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BOSTON — Had the Knicks succumbed to a furious Boston Celtics rally in the fourth quarter here Friday night, Carmelo Anthony would’ve taken the blame.
Had the Knicks blown a 26-point lead and ended up having to play a Game 7 on Sunday, Anthony would’ve felt the heat.
On the streets, in the bars and on talk radio all across New York City.
And one can only imagine how much his reputation would have been further tarnished had the Knicks ended up making NBA history by blowing a 3-0 series lead and losing to the Celtics in seven.
“As far as failure goes, I can’t step into the court thinking about failure,” Anthony said shortly after going 7-for-23 for 21 points as the Knicks staved off the Celtics, 88-80, to win their first postseason series since 2000.
“It’s all about me persevering, me succeeding, my teammates succeeding, we succeeding as a team. When you start second-guessing everything, when you start playing with doubt, it brings a lot of stress into the situation.
“And I can’t afford to play under them circumstances.”
Anthony didn’t succumb to failure or a tough shooting night and, like a superstar should, he shouldered the burden down the stretch as the Knicks won their first playoff series since Bill Clinton was in the White House and the nation — and the world — were still more than a year away from 9/11.
Anthony was just a 15-year-old budding sensation at Towson (Md.) Catholic the last time the Knicks won a playoff series — with Marcus Camby also on that roster — and here he was helping them get another one 13 years later.
He himself hadn’t won a first-round playoff series since 2009, when J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin were his teammates on a Denver team that reached the Western Conference Finals.
Eight times in nine previous tries, Melo had been bounced in the first round.
Improbable as it once seemed when the Knicks led by 26, it looked like a first-round exit could happen yet again as the proud Celtics of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce stormed back.
Anthony had missed 19 straight 3-pointers when he finally made one from the right wing after Raymond Felton had penetrated and kicked it out. The shot put the Knicks up 84-75 with 1:43 left and pretty much sealed the deal after the Celtics had whittled a 26-point deficit to just 4 with four minutes remaining.
“Nineteen, damn,” Anthony said when informed of his long-range struggles dating back to the end of Game 3.
“Somebody like myself as a scorer you always believe that the next one is going in. You should never put any doubt. It’s always about the next play. You should never play with any doubt whatsoever and I try not to play with any doubt. I’m a big believer in that.”
Had Anthony not scored those seven straight points during a critical 9-2 game-changing run, had he missed that 3-pointer, he would be hearing about it all the way back to New York for Game 7.
Anthony was the subject of some verbal abuse from the Celtics fans and some rough physical play from the Celtics themselves.
Chants of “Honey Nut Cheerios” rained down on him as he stepped to the foul line with 3:50 remaining and hit two foul shots.
Earlier, during the 20-0 run, Avery Bradley slammed into Anthony’s left shoulder, the one that was already banged up from Kevin Garnett’s tug in Game 5.
“When Bradley came and hit my shoulder from behind it just kind of popped in and out a little but but I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be ready come Sunday.”
There had been other speed bumps along the way in this series, too. The combustible Smith was suspended for Game 4 after elbowing Jason Terry in the face, and then played horribly in Game 5, the same game the Knicks wore all black to because they thought they were going to a funeral.
Then Jordan Crawford got in Melo’s face after Game 5, apparently mouthing something about Anthony’s wife, La La Vasquez.
“I would be upset too if I was her,” Anthony told reporters before the game. “She always gets thrown into the mix of the Boston Celtic series.”
Thanks to a huge games by Iman Shumpert, solid performances by Pablo Prigioni and Smith and a horrendous first-half shooting slump by the Celtics, the Knicks held on and won their first playoff series since the Yankees were in the midst of a three-peat from 1998-2000, four years before their collapse at the hands of the Red Sox.
“It’s just one step, man,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “I’m looking at the big picture. I’m only in this for one thing and that’s to try to win an NBA title. We made a major step in this thing today but we got a long way to go.”
The Knicks will have to turn around and face the Indiana Pacers in the second round beginning Sunday at the Garden.
But once again they will have homecourt in that series, and will host Game 2 on Tuesday.
The Rangers host playoff games Monday and Wednesday, meaning there will be shades of 1994 as the Garden hosts four playoff games in four days.
“It’s a big relief for myself, for us as a team, for the organization to make that next step which is getting out the first round,” Anthony said.
“It’s something that I’ve been looking froward to since I came here to New York. It’s something that the organization been looking forward to. Something that the city of New York been looking forward to.”
Now it’s onto the second round and the Honey Nut Cheerios chants and Garnett arm-tugs and Crawford wife-taunts are behind him.
There’s still a long way to go, but Anthony won’t shoulder the blame for another first-round exit.
The road ahead remains undetermined.
Photo: AP
