One game was a blowout. Another involved a foul situation. Yet regardless of cause, Carmelo Anthony received some rest in the Knicks’ first two games.
Anthony went 29 minutes in the opening wipe-out by the Bulls then played 34 minutes in the road upset of the Cavaliers. It was not by design, but coach Derek Fisher hardly is complaining.
“Not necessarily. We do have a lot of games to get through the first month of our season, when we can get some guys some rest we will, but some of the 34 minutes in Cleveland were more due to the foul situation than monitoring minutes,” Fisher said. “I wasn’t necessarily disappointed that it worked out that way, because we have to be careful not to turn our season into a 100-yard dash at the beginning and lose sight of the fact that it really is a marathon.
“We’ll see how it goes, but obviously Carmelo is going to be a guy that we lean on a lot and he’ll be out there a lot.”
What you see isn’t always what you think you see.
Fisher was reminded of that Saturday, as a couple of former greats, Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley, stressed as television analysts the Knicks either were not using the triangle offense or had simplified it down against the Cavs.
“Well, no, I think it is hard for folks that haven’t played in this before to recognize when it is and when it isn’t. So there are tons of things that we can do before and after that start in a triangle, end in a triangle, maybe there is no triangle. That is for us to know and everybody else to find out,” Fisher said laughing. “We’ve tried to help our guys understand that the triangle is not this place that we exist in as soon as we touch the basketball. … But there are ways that we get in and out of it that just gives a defense a different look and it obviously gives the broadcasters a different look so I guess it is working well.”
Samuel Dalembert practiced in full and was not bothered by his sore calf. Fisher said Dalembert could have played more than his 5 minutes Thursday but caution and game situation prevailed.
“He was able to come back in. He was limited a little bit with his movement but it wasn’t a situation where he couldn’t have gone back in,” Fisher said. “I talked to him at halftime and he was ready but we just kind of decided to stick with [what was working].”
J.R. Smith (back) is a little sore but he practiced.
Shane Larkin said his father, baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, did not get to opening night because of the World Series and then missed Cleveland because of his TV analyst duties with ESPN.
“Now he has a season wrap-up coming up so I don’t know when he’ll be able to come up.”