After another devastating Knick loss Monday night, player responses for what happened in the final sequence were a bit polarizing. Despite having a foul to give, Knicks guard Beno Udrih let Wizards guard Bradley Beal drive right passed him for an uncontested layup with :06.9 seconds left in the game to put Washington up 1. On the following possession, the Knicks chose not to use their final timeout to set up a play, instead deferring to Carmelo Anthony who decided to take his time up the court and attempt yet another unavailing shot.
Here’s the video of the final sequence from Monday night.
http://youtu.be/NDNKH8vc2_4
After the game Head Coach Mike Woodson took the blame for failing to call the timeout after Bradley Beal made the layup, but told reporters that the team never should have been in that situation.
“You know, it had nothing to do with the timeout…I mean, we knew we had a foul to give, but Beno opened the floodgates on the one, when [Beal] caught it on the side. It was just … it happened so fast. And he’s thinking the help was there, and it wasn’t there, so he couldn’t even reach to grab the guy to take the foul. So that’s where the breakdown occurred. I mean, we all knew we had a foul to give, but we didn’t even get a chance to use it. And then I didn’t call the timeout, so I’ve got to take the heat for that.”
The players responded, after the game, to questions about failing to use a timeout. JR Smith was hesitant to blame the coaching staff. “As soon as the ball went through the net I was expecting to call timeout, but we have to do a better job as players…We knew we had three timeouts. We have guys who [have] been in this league, 11, 10 years. We were on the floor. We just have to do a better job of that. We can’t put everything in coach’s hand because he’s out there thinking and reacting like we are. We have to do a better job as players and be generals out there.”
Carmelo Anthony said that nobody was told to call a timeout in that situation and was ever so cavalier about letting Mike Woodson take the blame. “If he said it’s his fault, it’s his fault. There’s no need for me to talk about that or make excuses for it. He said that was his fault, he’ll take the blame, then he takes the blame.” Carmelo Anthony is well known for his dissatisfaction with head coaches, so why not add another one to the list. Perhaps the Knicks should entertain trading Melo.
Things are only getting worse as the Injuries continue to pile on for the Knicks. Pablo Prigioni is expected to miss up to two weeks with a broken toe and oft injured Amar’e Stoudemire will be out a while after re-aggravating his knee. The Knicks are in desperate need for a win as they head to Milwaukee tonight to face the Bucks.
[Yahoo!]
