By JOSH NEWMAN & ADAM ZAGORIA
NEW YORK — In a season that has been full of surprises, but is now teetering on the edge of playoff elimination, Amar’e Stoudemire appears to be intent on going down with the ship.
After the franchise power forward smashed his left hand through a glass encasement holding a fire extinguisher after the Knicks lost Game 2 in Miami on Monday evening, he missed Wednesday’s Game 3 loss and was officially called doubtful for Sunday’s Game 4. At Friday’s practice, those plans may have changed. That is, those plans have changed, depending on who you’re listening to.
“I’ll see how it feels tomorrow [Saturday],” Stoudemire said. “I’ll practice again [if I can] and see how it feels and we’ll see for Sunday. It’s definitely not 100 percent. It’s a little bit sore too.’’
After saying before Game 3 that the doctors would ultimately make the call, Knicks interim coach Mike Woodson said he believes Stoudemire can play.
“I think he’s going to play Sunday,” Woodson said. “I have to wait to hear from the doctors.”
At Madison Square Garden, Dwyane Wade suggested that maybe Stoudemire had something to prove to his teammates by suiting up for what could be the Knicks final game of the season.
“Obviously, if he plays it will show a lot to his teammates,” Wade said. “He wants to get back out there with them. So that’ll bring something to their confidence level, but as a team we prepare like we did the first two games [when he played].”
At practice Friday, Stoudemire ran the two-man fastbreak with also-injured Jeremy Lin towards the end of the session. He did so with a pad near his wrist. He was working with the injured left hand, but was not shooting with it.
“We always gear for their whole team to be out on the floor no matters who’s in uniform pre-game,” LeBron James said. “So we’ll make adjustments on the fly. [Friday] we didn’t know who was starting until late in our preparation and we found out [Steve] Novak was starting so then we make our adjustments.”
The backlash from the fire extinguisher incident has been severe over the last several days. Stoudemire has been mocked on Twitter and in the newspapers and insulted by fans.
That fact has not been lost on Stoudemire, who is in the second year of a $99.7 million, uninsured, likely untradeable contract. He says if he does play, it’ll be for the fans that supported him and his teammates.
With the Knicks down 3-0 and facing a sweep at the hands of the Heat on Sunday, one could argue that Stoudemire’s return is too little, too late and at this point, needless.
“I know there’s a lot of jokes, a lot of fun made out of it, but it was a serious matter for me and my family,” Stoudemire said.
Photo: Miami Herald
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