Over an 82-game season, Coach Mike Woodson knows he will need to motivate his team. Woodson's pregame pitch to the Knicks on Thursday was not intense. Instead, his players watched highlight after highlight of their defensive execution in their first 10 games, in which they went 8-2.
Tyson Chandler noticed how rotations were crisp. J. R. Smith was reminded how well they pressured the ball on the perimeter. The Knicks were doing everything right, which meant they contested shots. Plays were even shown from a surprising November victory over the Spurs in San Antonio.
"I thought that we were slacking over the last 10 games," said Woodson, who felt his team needed to regroup after going 5-5 — its worst stretch this season — and allowing 101.3 points a game. "We put a nice feel-good tape together this morning to show our players how we started the season, essentially when we were No. 1 on defense."
The Knicks, desperate for a win, returned to the defensive principles Woodson showed in the video. Their increased intensity on defense — particularly in the first quarter and the third quarter — led to a much-needed 100-83 victory over the Spurs at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks held Tony Parker, the Spurs' leading scorer, to 11 points. They outrebounded the Spurs, 48-35. They forced the Spurs to shoot 36.4 percent from the floor. It all resulted in the Spurs' seven-game winning streak ending and their lowest point total of the season.
"We went back to the basics," Chandler said. "We did a good job of slowing them down. To have the type of night that we had defensively was very encouraging."
Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks (22-10) with 23 points, but equally important was the Knicks' balance on offense. Ten Knicks scored, as Smith (20 points) and Steve Novak (15) played well off the bench.
Even in just his second game this season, Amar'e Stoudemire (10 points) was effective at times during 21 minutes of play.
The Knicks pulled away in the third quarter when Woodson appeared to find a successful solution at point guard. With Raymond Felton out at least a month with a fractured left pinkie, Woodson let Smith and Pablo Prigioni take turns passing the ball to the open man.
With Smith and Prigioni penetrating the paint, the Knicks built their first double-digit lead in the third quarter. The game's biggest highlight came when Prigioni found Smith for an alley-oop dunk that brought the fans to their feet.
"I like playing with him a lot," Prigioni said. "No matter how you pass the ball, he will catch it. I don't know how he dunked that ball. I thought the pass was too low."
But Prigioni did not talk much about the Knicks' offense after the game. He knew why the Knicks were able to sweep the Spurs for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
"It all started from good defense," Prigioni said.
The Spurs (26-9) were playing their fourth game in five nights, and once the Knicks took a commanding lead early in the fourth quarter, Coach Gregg Popovich sat his starters for the final 10 minutes.
"You know Popovich rests his players a lot," said Marcus Camby, who started for the first time this season in place of Kurt Thomas. "When he senses the game is going the other way, he will pull his players out just to prevent those guys from getting injuries. We knew going into the fourth quarter that if we could extend our lead, he would insert his bench."
Even though the Spurs did not test the Knicks in the fourth quarter, Tim Duncan (11 points) was impressed with how well the Knicks played defense.
"They defended a lot of our shots," Duncan said. "Tony didn't get off as clean of shots as he usually does. I didn't get stuff off as clean as usual. They defended well. And once they got that lead, we just couldn't get back into it."
REBOUNDS
Lakers Coach Mike D'Antoni responded to Amar'e Stoudemire's comments after his team's practice Thursday. A day earlier, Stoudemire said Mike Woodson was the first "defensive coach" in his career. But rather than taking offense at Stoudemire's observation, D'Antoni, who coached him for eight seasons with the Suns and the Knicks, congratulated him on his new attitude. "I think it's great," D'Antoni said. "I think it's great that he's listening. He might have forgotten that Mike Woodson was also running the defense the last year I was there, so I don't know if he just didn't pick that year to listen. But Amar'e's great. Sometimes you say things, but hopefully, that's another step he can take forward and help his game. That would be great." Stoudemire made all six of his All-Star appearances playing for D'Antoni. "I'm not the best defensive coach, but I feel good about putting defensive schemes together," Woodson said. ... San Antonio's Stephen Jackson left the game in the first quarter with a right ankle sprain and did not return. After missing a 3-pointer, Jackson landed awkwardly on a courtside waitress who was serving Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
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