‘Hungry’ Melo: Knicks ‘haven’t done anything yet’ with Indiana next hurdle
By MARC BERMAN
One down, three to go.
Though his wife La La Vazquez tweeted that Carmelo Anthony “made history’’ Friday night in Boston, Anthony and the Knicks say they’re nowhere close to being done.
With the Celtics dispatched, the Knicks get the physical Pacers today at the Garden, kicking off the Eastern Conference semifinals. Today’s 3:30 p.m. battle renews an old-time rivalry that saw the franchises battle five times in the playoffs in the 1990s.
“We’re hungry as a team, we’re hungry,’’ Anthony said. “I’m starving. We want to get past it. Everybody seems to know and understand that it was just one series we won and we’ve got a couple more to go.”
The Knicks’ last playoff battle with the Pacers was a loss in the 2000 Eastern Conference finals — the last year the Knicks won a playoff series until Friday night. Former Knicks president Donnie Walsh was the Pacers’ boss then … and again is.
“As far as my mindset goes, I haven’t done anything yet,’’ Anthony said. “We haven’t done anything. Yeah, we did something special by winning the first series, which was a tough series for us to win. But at the beginning of the season, that was our goal. We always felt like we put together a team to do something special. We went and passed one of those tests. Now it’s the Pacers on our radar.”
The Pacers, who took out the Hawks in six games in their opening-round series, finished as third seed in the East to the Knicks’ No. 2 slot. The teams split the regular-season series, 2-2, each team winning on their home floor.
“We’ve put ourselves in position this year to host the first round and second round at home,’’ said Knicks coach Mike Woodson, an Indiana native. “We can’t lose at home. We let one get away in Boston in the fifth game, but were able to rebound [in Game 6].’’
The Celtics rallied from 0-3 down, then reeled off a 20-0 fourth-quarter spree Friday to nearly overcome a 26-point deficit.
The Knicks go into this series wide awake after Friday’s scare. Nothing came easy against the Celtics, as the Knicks never scored more than 90 points and Anthony shot just 38.4 percent.
The Pacers are bigger, more physical and even more defensive-minded than Boston.
“Indiana is going to grind, pound and play through their big guys,’’ center Tyson Chandler said. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge. We’ve got to be prepared physically to match their play and keep them off the glass and then run. They’re great defensively.’’
Chandler, who no longer appears hampered by his neck injury or debilitating flu, added, “We couldn’t have had a better first-round matchup to prepare us for the rest of the playoffs. You beat a Boston team, you’ve got to beat them. It’s a team with great courage and pride.”
The Pacers’ frontline of 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert, David West and Paul George — along with big guard Lance Stephenson of Brooklyn — could create matchup problems for the Knicks’ smallball starting lineup. Raymond Felton may have to front Stephenson and Anthony could get overpowered by West. The Knicks’ huge edge in the series is their bench, especially if Amar’e Stoudemire returns for Game 3.
“We’re bracing for a physical team,’’ Woodson said. “We know that. We played them four times. They’re big, they got young players, veteran guys. They’ve had a hell of a season, just like we have. It should be a good series. It’s not going to be easy.’’
Woodson isn’t ready to change his smallball alignment yet. Last month, though, he said he might start Kenyon Martin at power forward in a traditional frontcourt against the Pacers, moving Anthony to small forward. That could happen if Stoudemire comess back, which would give the Knicks a big man off the bench.
“We’ve got to stick with what’s been good to us, too,’’ Woodson said. “If not, we’ll make an adjustment. We have enough bigs to do that. I feel great about our bigs and we have enough perimeters to play the way we want to play.’’
marc.berman@nypost.com