Mike Woodson on Knicks struggles: “Blame it on me”

J.R. Smith did the manly thing and said to blame him for the Knicks struggles against the Pacers. And certainly his shooting slump (exacerbated by the Pacers stout defense) isn’t helping matters.

But Mike Woodson is a stand up coach; he’s not going to let the Sixth Man of the Year throw himself under the bus. Woodson told the New York Post Knicks fans should throw him under the bus.

“Again, I’m the head coach. Blame it on me. I don’t look at it in that light. The bottom line is we’re all trying to do the right things to win basketball games. If we don’t have the slippage to start the series, we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves. But right now our backs are against the wall and my job is to get us out of this hole.’’

Woodson does deserve a lot of blame — he has tried to match the size of the Pacers, to match their physicality, rather than staying with the small ball (Carmelo Anthony at the four) that got them here. He has gone away from Pablo Prigioni and the ball movement of the Knicks has not coincidentally gone away, too. Oh, and there’s the odd fascination with playing Jason Kidd, too.

But really, there is enough blame to go around in New York that everyone should get their fill.