Knicks like to flex muscle
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 2, 2003
SEATTLE – Seattle SuperSonics coach Nate McMillan is expecting to see a rugged, tough-minded team at KeyArena tonight.
Unfortunately, that squad will likely be tonight’s opponent, the New York Knicks.
McMillan’s own Sonics? Well, he hopes they match the visitors’ muscle, particularly inside. But truth be told, he has his fingers crossed.
After Seattle’s midday workout Tuesday, McMillan described the Knicks as “a physical team. That’s their game. In the paint they battle and they work. They’ve always been known as that type of team.”
What New York plays, he went on, “is Eastern Conference basketball. They’re a solid, physical team on defense, and they are a very patient team on the offensive end of the floor. … They slow it down, they execute, they play physical in the trenches and they set hard screens. And defensively they get after you.”
Pretty much sounds like a ballclub that might give the Sonics trouble, doesn’t it?
Seattle, which has been manhandled inside by Eastern Conference foes Indiana, Miami and New Jersey already this season, will try again tonight. Though New York lacks an abundance of outside weapons – sharp-shooting guard Allan Houston is the obvious exception – the Knicks can pound the ball inside against anyone.
Start with forward Kurt Thomas, a beefy 6-foot-9 forward that McMillan calls “one of the most physical players in the league.” Then, 7-2 center Dikembe Mutombo, long one of the NBA’s best defensive players and the league’s most recent Eastern Conference Player of the Week (he averaged 14.7 points, 13.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots in New York’s three wins last week). Add in 6-10 Keith Van Horn and 6-9 Antonio McDyess, a couple of forward stalwarts returning from injuries. And Clarence Weatherspoon, a bruising 6-7 forward, and 6-9 Othella Harrington and 6-11 Michael Doleac, two other capable backups.
The Knicks, McMillan said wryly, “can put some bulk out there.”
“They’re a physical team,” added Sonics forward Rashard Lewis. “They also execute in the halfcourt. They’ll pass the ball until they get an open shot, and that means we’re going to have to play defense for 24 seconds. We also need to get turnovers and get out in transition because New York doesn’t like to play a fast-paced game. If we can move the tempo up to our style of game, we should have a better chance of winning.”
Seattle, meanwhile, is coming off a stirring 95-88 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday. Even though the Sonics didn’t shoot very well (just 39.7 percent from the field), they won because they showed some of their best energy and intensity of the season.
Tonight, McMillan wants more of the same.
“I want guys who are going to scrap, who are going to fight,” he said. “Who are not afraid to mix it up. Who want to get up into (opponents’) chests.”
