NEW YORK -- Derek Fisher says he's fine with the uncertainty, but you wonder how he can be.
His New York Knicks now have less than a week to go before they play for real. They have just one more of these preseason games to go.
And yet, when Fisher was asked before Wednesday night's 103-100 win over the Washington Wizards if he's closer to identifying a rotation, his answer was basically what it has been for a few days now.
"We're still searching," Fisher said.
Asked after the game if he's closer to figuring out the starting power forward position, it was more of the same.
"It's definitely still a work in progress," he said.
Remember, less than a week to go before it counts. One preseason game to go.
The Knicks have a rookie coach, and you know he'd love to spend these final tune-up games putting players in the spots they'll be in beginning next Wednesday night against the Chicago Bulls. You know he'd love to have everything set.
"It's not uncomfortable," Fisher said. "It's a part of this job. At every position, we have a guy that can play. Would we like to have everyone healthy? Sure. That shouldn't change our mentality."
The Knicks remain hopeful they'll have everyone ready to go next week, but they're increasingly convinced they won't have everyone playing before next week. Three players expected to be in their regular rotation sat out Wednesday's game, and it's very possible none of the three will play in the final preseason game Friday night in Montreal against the Toronto Raptors.
Andrea Bargnani, who might well have been the starting power forward if he were healthy, missed his fifth consecutive game Wednesday because of a hamstring injury. Quincy Acy, who started the past four games at power forward, was out Wednesday with a sore right wrist. Point guard Jose Calderon was also missing with a calf injury.
Does any of that matter? Not necessarily, because these games don't count and these injuries don't appear to be serious.
But the Knicks are a team with a new coach, and a team learning a new system, a team about to go into an opening game against one of the Eastern Conference favorites without a true dress rehearsal.
At least the Knicks were able to give their home fans an exciting win Wednesday. Carmelo Anthony made a three-point play with 13.9 seconds left, and the Knicks played good enough defense to keep the Wizards from getting a good enough shot to tie it.
"It was nice to win," said Anthony, who played 34 minutes and scored 30 points. "A test for us to see if we could pull games out, to see if we could win."
They did win, and two nights after giving up 120 points in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Knicks even played a little defense.
"We played better defense in the second half than we have for a while," J.R. Smith said.
Are they ready for the season? That's a lot harder to say, and what's becoming more and more obvious is that they won't come close to answering that question until they get to next week.
Bargnani speaks, says little: As for Bargnani, he answered questions Wednesday afternoon for the first time since he got hurt -- except that he really didn't answer anything.
"We keep working on [the hamstring] every day," Bargnani said. "I'm trying to get it better and go on the court.
"Injuries are always frustrating."
He should know. Bargnani hasn't played more than 42 games in any of the past three seasons because of various injuries.
The Acy update: Fisher said that Acy probably could have played but that the Knicks didn't want to take any chances with an injury to his shooting wrist. He also said that Acy "has separated himself a little" from the other candidates to start at power forward with Bargnani out. With Bargnani and Acy missing Wednesday, Jason Smith got the start.
Melo gets minutes: Fisher said he liked the idea of playing Anthony 34 minutes Wednesday to get him ready for the season. Anthony was fine with it and fine with the idea of playing 38 or 39 minutes a game once the season begins.
"I know I don't want to play 40 minutes unless I have to," Anthony said.