It’s a New Look but a Familiar Finish for the Knicks

NEW YORK —  For the last five years, the New York Knicks played defense with the subtlety of a subway train thundering into Penn Station. They played a bruising, punishing game whose cornerstones were defense, rebounding, defense and whatever offense they could funnel through Patrick Ewing.

But after four years of playoff disappointments, highlighted by a seven-game loss to Houston in the 1994 finals, it was time to retool. Ewing wasn’t getting any younger and averaging less than 100 points a game, as they did last season for the third straight year, wasn’t going to get them a championship.

“We’ve had a lot of success here over the last five years. We’ve had the fourth-best winning percentage in the league,” General Manager Ernie Grunfeld said. “But the group we had here last year carried us as far as it was going to take us. We needed to make some changes.”

“Some” changes turned into a major make-over that swept out all but five players from the team that lost to the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the playoffs last spring.

Signing free-agent guards Chris Childs and Allan Houston and acquiring Larry Johnson from Charlotte for Anthony Mason and Brad Lohaus on July 14 signaled more than a housecleaning: It was a change in philosophy, giving the Knicks’ offense a variety of new options that would ease the pressure on Ewing. Whether it takes away from their defense, however, is another story.

“Last year it’s no coincidence the top two scoring teams were in the finals,” Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “They were also great rebounders. But you’re not going to win if you don’t score.

“I don’t think any team, in a five-year span, played greater defense than the New York Knicks. They put an incredible amount of heart and effort into it. But there are three parts to the game; offense, defense and rebounding. For whatever reason, our rebounding had slipped the last couple of years and it put pressure on our defense to make big stops all the time. That team got us to the brink but it couldn’t get us over the hump.”

If their 98-92 loss to the Lakers Tuesday at Madison Square Garden is any indication, they’re facing another uphill climb.

Not only did their newly fortified offense fail them--Johnson, who averaged 20.5 points a game last season with Charlotte, had only seven points and attempted only seven shots--their vaunted defense failed them down the stretch. After Ewing hit a running jumper to tie the game at 82 with 5:24 to play, the Lakers outscored the Knicks, 13-4, until Charlie Ward made a three-point shot with 14.1 seconds left.

“We took a step backward,” said Ewing, who led the Knicks with 21 points but was only eight for 22 from the field. “It was a hard-fought game, but down the stretch we had a chance to win. We let it slip away. We let them get a couple of easy baskets and a big three [by Nick Van Exel]. It was frustrating.”

Ewing said players’ lack of familiarity wasn’t a factor Tuesday, even though the lineup was altered by the return of Charles Oakley from a two-game suspension. “I’m not going to use that as a cop-out,” Ewing said. “We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board.”

Whatever plan they come up with, players believe it still must be built around a tough defense.

“That’s still the foundation of this team, no matter what elements you bring in,” forward Buck Williams said. “The elements they’ve brought in make us a lot more flexible. They give us more weapons. Before, if you shut Patrick down, the Knicks would have problems scoring. Now, once we get accustomed to playing together, we’ll be more flexible.

“In order to play championship-caliber basketball it’s going to take time, but not that much time.”

Grunfeld is willing to be patient. “This is still a work in progress and it’s going to take some time for everything to mesh,” he said. “I’ve been very pleased with the way the players have embraced one another and their unselfish attitude. Everyone here is concerned with being the best possible team we can be.

“If we keep this attitude we’ll get stronger in the second half of the year and playoffs and we’ll have a legitimate chance to compete come playoff time. That’s all we ask. There’s going to be five, six teams up there, the Lakers, Chicago, Houston, Indiana and Seattle, and we want to be up there too.”