amare is ready, that's for sure. should be a pretty physical game:
Amar'e & Knicks ready to rumble in rematch vs. Hawks
Knicks Blog
By MARK HALE
Posted: 2:36 AM, February 16, 2011
Amar'e Stoudemire says Madison Square Garden won't be quite as forgiving for Al Horford as Philips Arena was.
Back on Jan. 28 in Atlanta, the Hawks knocked off the Knicks 111-102 in a game that featured a scuffle between Shawne Williams and Atlanta's Marvin Williams, and resulted in both players getting suspended.
Stoudemire also wasn't happy with Horford, the Hawks' superb All-Star big man, who exhorted the hometown fans to out-yell the Knicks fans in the fourth quarter.
Tonight at MSG, the Knicks and Hawks will go at it for the first time since that night. And when Stoudemire was asked yesterday about Horford's antics last time, he reminded Horford of tonight's locale.
Tonight the teams play for the first time since then -- and the Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire is talking tough.
"He feels good. His team was winning. He had a couple baskets. He hit a couple jump shots. But he felt good. He felt like he was doing something," Stoudemire said. "But welcome to New York."
Stoudemire also said, "He's got to calm down.
"I told you before he doesn't want to see me, man," he added. "Horford, I watched him play in Florida and I've seen him play a few years in Atlanta. We have two different games. We'll see how it plays out [tonight]."
Stoudemire missed Saturday's win over the Nets with a sprained toe and didn't practice Monday. But he was back working yesterday, and while he's not fully healed, he declared that he'll be playing tonight.
Stoudemire absolutely anticipates the game to be hard-fought. In the January loss to the Hawks, the Knicks trailed by as many as 24 points.
"It's going to be a very, very intense game after what happened in Atlanta," Stoudemire said. "I think we feel that we could have played a lot better than we did after watching film [yesterday]."
Shawne Williams agrees.
Williams, suspended one game for throwing a punch at Marvin Williams (Marvin was suspended two games for instigating), insisted, "I think I said that day it wasn't personal between me and him. We're just competing. In the heat of the moment, it got out of hand."
Still, Shawne admitted the Knicks have retribution on their minds for that game, essentially since the Knicks didn't play the way they wanted to.
"I feel like we owe those guys from last game," he said. "I feel like we know we could have played a lot better. So we're basically coming out trying to get the win."
With his toe bothering him, it's unknown if Stoudemire will have the same athleticism tonight that he typically has. He admitted he's "a little sore still," saying while he's improved, he hasn't completely tested himself yet.
Stoudemire's been able to run and he's been able to jump, which he couldn't do over the weekend. But he hasn't done everything.
"I haven't tried to really jump explosively yet," he said. "I'm going to try more [today]."
Danilo Gallinari (knee) also returned to practice and expects to play tonight.
mark.hale@nypost.com
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/revenge_on_menu_tH1kqlFDTsW3MjivdMDItL#ixzz1E87rm2hs
2/16/2011 10:51 AM