Hamilton: Given Opportunity, Chris Copeland Helps Knicks Live To Fight Another Day

NEW YORK — Like ants in a nest, the media scurried around the New York Knicks locker room.

Some wanted to speak with Jason Kidd, others were looking for J.R. Smith and Amar’e Stoudemire.

To top it all off, Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin spoke simultaneously while the press stood on top of one another.

Then, abruptly, everyone stopped what they were doing. Chris Copeland—the man who helped put the Knicks over the top in a do-or-die Game 5—was on his way to the podium.

The chaos of ants stumbling and fumbling over and on and off of one another ceased.

Organized, single file, as Copeland walked to the podium, the mob trailed.

“This must feel good,” I said, walking beside him, stride for stride.

He turned, and his smile lit up the inner bowels of Madison Square Garden.

“Yea, it does,” he said. “You have no idea.”

And in our brief one-on-one encounter. Copeland gave a glimpse of what he truly values.

As legions of Knicks fans have clamored for him to get more minutes in this series, he has not allowed his personal circumstances and his pending free agency to cloud his judgment of what is really important.

“It’s all about winning,” he said.

And when I asked him if a special performance—like the one he put on in Game 5—felt especially good because of the bright lights, big stage and potential payday, Copeland’s smile faded.

“You know, it’s not even that,” he said, his voice stern, his eyebrows raised.

“It’s just that, I honestly remember… Not too long ago, I wouldn’t even have been here.”

Mike Woodson is lucky that he was.

Copeland is a 29-year old NBA rookie who probably had to great additional pages added to his passport. Before he was a Knick, Copeland played professionally in Spain, Holland, Germany and Belgium.

Now after a rookie season that has included 82 regular season games and 11 playoff games, we know, for sure, there will be a 12th.

After Thursday night’s do-or-die win at the Garden, the Knicks still trail the Pacers, 3-2, mainly because, to this point, the Knicks have played Indiana Pacers basketball.

That is why they found themselves in a 3-1 hole that only eight NBA teams have been able to climb out of.

Whether or not they can remains to be seen.

But in Game 6, if Copeland can provide the Knicks with exactly what he gave them in Game 5—he scored 13 points on six shots, grabbed four rebounds and two steals and came up with some key hustle plays—then there will be a winner-take-all Game 7 at Madison Square Garden on May 20.

And everyone on the Pacers, including their newfound leader Paul George, knows that they simply cannot allow that to happen.

“Of course,” he said when asked if Game 6 was a “must win” game for his team. “We gotta come out and play like there’s pressure… Just because we’re going home, nothing is guaranteed. We have to approach Game 6 as a desperation game.”

Pressure. Desperation. Yes, the Pacers feel it.

Secretly, as a team, they know that the Knicks do not need greatness from any one individual player to beat them.

In Game 5, the Knicks barely eclipsed 80 points and made just 40 percent of their shots. The Pacers helped the Knicks by missing 14 free throws, but somewhere deep down inside, the Pacers know that the Knicks are a capable offensive team.

Although the Knicks were far from their best on Thursday night, they won anyway, 85-75,

In Game 5, the Knicks got what they needed most: a more inventive offense and shot opportunities for Anthony that were not simply the result of isolations or a pick-and-roll. They needed someone who he could play off of. In Game 5, for a stretch in the game’s third quarter, Copeland provided that. It is no coincidence that the Knicks prevailed.

With 5:25 remaining in the third, the Pacers were sticking around and trailed the Knicks by just seven points.

Copeland received a pass at the top of the key and by this point in the game, he had scored 10 points. As a result, the Pacers defense was on high-alert. Felton set a back screen on George—who was guarding Anthony—and gave Anthony some breathing room. Copeland threw an off-target pass that Anthony corralled in front of the rim and scored for one of his easiest baskets of the night.

Less than a minute later, Copeland hustled back on defense and thwarted a 2-on-1 Pacer fast break. D.J. Augustin had what was a momentary clear lane to the basket, but Copeland beat him to the paint and forced Augustin into a difficult pass that missed George and went awry. The Knicks defense was able to not only get back and defend the possession, but prevent the Pacers from scoring.

Once the rebound was captured, the Knicks came down, and Copeland snagged the team’s second offensive rebound on that trip down the floor and stuck it back in, giving the Knicks their widest margin of the night—11 points.

Those plays and that hustle cannot be measured in the box score.