MILWAUKEE - Amar'e Stoudemire accused Andrew Bogut of intentionally striking him with his elbow and hinted that Milwaukee's game plan was to exact revenge for Stoudemire's role in the center suffering a season-ending injury last April.
Yes, Stoudemire was waging battles against everyone inside the Bradley Center: Bogut, Scott Skiles, and the crowd as the Knicks were being thoroughly embarrassed by the Bucks, 107-80, in a game where Mike D'Antoni's team was outclassed and outworked.
"It got out of hand," Stoudemire said.
The Knicks fell to 3-4 heading into Wednesday night's home game against David Lee and Golden State. Stoudemire should be well rested after spending the final period on the bench following an eventful and at times weird third quarter.
The game nearly got out of hand when Stoudemire was whistled for a technical foul for taunting Bogut, who is still not fully recovered from suffering a gruesome arm injury last April 3 against Phoenix. On that night, Stoudemire barely shoved Bogut in the back as the Milwaukee center was going up for a breakaway dunk. But that slight push caused Bogut to lose his balance and crash awkwardly on the court, suffering a broken elbow and wrist.
Stoudemire left a voice mail to express his regret for the play and Bogut, who disputed Stoudemire's claim that they spoke, absolved him of any blame.
And yet, when Stoudemire was asked Tuesday night if he felt Bogut's physical play was payback for last year, the Knicks forward said: "Possibly." As for being hit by two elbows, Stoudemire claimed, "It was intentional."
That's what set him off early in the third quarter and resulted in the technical. Moments earlier, Stoudemire and Bogut fought for position as Drew Gooden was shooting free throws and Stoudemire appeared to be struck in the face.
When the technical was called, Stoudemire began walking toward the Bucks bench and started yelling at Skiles, the fiery head coach who once fought Shaquille O'Neal when they were teammates in Orlando.
"I thought he was turning and addressing our bench," Skiles said. "And I thought I'd address him back."
Stoudemire admitted to starting the back-and-forth with Skiles and says he did it "because of the intentional bows."
"I think they might have amped (Bogut) up to play very physical out there," Stoudemire said. "That might have been the way he reacted on the court. But that's okay, no worries."
Asked if he felt Skiles instructed Bogut to retaliate, Stoudemire said: "I wouldn't say coach Skiles intentionally told him to play physical. But again, it's a team effort so I'm going after the whole team."
When those comments were relayed to Bogut, the veteran from Australia seemed dumbfounded.
"That's ridiculous," Bogut said. "We're just trying to beat the New York Knicks. Scott Skiles would never say anything like that nor would anyone on the team."
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