James Is a Knicks Starter Again

The optimism rarely wanes with James, who is indefatigably cheerful. The injuries and disappointment rarely wane, either. Since signing with the Knicks two summers ago, he has been sidelined by injuries to both hamstrings, his neck, his left Achilles’ tendon, his left ankle and his right foot.

He has also lost games to illness and to two separate one-game suspensions — one for not being ready to practice, one for leaving the bench during the brawl with Denver.

Yet there was James on Saturday night, standing in at power forward at tip-off in Orlando, bullying the All-Star Dwight Howard and helping the Knicks grab a rare road victory against a quality team.

The experiment worked well enough that James probably will start again Tuesday night, when the Knicks play the Los Angeles Clippers at Madison Square Garden. Despite his missteps and misfortune — and plantar fasciitis in his right foot — James is a starter again.

“I’ve been amazed at the way he’s been able to conduct himself and just kind of plow through all of this,” said Coach Isiah Thomas, who took a leap of faith when he signed James to a five-year, $30 million deal in 2005.

It has ranked among Thomas’s worst investments, but he seems determined to get a return. Channing Frye, who had been the Knicks’ starting power forward, is a weak defender. So Thomas has turned to James — a 7-foot-1, 280-pound center — to play next to center Eddy Curry. The tandem can work against only certain teams and may have to be split as soon as this weekend. But Thomas seems eager for James to prove his worth. “I look at him as a player and as a person and the way he’s conducted himself, and I don’t think we were that wrong about him,” Thomas said. “I think there’s a lot of basketball left in him.”

Thomas added, “I definitely liked what I saw,” referring to James’s start on Saturday, when he had 4 points, 3 rebounds and twice blocked Howard’s shot.

James practiced with the first unit again Monday and will probably be the first to guard Elton Brand on Tuesday. Brand destroyed the Knicks on Dec. 31, with 32 points and 8 blocked shots in a 90-80 victory in Los Angeles.

Brand does most of his scoring in the post and on mid-range jumpers, so James stands a chance of defending him. But the Knicks’ next three opponents play small at power forward, and it seems unwise to match James with Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lamar Odom or Golden State’s Al Harrington.

“Thankfully, I’m not the coach,” James said with a smile. “That’s something he’s going to have to contemplate.”

Thomas called James one of the best interior defenders in the league, but added, “Now, if people start taking him 15, 18 feet away from the basket, then you have some concerns.”

James eagerly listed the number of versatile forwards he has guarded in recent years, all of them All-Stars — from Amare Stoudemire to Tim Duncan to Kevin Garnett to Dirk Nowitzki — and said: “I felt pretty comfortable guarding smaller guys before. I bother them with my length. Yeah, they’re faster than I am, but I make up for it with length.”

If James gets in trouble, Thomas can bring Frye, David Lee or Jared Jeffries off the bench. But Thomas seemed determined to make the James-Curry pairing work.

“Some nights you’re not going to have the perfect matchup,” Thomas said. “But we won’t change the style of play that we have just because of the opponent.”

James said his sore right foot was 80 percent healed. But the injury limited him to 15 minutes Saturday, so even as a starter, he will probably play reserve minutes. After everything he has been through, he is grateful just to be playing.

James was out of shape for his first Knicks training camp, in 2005, but he was fit and trim when he reported to camp last October. The plantar fasciitis struck on the first day of camp.

“I don’t want to sound super-religious, but I just thank God that I’m coming back from injuries,” James said. “I’ve been dying to give New York something.”

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