After poor start, D'Antoni has Knicks on the right track

Mike D'Antoni walked from the visitor's locker room inside Staples Center, took the assigned spot in the hallway for another post-game explanation after his Knicks lost to the Lakers, and told the group with tape recorders and notebooks that, "We didn't have this one down as a sure win. It was kind of up in the air."

So at least he still has his sense of humor.

Now he's got a rally, too. Five wins in the last six games has put New York in early playoff contention with a favorable schedule ahead. Still, 8-15 is a 29-53 pace and a three-game decline in what was supposed to be a 2009-10 of hope for the future. So a little gallows humor is probably in order.

The season started 1-9, the worst opening in the history of a franchise that has been around since 1946-47, and the Knicks trailed by at least 20 points in six of the 10. Once, Nov. 11 against Atlanta, the Knicks went from leading by 14 to losing by 13. It was about that time that the anguished looks of the coach became a staple of media coverage.

The likeable D'Antoni -- popular in previous stops, especially Phoenix as the revved offense turned the Suns into an entertainment value as well as a playoff constant -- began to get a backlash from fans who figured last season was the difficult transition period. That was his first in New York. This one was supposed to be about moving forward. He took responsibility for not leading the Knicks anywhere, even as team president Donnie Walsh rightly dismissed such talk with the reminder that it was the front office that put the brakes on immediate rebuilding.

"I hate to put a coach in a position that's a difficult position," Walsh told the New York Times. "And I've definitely done that."

The truth, of course, is that nobody was put in a bad place. D'Antoni either had other offers or would, in time, but chose to join the Knicks as a Walsh hire, presumably aware of Walsh's plan to shed salaries and hold the line on the roster until springing into action with the summer 2010 free-agent bonanza. Nothing that has transpired around Madison Square Garden can be considered a surprise.

"It's tough," D'Antoni said, though he clarified not tougher than he expected. "It's tough on any franchise trying to rebuild, trying to get back on top. There's a certain process you have to go through. We have to get lucky and get into a signing process, but my focus right now is trying to make us better than what we are. And we should be better than what we are, and hopefully we'll get there.

"You just want to win every game. But every season wears on you. Even if you win 60, it's still wearing on you. There's nights that drive you crazy. But these are good kids, men, that are trying to win, so it's fun being in the battles with them. They're listening and trying as hard as they can. That's about all you can ask for."

"As much as you're on board with the plan," came the follow-up question, "are there nights that you as the coach wish that there was ...."

D'Antoni didn't let the sentence finish. He didn't wait for the part about dreaming of more roster help, even if it meant sacrificing a chunk of the war chest for the speculative Summer of LeBron.

"No," he said. "No. I don't waste energy. It's tough enough anyway to coach and I don't waste energy on things, one, I can't control and, two, I'm with us 100 percent so it's not something I even think about."

The four-game winning streak -- with the added credibility of coming at the expense of the Hawks, Trail Blazers and Hornets, along with the Nets -- obviously helps the mood, or at least allows the Knicks to exhale for the first time since November. Most of all, there is still the reality that they weren't supposed to be very good and that just using the word playoffs in some conversations about the Knicks is some accomplishment.

If it's bad for D'Antoni, there has at least been much-needed relief at the quarter pole and, best of all, real encouragement that his world will be considerably better for training camp 2010. The grand prize of LeBron James or not, help is coming.

"We've kind of always felt like when there's a task in front of us, we always tackle the task, maybe to a detriment that we don't look deep enough to see it might be a hole that you can't get out of," D'Antoni's brother, Dan, a Knicks assistant, said of the D'Antoni thinking. "But we've always felt like that if there's a hole, we jump in, we'll climb out. I still think we will. I still think in the end, through his humor and through understanding that the worst thing you do is quit, he won't. He'll bear the moment and whatever it takes to get the Knicks going the right way."

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here.

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