GREENBURGH, N.Y. — LeBron James and the Miami Heat come to Madison Square Garden Sunday for a huge showdown with playoff implications, but Knicks interim coach Mike Woodson says his team’s larger goal is to win the Atlantic Division.
With just seven games remaining in the season, the Knicks (31-28) are tied with Philadelphia for the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference and could potentially face the Heat in the first round of the playoffs. Both teams remain three games back of Boston in the Atlantic Division.
The Knicks are 13-4 under Woodson and a perfect 9-0 at the Garden, but are 0-2 against the Heat this year.
“I’m looking at one thing and one thing only and that’s winning the Division,” Woodson said Saturday after practice. “I’m trying to get this team to understand that they still have a legitimate to win the Division, and that means more to me than anything.
“To be able to host the first round at home in front of our fans, you couldn’t ask for much more than that. And it’s still there. We still control our own destiny and that’s the only thing I’m pushing for. Now whatever happens after that, happens.”
The Knicks got some good news Saturday when Iman Shumpert said he would play despite being listed as questionable. Shumpert sprained his right ankle in the second half of Friday’s rout of the Washington Wizards.
“He’ll be ready to go,” Woodson said of Shumpert. “He’s fine. He tweaked his ankle a little bit but he was out shooting today.”
Shumpert, the Knicks’ top perimeter defender, will be counted on to defend James and Dwyane Wade, who sat out Miami’s Friday night win over Charlotte with his own ankle sprain.
“It will be a challenge but [I will] try to keep people uncomfortable and try to follow the game plan,” Shumpert said.
He added of James and Wade: “Both of them handle the ball a lot. They get out in transition, so you never really know who you’re going to pick up. I’ll be starting out on Wade, though.”
Shumpert said he had no fear as a rookie of guarding two of the NBA’s best players.
“No reason to,” he said. “It’s basketball, they’re not going to kill me.”
After the Heat on Sunday, the Knicks host Boston Tuesday before visiting the Nets Wednesday in what could be Amar’e Stoudemire’s return to the lineup from a bulging disc in his back.
“It’s definitely big for us,” Shumpert said. “We’re just trying to move up in the playoff hunt, trying to defend home floor like we’ve been trying to do all season. Like you said, they beat us twice so we owe them one.”
If the Knicks could salvage a split in the Miami and Boston games, the remainder of the schedule is not nearly as tough.
They play the Nets, Cleveland, Atlanta, the Clippers and Charlotte. Only two of those teams — Atlanta and L.A. — are playoff teams, and the Clippers game is at home.
“We’re still thinking about our Division,” Carmelo Anthony said. “That’s still our goal and all we gotta do is, we control our own destiny. Stick to our own business and keep playing the way we’ve been playing. See what happens after that.”
“I think if we can win our Division and host a first round at home in front of our fans it will give us a lot better chance of getting out of that first round,” Woodson said, “so that’s what I’m pushing for.”
Photo: Reuters
