NEW YORK — Kenyon Martin and Quentin Richardson are among the newest Knicks, but both believe the team has a legitimate shot to make a deep run in the playoffs.
“The sky’s the limit, man. I’m excited for this bunch and I think we got a legitimate shot,” Martin said Wednesday before the Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 98-92, to close out the regular season at 54-28.
“We got a lot of guys that can play defense and do different things so I think if we put it together, the sky’s the limit,” added Richardson, who was signed on Tuesday for added bench depth.
Martin hasn’t played since April 9, when he sprained his left ankle in the fourth quarter of a blowout of the Washington Wizards, but said he will definitely play Saturday in Game 1 against the Celtics.
Asked if he was 100 percent for the playoffs, he said: “Whatever it is, I’m playing, it don’t matter.”
He added: “No matter what it is, I’m going to play. It’s that time of year where injuries really don’t matter, especially for me. I show up and show out.”
Martin said he was very concerned when the ankle injury initially happened.
“I haven’t had that much pain in a long time,” he said. “I was in pain, that’s all I needed to know. They didn’t put no grade on it, no number on it, but I was in pain.”
Still, the time off has not only helped Martin rest his ankle, but his sore left knee, too.
He is one of several Knicks who didn’t play again Wednesday night — including Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, J.R. Smith and Jason Kidd — and said the rest would help the team.
“I think the rest is definitely helping guys,” Martin said.
Anthony wrapped up the Knicks’ first scoring title since Bernard King in 1985 with Kevin Durant’s decision not to play. Anthony finished at 28.7 points per game to Durant’s 28.1.
Martin — who played with Anthony in Denver — said Anthony is playing as well as he ever has.
“He’s always been the same guy to me,” Martin said. “His focus and his mentality is at an all-time high.”
Martin said having players like Chandler, who has won a ring, and Kidd, who has played in two finals, gives Anthony confidence in his teammates.
“Having guys like that around, it’s similar to having Chauncey [Billups],” Martin said. “Just knowing what Melo brings to the table, knowing he can rely on J-Kidd to call the right plays at the right time, or Raymond calling the right plays at the right time….it’s huge.”
Martin concurred with recent comments by King, the newly minted Hall of Famer, that Anthony is not a selfish player but that he’s trusting his teammates more now.
“He’s been a scorer his whole life,” Martin said. “And that’s everybody else’s opinion that he don’t trust his teammates. Of course if you could score the ball like that , you going to believe in your ability over the next guy. That’s the way it is. That’s the nature of it, that’s the way he’s always been. He’s been a scorer his whole life, so if he thinks his chance of getting two [points] is better than probably the next guy.
“But he’s making the right pass, he’s making the right play, he always has. But guys are trying to nit-pick and things like that with his game. Is it fair? No, but we understand it because that’s what people have to do or you guys wouldn’t have jobs.”
Meantime, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said in the wake of Rasheed Wallace’s retirement, the team added Richardson and 7-foot center Earl Barron as insurance in the playoffs.
“I don’t know how much we’ll play Q and how much we’ll play Earl Barron,” he said. “But I just didn’t want to get caught like we were in the playoffs last year where we were just so shorthanded once guys started to drop. So these guys have played in the league and they’ve had some success so hopefully they can help us if we need them.”
