By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
GREENBURGH, N.Y. – What if Jeremy Lin doesn’t suffer a slightly torn meniscus on March 24 and the Knicks have a viable option at point guard right now?
What if Iman Shumpert doesn’t tear his left ACL and meniscus after Game 1 against the Miami Heat?
What if Amar’e Stoudemire doesn’t pick a fight with a fire extinguisher after Game 2?
What if Baron Davis doesn’t blow out his knee, and possibly his career, during Game 4?
All of these are valid questions as the Knicks head back to South Beach for Game 5 on Wednesday, trailing 3-1 and facing elimination for the second straight game.
This series, thought by many to be the most intriguing of the first round, has gotten to this point because of those ‘What ifs.’
If all of those injuries never came into play and this series was one healthy team against another healthy team, maybe this series is tied 2-2 and Wednesday night becomes the biggest Knicks game in at least a decade. Because of those factors, we’ll never know what could have been.
Instead, the Knicks have their backs against the wall and are in survival mode.
“I try not to think like that,” Carmelo Anthony said Tuesday. “Maybe after everything is over, said and done, I’ll reflect back on it. Right now, I can’t think about that. It’s not a huge margin between the teams. Some little things here and there and that’s it. It’s not a huge difference.”
If you look inside that initial 3-0 series lead for the Heat, Anthony is right. It was a little thing here or a little thing there that has brought us to this point.
Trailing 1-0 after a Game 1 rout, the Knicks were within four points at 72-68 late in the third quarter of Game 2 before LeBron James finished the period with a flurry to effectively put the game out of reach.
Even without Stoudemire and his injured left hand for Game 3, the Knicks raced out to a 40-29 lead, let Miami pull within 40-36 at halftime and then suffered through an abysmal fourth quarter offensively in falling, 87-70, to go down 3-0.
“We can’t make any excuses, Miami outplayed us in those three games,” Stoudemire said. “They’ve been playing well. I know it seems like there are so many areas where we can make an excuse, but we’re better than that. We can’t dwell on injuries or any events that took place.”
Not nearly at 100 percent healthy, Stoudemire willed himself to play in Game 4 with a heavily-wrapped hand and was outstanding in an 89-87 win.
Was that the beginning of something special or too little too late?
No N.B.A. team has won a playoff series after trailing by 3-0, and 91 out of 101 have lost in four or five games.
No team has ever won a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-0 and only three teams have even forced a Game 7.
“That’s the exciting part for me,” Anthony said. “History is definitely not on our side right now, but we believe and we’re confident We wanna go down there and win this basketball game and bring it back here. If we get this one, who knows what could happen?”
One thing’s for sure.
“Going back to Miami, I just don’t want to look at that fire extinguisher at all,” Stoudemire said. “But getting a win in Miami would be huge for us.”
