Leocadia blog

'Relax and have fun' not the Rx for Knicks' woes

a stretch of 18 games that include six sets of back-to-backs. Throw in the roundtrip flights, and it's easy to understand why D'Antoni canceled practice Thursday. Even he had to concede that rest was likely to make the Knicks better than another bleary-eyed afternoon spent watching film and drilling.

"I think we're all somewhat getting the fatigue factor setting in," said Stoudemire, whose worst game of the season came Wednesday night in a loss to Orlando, again after New York came unglued in the final period.

"It's been a crazy, crazy month for us so far, a lot of games in few nights. And so we played great in the first half, we applied so much energy, in the second half we just kind of run out a little bit there. But," he added, "we'll be OK."

Not unless — or until — D'Antoni figures out a way to solve New York's fourth-quarter woes. On top of that, he must lighten Stoudemire's burden on the defensive end of the floor. His initial response wasn't all that encouraging.

"I can understand the anxiety," D'Antoni said. "We have it, too."

With good reason. Anthony sat for nearly 4 1/2 minutes of the final period against Orlando, but wasn't much better once he did get in. Chauncey Billups, who came over with Anthony from Denver to choreograph the offense, missed six games and has been ineffective since returning from a thigh injury he picked up in a collision with Orlando's Dwight Howard.

Fair or not, all the blame is falling on Anthony's slim shoulders. He was booed at the end of the Orlando loss, suggesting New Yorkers are beginning to view him and Stoudemire the way they do Yankee counterparts Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

Just like A-Rod, Anthony has already hit a few bad notes. After talking a lot, he refused to say anything at all after a tough loss recently in Detroit. Wisely, he's not offering specific solutions — translation: criticizing the schemes and his teammates — instead offering vague encouragement.

"We just need to relax," Anthony said. "I think it's, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We're losing games that we know we should be winning, and we're just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. I think we're playing too tense out there on the court."

Soon after joining the Knicks, Anthony boasted, "I told y'all when I made this move, I wanted to take on big challenges."

He'd better be. If Anthony thinks it's tense out there now, just wait. He's not in Denver anymore.

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org