Like a child learning to walk, the Knicks insist they are ready to go where they haven’t gone since 1974, into The NBA Finals, without Patrick Ewing. They will take their most important steps tonight in Game 3 of the EasternConference Finals at the Garden against the Pacers.
“Is our margin of error smaller? Absolutely,” Jeff Van Gundy said yesterday of Life After Patrick this playoff season. “But we have more than enough to win with and I think our guys believe that. I know I believe that.”
The series is tied at one game apiece. On Thursday the Knicks learned that Ewing tore his left Achilles in the Game 2 loss and the team says he is out for the rest of the playoffs. They are down to 10 healthy bodies and one mission: Get Patrick his ring. The Pacers believe they are a team of destiny, too, now that Michael Jordan is a memory. With Ewing down and out, they will try to put a stranglehold on the series, retaking homecourt advantage.
“We know what a great team we’re facing, too,” Van Gundy said of the Pacers. “We’re going to have to play very, very well to win. We’re going to have to have other guys deliver down the stretch with Patrick out.”
With Ewing missing, the scoring and leadership burden falls on Latrell Sprewell, Allan Houston and Larry Johnson, while Chris Dudley will start in Ewing’s place at center with Marcus Camby the first big man off the bench.
“We’re pretty anxious,” Houston said. “We’re ready to get it rolling. Game 3 is a game where we think we should take advantage of the situation we are in. We know Indiana is a very good road team, so we’re not looking for any relief in that we played Game 2 close.”
Noted Dudley of his starting role and his normally aggressive nature: “We have enough big guys where we don’t want to lose our aggressiveness and be overly concerned about fouls.”
In other words, the Knicks will come out hacking and Herb Williams will be in this game at some time.
“We’re still very confident with or without Patrick, we feel we have to get it done now,” Camby said. “Everyone saw what happened in Game 2, we’re frustrated about that. We felt we should be up 2-0 so we just have to get it done now.”
“Game 3 is big,” Van Gundy said. “Any time you can get up a game, it’s huge. We know they’ve been a much better road team in the playoffs than at home.”
Said assistant coach Don Chaney: “It’s hard to read this team, but I would imagine they are excited and they really want it because we felt like we could have beat them there in that last game and I think our guys are anxious to show them that we can beat you here at home easy.”
Chaney said Sprewell will have to sprint a fine line between doing enough to electrify the Knick offense and not trying to do too much to disrupt the offense.
“The biggest challenge for him is not to carry the team on his back,” Chaney said. “Because sometimes when a team is missing a player a guy thinks, ‘I’ve got to do more.’ Just play your game. If he plays his game, we’ll be very effective. We can’t have him running up, jacking up early shots and trying to shoot the ball with two guys on him and things like that. We have to have him play with poise and play his game.”
Chaney also insists it is foolish to think the Knicks are better off without Ewing. His rebounding will be missed and his down-the-stretch scoring. “Everybody says you’ll be better because you’re quicker,” Chaney said. “You can’t be quicker unless you get the ball and unless you make stops. That’s where this guy comes in.”
Noted Van Gundy: “We’ll probably have to find some unexpected offense somewhere.”
Sprewell, of course, is extremely confident in his game. After all, he is The American Dream. He wasn’t talking yesterday, but on Thursday he said, “The biggest adjustment is that when Patrick got into trouble, we always had Duds who could come in and play well behind him and still have that defensive presence there. It takes away six fouls from us and a big body. Everybody is going to have to pick their game up.”
“We’re going to have to come out and play,” Sprewell said. “We can’t think that all of a sudden because we’re home all of a sudden we’re going to be winning these games by 15 points. We have to still go out and compete, and try to keep the Davis boys [Dale and Antonio] off the boards and I think we’ll be fine.”
The Knicks are going to have to keep Reggie Miller from killing them and that means stopping the 3-pointer. In their three road playoff games this year, the Pacers have hit for 29 three-pointers.
“Miller has had three huge games on the road – 34, 29, 23, ” Van Gundy noted. “And then [Chris] Mullin, who has had three big road games. You’ve got to be on top of everybody. It can’t be just Smits and Miller. We’re playing against a team that plays better tomorrow than they played in Indiana just because that’s their history. They go out to make statements on the road.”
The Knicks will be looking to make their own statement. Should be one wild ride.