KNICK NOTES
There is nothing the Knicks relish more than seeing the demise of the Heat, and as Pat Riley’s crew is crashing and burning in its first-round playoff series, the Knicks can not only enjoy the view, but also take away a valuable lesson.
Down in Miami, the Hornets followed up their stunning 106-80 demolition of the Heat with a 102-76 rout to take a 2-0 series lead heading back to Charlotte. In a league when teams often take a breath and relax after a victory, the Hornets displayed no satisfaction with what they accomplished in the opener and stormed to another 26-point triumph.
“If you would have told me [the Hornets] would have won twice [in Miami], that would have been unbelievable,” Jeff Van Gundy said yesterday. “But to blow ’em out and come back and blow ’em out again, that shows not what Miami hasn’t done, but what Charlotte has done. To see their energy and aggression and passion and that it didn’t slip, and even got better in Game 2, if you use it right you can learn from it, and our players should learn from it.”
Although the Knicks swept the Raptors out of the playoffs a year ago, Van Gundy pointed to a 16-point first-quarter deficit in Game 2 as evidence that his team suffered a letdown before being saved on Latrell Sprewell’s basket in the final seconds.
“We’re not kidding anybody,” Van Gundy said. “We know the players we’ve had on this team have had a problem with after winning, staying urgent.”
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The playoffs are happy times for Tamara and Allan Houston. The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, a daughter, two years ago following the Eastern Conference finals. Monday night, the couple celebrated the birth of a son, named Allan Wade Houston III . . . Van Gundy said Larry Johnson “did a couple of things, not much” during yesterday’s practice. Johnson, struggling with back pain, did not play in the series opener.
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Want to infuriate Van Gundy? Use the phrase “this puts things in perspective” when dealing with an off-court situation or tragedy. It came up again yesterday in regard to the ordeal experienced by the sister of Marcus Camby and the entire Camby family. “I have good perspective, I think,” Van Gundy snapped. “It’s not like I’m an idiot who just thinks family isn’t important, and all of a sudden I get shocked back into it. I give myself a little bit more credit.”