It just doesn’t seem right. The playoffs are here and Patrick Ewing would not make a prediction yesterday.
There were none of his familiar lines like, you know, “We’ll win in five,” “See you in Miami,” “See you Sunday.”
Maybe that’s because Ewing’s unsure about how much we’ll actually be seeing him.
With his sore left Achilles continuing to hamper him, Ewing might be forced to miss one or more games in the Knicks-Heat first round series which begins tomorrow in Miami.
Having sat out four of the last seven games, and 12 games since suffering the injury March 9, the Knicks’ aging center hopes to be able to play each game. But with only one day off between meetings, Ewing’s status after Game One is questionable.
“He’ll play in the first game, for sure, I would think,” Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said after practice at Purchase College. “After that we just have to wait and see.
“He hasn’t been able to play every other day for a long time. To say he’s going to play every other day now, I don’t know.”
Ewing, who sat out the Knicks’ 101-88 victory over the Heat in Wednesday’s season finale, said he is aiming to play in each game, even if the best-of-five series goes the limit.
“That’s my intention,” he said after participating in the practice.
“I’m ready for the playoffs. It’s just a question of my leg. My leg was bothering me so I wasn’t able to play at 100 percent. The last game, the last two games, my leg felt a lot better and I was able to play better.”
In fact, his final outing of the regular season Monday was one of his best all year. He scorched the Celtics for 27 points and a season-high 19 rebounds in the Knicks’ win.
And at 37, Ewing said he’s doing everything possible medically to make sure he’s ready for the playoffs.
“My legs feel good,” he said. “I’m going to take all the precautions that I need to take. Keep on doing everything that I’ve been doing, icing it [at Purchase], icing it at home, icing it in my [hotel] room, wearing electrical stim, doing everything that I can do to make sure that I can perform at a high level.”
Without Ewing, the Knicks’ style of play changes dramatically, and not always for the worse. Instead of standing around watching him shoot, more players become involved in the offense. This was a key reason the Knicks defeated the Heat in the playoffs last year as Ewing was out with an injured right hand. This season they are 7-5 sans Ewing.
“The thing about Patrick is if he tries to have a monster series then everybody else won’t have a great series,” Allan Houston said. “We want this to be a total team effort. I’m sure if he has a great series it will help the team, but we want to make sure everybody contributes because that’s the only way we’re going to advance.”
As for Van Gundy, he said the team has learned to adjust to whether Ewing is playing or not.
“The good and the bad part about it is we’ve been through that the whole year and all of last year so it’s not really anything new,” the coach said.
Moreover, even if Ewing does play, Van Gundy said he’s not sure how much he can contribute.
“I don’t think you can expect a guy who’s been hurting as much as he’s been to come out and be the dominant player in a series,” Van Gundy said. “But we certainly expect him to be good and we know he can help us win.”