NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony will now have up to a full week to rest for what is surely the most critical postseason of his career.
The Knicks clinched the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference with their 90-80 victory over the Indiana Pacers Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and Anthony may just rest up for a first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics that could begin Saturday at the Garden. New York (53-27) won the season series with Boston, 3-1, for the first time since the 2003-4 season.
It was the Celtics who swept the Knicks two years ago after Anthony was first acquired in the blockbuster trade with the Denver Nuggets.
“That’s in the back of our minds. We want to beat Boston, I mean let’s be quite frank,” Anthony said after going for 25 points and hearing another round of “MVP” chants from the Garden crowd. “This will be a great series for us, this will be a grind-out series. We want to win this series.”
After taking shots to his private parts and his left shoulder when Sam Young smacked it awkwardly, Anthony said he wouldn’t play Monday at Charlotte and he could sit out Wednesday’s season-finale against the Atlanta Hawks at the Garden.
“It’s sore, it’s sore just from the contact,” Anthony said. “I’ll be fine. Nothing for me to worry about.”
He added: “I’ve always said today was a real important game for us to lock down. It was a big game for us so now guys can get their rest. I can get my rest and come back full speed for the playoffs.”
The statistics on Anthony in the postseason are well known. He has lost eight of nine first-round playoff series, and until he breaks through and leads the Knicks on a deep postseason run he will never be considered a true winner in this town.
Despite a slew of injuries to their frontcourt, Anthony heads into this postseason with probably his best chance in recent memory to make a deep run.
He will likely win the NBA scoring title, the Knicks have won 15 of 16 games and they will avoid LeBron James and the Miami Heat until the Eastern Conference Finals — assuming they can get that far.
“When they play, I think either one of them could win,” former Knicks and current Pacers President Donnie Walsh said of the Knicks and the Heat before the game.
To make such a run, the Knicks will have to go through an aging, but crafty Boston team and then possibly Indiana again. The Pacers will play either Chicago or Atlanta in the first round. The Knicks have homecourt advantage in the first two rounds.
“We not looking ahead to Indiana at this point, we gotta focus on Boston,” Anthony said. “And if we take care of business and we move on and Indiana’s the team we play next, then we’ll look at that at that point.”
One thing’s for sure.
This time around, the Knicks will be the favorites against the Celtics, as opposed to in 2011 when the Celtics were the favorites and Anthony was still getting to know his new teammates and Amar’e Stoudemire injured his back warming up before Game 2 in Boston.
“We’re different as a team, as an organization we’re a lot different than we were a year and a half, two years ago,” Anthony said. “The mindset is a lot different. My mindset right now is a lot different. So we’re going into this playoffs with a completely different mindset than we did a couple years ago.”
He added: “Just the focus that we have right now and knowing what’s at stake, we have a chance to do something.”
The Knicks expect to get Tyson Chandler, Kenyon Martin and Rasheed Wallace back for the playoffs, which will add depth to their frontcourt but will also present head coach Mike Woodson will some tough choices about his rotation. Chris Copeland, who had 20 points against the Pacers, could be the odd man out.
“At this point it’s just about getting bodies back,” Anthony said. “Bringing Rasheed back…we looking forward to having him back, especially right now, it’s a crucial time.”
Sitting courtside before the game, Walsh reflected on the salary-cap clearing strategy that enabled the trade that brought Anthony here two years ago.
He didn’t want to give up all the players that he did, and was reluctant to part with center Timofey Mozgov. He and owner Jim Dolan reportedly clashed over how much to give up in return for Anthony.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Walsh said he was in favor of the move, no matter what the Knicks surrendered.
“Everybody, the blogs and all were ripping it apart becasue we gave up a lot of players,” Walsh said.
“I know what I said to you guys, this guy [Anthony] is so good you’re never going to get a chance at a guy like this. As much as I didn’t want to give up the players we did, I thought we should do it.”
Looking at how Anthony is playing right now, averaging an NBA-best 28.7 points going into the game, Walsh said he’s playing as well as anybody in the league.
“He just has to keep doing what he’s doing,” Walsh said. “If you’ve seen somebody play better than him, tell me.”
Walsh said he’s happy to see the Knicks do well and roots for them when they aren’t playing Indiana.
“Yeah, take us out of it I’d like to see them do well,” he said. “When I see them play and they play well, I’m really happy for them.”
For now, Anthony and the Knicks’ injured bigs have a week to rest before they can begin to make anyone — Walsh, their fans and, most importantly, themselves — happy.
Photo: Star-Ledger
