Mike Vaccaro
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Blog: Vac's Whacks
BOSTON — They were cold-cocked at the end by a couple of aluminum bats’ worth of NBA playoff reality. For 471/2 minutes, the Knicks had not only played splendid basketball, tough basketball, resilient basketball, they’d played it all at the Celtics’ pace and succeeded.
Now here they were, up one, under 30 seconds to go, and here came the henchmen, dishing off a couple of primers about life in the second season.
1. Never put yourself in position where a referee’s call can hurt you.
2. Never put a couple of proud old champions in position where they can make a shot to kill you.
Anthony J. Causi
JUST FOUL: Carmelo Anthony frowns at an offensive foul whistled on him as he jostled with Paul Pierce in the final minute, part of a wretched night for Anthony in the Knicks’ 87-85 Game 1 loss in Boston.
“They’re the Celtics,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni would say quietly, about half an hour after Ray Allen had plunged a knife into the heart of his basketball team, allowing the Celtics to sprint off the floor with an 87-85 win in Game 1 of this best-of-seven first-round series. “It isn’t like we expected to come in and blow them out or anything.”
Nobody asked the Knicks to do that. But they did have a three-point lead when, out of a timeout, Celtics coach Doc Rivers drew up a play that yielded a Kevin Garnett dunk, shaving two-thirds off that advantage. And so they were vulnerable when Carmelo Anthony, fighting for position, was whistled for an offensive foul with 21 seconds left in the game.
“A tough call,” D’Antoni fumed.
“A good call,” Rivers crowed.
And they finally expired when Allen splashed one clean from 24 feet away. It was as crushing a loss as you could draw up, a game in which the Knicks led by 12 at the break, found themselves behind in the fourth quarter, then had it so clearly within their grasp that the Knicks’ bench looked like a collection of 16 seeds during the NCAA Tournament when Toney Douglas’ 3 gave them a late three-point lead.
And then it wasn’t.
“That’s a tough loss, there’s no question about it,” Stoudemire would say.
“We were right there,” Chauncey Billups said.
“Very, very disappointing,” Anthony said with a sigh.
Very quickly, then, we have reached a crucible for the Knicks. There isn’t a soul in this city — or in any other city besides New York, for that matter — that doesn’t believe this as fact: The Knicks had their chance and blew it. They had their shot last night to take a blowtorch to the Celtics’ mystique and they fumbled away the final 37 seconds. That is conventional — if not consensus — wisdom.
The Knicks claim not to buy into any of this, led by D’Antoni, who said, “We only have to win one of the games here, and we have another chance [tomorrow].
Stoudemire said he has “absolute trust in my teammates, and absolute faith” they can turn in another effort like this, maybe even one that pushes the point totals more favorably in the Knicks’ direction.
Well, if that’s how they feel, tomorrow would be a splendid chance to prove it, because it only means their season. The Knicks, in all their various incarnations, are 0-for-5 against the Celtics this year, and if they lose Game 2 there is zero reason to believe they can turn around and win the four out of five necessary to take the series.
So, in essence, they get 48 minutes to declare that this is a legitimate series and not merely an exercise in avoiding elimination. They will take this test with, at best, a diminished Billups, who took an ugly spill late in the fourth quarter and was walking with a Herman Munster-like gait afterward. They will do this against an opponent hardened by their narrow escape — when you come after the Celtics, you’d better take them down.
The Knicks came after them last night.
“They were great,” Rivers said. “Really terrific.”
And they leave with lovely parting gifts, instead of a victory that could truly have started the Celtics second-guessing themselves. For 471/2 minutes, the Knicks put themselves in position to turn Patriots Day today into a bitter civic holiday.
“We have to finish what we started,” said Stoudemire, as brilliant as he’s been all year, 28 points and 11 rebounds worth of brilliant.
They still can, and this time it would no longer be nice. Just necessary.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
aluminum bats, carmelo anthony, kevin garnett, doc rivers, nba playoff, knicks coach, basketball team, coach mike, paul pierce, game 1, ray allen, henchmen, celtics, second season, primers, half an hour, season 1, fourth quarter, timeout, referee
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