GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Amar’e Stoudemire likely wouldn’t play in a potential Game 7 Sunday against the Celtics, but he could be back for a second-round matchup with Indiana or Atlanta.
“He’s working hard to try to get himself back,” Raymond Felton said Thursday ahead of Friday’s Game 6 in Boston.
“If we can close this thing out in this first round and get on to the second round, hopefully we can have him back by then.”
Stoudemire has been out since March 7 with a right knee debridement, but he did drills, ran and shot on Thursday. The Knicks have won 19 of 23 games since then without him. The team is also 14-2 during that span in games in which Kenyon Martin has played.
Although there has been much consternation about whether Stoudemire would mess up the chemistry the team has developed, the other side of the argument is that the Knicks could use him now off the bench.
Tyson Chandler is still working his way back from the flu and a bulging disk in his neck and coach Mike Woodson even used Marcus Camby briefly off the bench in Game 5.
“Anytime you got a big-time scorer like that down in the post, it’s always good to have him back on the court, for sure,” Felton said of Stoudemire.
