NEW YORK — Before the Knicks took on the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, head coach Mike D’Antoni made a somewhat bold statement about his team’s deep bench.
“There’s no drop-off,” D’Antoni said. “I’m not sure my 10th, 11th guy is not better than my third guy. I’m thinking my 11th guy is as good as anyone I got.”
If Steve Novak is the 10th or 11th guy on the bench, D’Antoni looks like a genius about now.
Novak, a former teammate of Dwyane Wade at Marquette, scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to fire up the crowd and key the Knicks’ 120-103 come-from behind victory.
He was 5-for-8 from deep and said he felt like he was in a zone.
“It’s just kind of like you’re in touch with your body,” Novak said. “It’s like your body does exactly what your brain says and the hoop feels huge.”
Novak hit three 3-pointers in the third period as the Knicks outscored the Cavs 33-19 to turn a 61-49 deficit into an 82-80 edge after three. His second 3-pointer put the Knicks up 75-74.
“He was lighting it up,” Amar’e Stoudemire said. “He has such a quick release where it is just cash. He is just playing great for us.”
Novak hit back-to-back 3’s to close the third period and open the fourth to push the Knicks’ lead to 85-80.
The Garden faithful roared in approval every time he drained a shot.
“When I catch it, it’s almost like you hear, ‘Aaaahh,'” he said. “And then if it goes, they clap. If you miss, it’s ‘Ohhh.’ But it’s the first part, you feel like they want you to shoot it.”
Fueled by Novak, the bench scored 50 points. Iman Shumpert added 12 points and Baron Davis had four points and eight assists.
Novak gave props to Davis, who is rounding into form after missing two months with a herniated disc and could play a valuable roll going forward as Jeremy Lin’s backup.
“You can see he’s getting better,” Novak said of Davis. “He’s only been playing a couple games so I think he is only going to get better and better by the way Tyson [Chandler] and Amar’e are rolling down the middle drawing the defense, it makes Baron’s job easy, it makes my job easy.”
Once a major weakness, the bench is now a huge strength.
“I think to be as good as we want to be, we have to have a good bench,” Novak said.
Said Carmelo Anthony, who added 22 points: “We are a very deep team. I think we are doing a great job of utilizing all of our assets out there.”
When Novak went to the bench in the fourth and the Knicks’ 15-point lead dwindled to single-digits, the crowd began chanting, “We want Novak.”
The way he’s playing, they’ll get much more of him.
**For more Notes & Quotes from the game, read the NBA.com notebook here.
Photo: Newsday
