GREENBURGH, N.Y. –– In retrospect, maybe dressing for a funeral was premature.
Knicks coach Mike Woodson didn’t learn about his team’s decision to wear all black for Game 5 until Thursday morning — and he said he addressed it with his players.
“I’m a little upset about that,’’ Woodson said Thursday ahead of Friday’s Game 6 in Boston. “I’ve addressed that. We’re a new team. A lot of these guys have been in the league but this team hasn’t been assembled that long for the playoffs. Things like that got to be kept outside the game. Just concentrate on playing basketball.’’
He added: “We need to stay out of the paper and just concentrate on playing. But that’s not important. What you wear doesn’t have anything to do with how you play on the basketball floor.”
The Knicks wore black in solidarity after Kenyon Martin suggested on Tuesday that they should dress for a funeral.
The Celtics’ funeral.
But after losing two straight games, the Knicks’ decision now looks cocky and incendiary to many.
“No, I don’t think guys are getting overconfident,” Raymond Felton said. “I love the confidence that we have among each other, among ourselves, and as a team. But it’s no need to get cocky. I don’t think nobody’s getting cocky on this team. We’re just trying to find a way to fight and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Tyson Chandler went so far as to say wearing black was nothing new for him, and that the Dallas Mavericks did it all the time en route to the NBA title in 2011.
“We did that every single time we had a close-out game in Dallas and there was nothing to look back on,” Chandler said. “It just reminds you of what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s nothing against the Celtics. It was something that we were doing as a team . It wasn’t meant to offend anybody or anything like that. It was meant to motivate guys in the locker room.”
It may have also served to motivate the Celtics, who engaged in some controversial trash-talking after the game.
Felton and Chandler said they believed that Jordan Crawford’s comments to Carmelo Anthony after the game — which may have been about Anthony’s wife — crossed the line.
“Honestly, I wasn’t there to see what went on, but yeah, there’s certain things that you leave outside,” Chandler. “If he did say those things, then he definitely crossed the line.”
“Did he cross the line?” Felton said. “Some people may say yes, some people may say no. It’s all in the game, man. People gonna talk junk, people gonna say what they wanna say. You have a right to voice your opinion, you have a right to say what you want. We know what he trying to do. He’s trying to get us out of the game, trying to get us away from what we need to be focused on the most, and that’s playing basketball.”
Once up 3-0, the Knicks are now clinging to a 3-2 lead and are trying to close this thing out on Friday so as to avoid a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday at the Garden.
“There’s no panic on our end,” Felton said. “We’re up 3-2. We just gotta go close this thing out.”
FREE THROWS
Woodson called Steve Novak “doubtful” for Game 6 with back spasms….Anthony did not speak with the media Thursday. He got treatment for his shoulder after Kevin Garnett pulled his arm in the fourth quarter of Game 5. “That’s why he ‘s in there getting treatment,” Woodson said. “Melo’s a tough kid. He’ll be back.”…Chandler also got treatment for the bulging disk in his neck but said he’s feeling better. “It’s the first time in a while I’ve felt really good. I’m looking forward to Game 6. Feel like my conditioning is up to par now, timing, so it should be good.”…Woodson said he hopes J.R. Smith rebounds from his 3-for-14, 14-point performance in Game 5. “J.R. struggled,” he said. “He missed his first 10 shots. We haven’t seen that all season out of J.R . I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case tomorrow night.”
