’m concerned with,” he said.
It was the only time he backed off all day.
What has been underappreciated is how much of a fighter Childs is. On the court. Off the court. Being timid is not part of his makeup.
So it really should have come as no surprise that with the Knicks wobbling in the fourth quarter and in need of some energy and leadership, it was Childs who answered with a memorable effort that made all that money the Knicks paid him worth every penny.
Latrell Sprewell, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and all the other starters did their part. But the Knicks don’t advance to the Eastern Conference finals if it had not been for Childs. He scored 13 consecutive points for the Knicks during a span that stretched from a 3-pointer to end the third quarter to a pair of free throws with 4:02 remaining that cut a six-point Heat lead to 79-75.
And it wasn’t so much as the points he scored (15 overall, including 6 of 7 from the free-throw line) as the way he scored them that kept the Knicks alive when the Heat were up by six on two different occasions in the final 10 minutes.
“He really stepped up,” Knicks assistant coach Brendan Malone said. “He did things like taking the ball to the hole, making contact, making the basket, getting to the foul-line, running our offense and making some outside shots. I thought Chris Childs was outstanding.”
He was fearless, too. He beat a problem with booze and survived five years in the CBA before making it to the NBA. He sued the Nets because he felt they lied to him about his contract. He’s a tough kid who doesn’t back down from referees or Alonzo Mourning. So when he sensed his team relying too much on jump shots yesterday, Childs began to attack the heart of the Heat defense.
After the Heat went up 73-68, Childs answered with a layup, setting a tone for most of the quarter. On five occasions when the Heat scored to increase their lead, Childs answered to keep the Knicks in it.
With all that was riding on the game and the pressure that mounted as the game dissolved into the final minutes, looking to pass might have been the easiest option. There were times in the final minutes where it looked like no one from the Heat really wanted the ball.
But not Childs. He made three of five shots in the fourth quarter and four of five from the free-throw line with 20,000 fans screaming in his face.
“He’s tough,” Knick assistant coach Don Chaney said. “You’ve got to have guys who are not afraid to hit the big shot.”
Scoring wasn’t all Childs did. He threw himself at Jamal Mashburn’s feet with just under four minutes left and caused the Heat forward to miss a crucial shot that kept the Heat lead at 79-78. And with two minutes remaining, he came up with a key rebound of a missed shot by Weatherspoon.
It looked like he had hurt with the Knicks when he had the ball stolen by Mashburn with :37.8 seconds left, giving the Heat a chance to overcome the Knicks’ 83-82 lead. But twice the Heat couldn’t convert and when Childs wound up with the ball off an inbound with :02.1 to play, he wisely threw it high in the air to let the final ticks expire.
“He was the hero today,” Allan Houston said of Childs. “His heart kept us in the game and got us over the top. He was huge.”
Real huge.
