“Not having J.R. to start the season was a killer," Woodson said before the Knicks beat the Bobcats, 101-91, on Friday night.
Smith, who received his punishment from the league after failing a drug test for marijuana, is expected to eventually start. He was penciled to move into the starting rotation from his role as the team’s top reserve, where he was voted the Sixth Man Award winner last season, despite not playing in training camp or preseason as he was recovering from off-season knee surgery.
But at the outset, Smith will have to come in as a reserve.
“I know I can’t play him like I played him last season, in terms of not right out of the box," Woodson said. “He was playing 35, 37 minutes a night out there. I can’t do that. We’ve got to be a little open-minded because he’s coming off a knee injury. I don’t know what his minutes will be. I will know more Saturday after practice when I sit down with the medical people."
PEACE OUT, KOBE!
Metta World Peace chuckled when he heard that former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant greeted the Lakers and personally congratulated them after they defeated Dwight Howard and the Rockets in the first meeting since Howard decided to leave L.A.
Bryant, who is with the team while he is recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, met his teammates back in the locker room of Houston’s Toyota Center with a huge smile and by shaking every teammate’s hand.
“Kobe is so competitive," said World Peace, who played four seasons with Bryant, starting with the 2009-2010 campaign when the Lakers last won the NBA title. “I’m not surprised he did that."
Bryant and Howard had numerous run-ins last season, with Bryant often unhappy about Howard’s blasé attitude toward winning.
Howard, in turn, reportedly demanded that the Lakers use their amnesty clause and waive Bryant and then he would have agreed to sign a long-term deal to stay with the team.
