“[Camby] didn’t have any defensive rebounds [Monday]. That’s a problem.”JEFF VAN GUNDY Toward the end of the season and right through Game 1 against the Heat, Marcus Camby showed he was the talent Ernie Grunfeld thought he was.
He blocked shots, dunked like Charles Smith never could, and seemed to be the athletic forward the Knicks desperately needed.
Then there was Game 2.
Camby blocked no shots, blew a dunk and made the Charles Oakley trade look one-sided.
“He didn’t have any defensive rebounds [Monday],” Jeff Van Gundy said yesterday after practice at Purchase College. “That’s a problem.”
In persistent foul trouble, the 6-foot-11 Camby played just 16 minutes and finished with five points and three rebounds.
This comes after his first career playoff game when he came off the bench to score 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, while adding six rebounds and a blocked shot.
“I just have to go after the ball,” Camby said. “I just have to convert on the defensive end and try to defensive rebound.
“Being in foul trouble hampered me. I wasn’t out there. I wasn’t able to be more aggressive because of the foul situation.”
Because of his wire-like physique, Camby is simply too weak to contend against the Heat’s Alonzo Mourning. As a result, this will take away from his playing time.
“A difficult thing is if he’s playing with Patrick [Ewing], neither one’s a good matchup for Mourning,” Van Gundy said. “Patrick, because of his physical health, and Marcus, because that’s just not the right matchup for him.
“So it makes it sometimes tough to play those two together.”
With Mourning scorching the Knicks for 26 points in Monday’s Heat victory, Camby said it’s vital to slow ‘Zo down the rest of the series.
“He’s going to score his points,” Camby said. “But we definitely have to do a better job so we can cut that down to the teens, 18, 19, and definitely shut down the guys around him, P.J. Brown and [Clarence] Weatherspoon and [Terry] Porter. I think we should be more successful.”
He expects the same from himself.
Or he’ll soon be compared to Charles Smith. And that’s a tag you never want.